  In magnetic recording the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is a good indicator for
the quality of written bits. However, a priori it is not clear which parameters
have the strongest influence on the SNR. In this work, we investigate the role
of the Gilbert damping on the SNR. Grains consisting of FePt like hard magnetic
material with two different grain sizes $d_1=5\,$nm and $d_2=7\,$nm are
considered and simulations of heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) are
performed with the atomistic simulation program VAMPIRE. The simulations
display that the SNR saturates for damping constants larger or equal than 0.1.
Additionally, we can show that the Gilbert damping together with the bit length
have a major effect on the SNR whereas other write head and material parameters
only have a minor relevance on the SNR.
