SSD for games

[yk7]

I heard somewhere that if the OS isn't also on an SSD, the game's performance won't be any faster if that's all on the SSD. Is that true?

 

[kbrady1979]

The OS always needs to be on the SSD........games, well, you probably won't notice any difference, except maybe how quickly the game launches. It will do absolutely nothing for gameplay, or FPS.

 

[yk7]

The OS always needs to be on the SSD........

Why?


Also I know it won't increase FPS, only load times.

 

[kbrady1979]

Exponentially faster Random 4k Read/Write speeds, substantially lower access times.

 

[yk7]

I know what an SSD does. I just want to know if the load times of games will improve if that is all that's on the SSD, not the OS too.

 

[kbrady1979]

I have no experience with that particular situation....but experience with an SSD, I can tell you it there was a difference, it would be hard for you to see it.

 

[DeaconFrost]

Why?

"Why not" should be the question. The most crucial piece of software on the computer is the OS, so why wouldn't you put that on the fastest drive available?

 

[Dude]

I know what an SSD does. I just want to know if the load times of games will improve if that is all that's on the SSD, not the OS too.

Yes your game loading times will be faster, game performance will be the same. And as it's been stated you need to put the OS on the SSD.

 

[roboticarm]

The answer to your "why" OS needs to be on the SSD is that, putting the OS on the SSD will make it startup and shutdown a lot faster, will also improve the responsiveness of the OS to a great extent.

You can use the remaining space on your SSD to put your pagefile on it (this helps to speeds things up a lot - be it games, applications or the OS itself), install most frequently used applications like web browsers, mail clients, etc. and also your some of your most frequently played games. This way would be the most effective use of an SSD.

 

[yk7]

Installed a few of my games on the SSD, and the performance is incredible! Things load at least 75% faster now.

Also I didn't end up installing the OS on the SSD. I couldn't care less about fast shutdown and start up times.

 

[kbrady1979]

That is probably the least important thing an SSD will do. The most important is how fast your programs and applications will open, and how responsive Windows in general will be.

 

[pparks1]

games have some of the longest loading times of any application you'll use. having games on your SSD is a great idea. the problem usually comes down to having enough space. the argument that games won't play any better on SSD is just downright silly. if you think about it applications like office and Photoshop won't run any faster either once they're open. so if you have space on your SSD I'd put your games there

 

[kbrady1979]

I have what few games I play on my SSD, but I also have Windows on it too. Windows will benefit more from an SSD than games.....but if you have the room there's not really a reason not to put them on there.

 

[roboticarm]

Installed a few of my games on the SSD, and the performance is incredible! Things load at least 75% faster now.

Also I didn't end up installing the OS on the SSD. I couldn't care less about fast shutdown and start up times.

Good to know!

Although installing OS on the SSD is highly recommended, the decision is obviously yours. It not only speeds up start up/shutdown, but makes Windows a LOT faster to use. If you still dont want your OS on the SSD, you should at least put the pagefile on the SSD.

 

[essenbe]

I have 2 computers. Both run the OS from the SSD. Both have the exact games installed. One has them installed on an SSD, the other has them installed on a mechanical hard drive. The games on the SSD load a lot faster than on the other computer. But, the game play is the same for either one. Due to the fact that you use the OS more than games, it makes more sense to have the OS and programs on the SSD. Everything is more responsive and opens almost immediately. If you have room on the SSD or a spare SSD, load your games on there for sure. But, if you do not have the room for both, it is much more important to have the OS and programs on the SSD.

 

[kbrady1979]

I have 2 computers. Both run the OS from the SSD. Both have the exact games installed. One has them installed on an SSD, the other has them installed on a mechanical hard drive. The games on the SSD load a lot faster than on the other computer. But, the game play is the same for either one. Due to the fact that you use the OS more than games, it makes more sense to have the OS and programs on the SSD. Everything is more responsive and opens almost immediately. If you have room on the SSD or a spare SSD, load your games on there for sure. But, if you do not have the room for both, it is much more important to have the OS and programs on the SSD.

This is great advice people!

 

[yk7]

Installed a few of my games on the SSD, and the performance is incredible! Things load at least 75% faster now.

Also I didn't end up installing the OS on the SSD. I couldn't care less about fast shutdown and start up times.

Good to know!

Although installing OS on the SSD is highly recommended, the decision is obviously yours. It not only speeds up start up/shutdown, but makes Windows a LOT faster to use. If you still dont want your OS on the SSD, you should at least put the pagefile on the SSD.

What is the pagefile and how do I put it on the SSD?

 

[jimbo45]

games have some of the longest loading times of any application you'll use. having games on your SSD is a great idea. the problem usually comes down to having enough space. the argument that games won't play any better on SSD is just downright silly. if you think about it applications like office and Photoshop won't run any faster either once they're open. so if you have space on your SSD I'd put your games there

Hi there
Agree absolutely.
With Photoshop for example I get Better response (By far) on an 8GB acer laptop fitted with a decent Samsung SSD and a "lowly" i3 processor than on a 16GB desktop machine with an AMD QUAD PHENOM processor and using a spinner.

(I'm in the process of changing that desktop around to use at least 3 SSD's now the price has dropped even for the 250 GB models and just keep one or two SATA spinners for Data).

For pretty well most people the BEST thing you can do to improve any sort of computer performance is to use SSD's instead of spinners. (Always assuming you have more than the bare minimum of RAM).

However I do have to add a caveat on games -- while loading the game is obviously far quicker with an SSD some of the modern high performance graphics cards offload a lot of the processing to the GPU rather than the computer OS itself so it could be that after the game has loaded the performance might not be as great as expected.

I'm not knowledgeable enough to comment further on this - perhaps someone with more experience on how these new GPU's work could post -- however the consensus seems to be that games do perform better when an SSD is installed.

For everything else you will certainly notice an improvement immediately.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[kbrady1979]

Games will launch faster, and will load maps and things stored on the drive faster, but in-game performance does not benefit from being on an SSD.

 

[roboticarm]

Installed a few of my games on the SSD, and the performance is incredible! Things load at least 75% faster now.

Also I didn't end up installing the OS on the SSD. I couldn't care less about fast shutdown and start up times.

Good to know!

Although installing OS on the SSD is highly recommended, the decision is obviously yours. It not only speeds up start up/shutdown, but makes Windows a LOT faster to use. If you still dont want your OS on the SSD, you should at least put the pagefile on the SSD.

What is the pagefile and how do I put it on the SSD?

Pagefile is the virtual RAM on your hard disk that is accessed very often in Windows so its access needs to be pretty fast for smoother experience.

Here's how:

1. Click Start
2. Right click "Computer" and click "Properties"
3. Click "Advanced system settings" and click Settings as I show below:



4. Now click "Advanced" tab and click "change" as shown:



5. Now uncheck "Automatically manage paging file..." and select your SSD drive from the list.
6. Now choose "Custom" and enter the value shown infront of "Recommended" at the bottom in both fields.
7. Now click "Set".

   Note

Make sure no other drive other than the SSD has a paging file on it (Incase there is, select the drive and click "No paging file" and then click SET.

8. Click OK.
9. Restart to take effect.