SSD for games

[jimbo45]

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.

Hi there

Any reason why not or is it just your experience. I suggested the fact that the GPU does a lot of the processing now with modern high performance graphic cards rather than the OS itself but wasn't sure.

An answer like yours above doesn't tell anybody what they really want to know.

A BMW goes faster than a bicycle -- yes we all know that but if you were from Planet Mars say and had never seen any BMW or Bicycle you would want a brief explanation of Why the BMW goes faster.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[kbrady1979]

Because after the launch and after the program is loaded, the other components run the game. I don't imagine the game has to access the storage drive much. The CPU/GPU/RAM take over during actual gameplay, and they are ALL faster than the SSD or HDD.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Thanks -- However if the gameplay requires any OS functionality during play it should benefit from the SSD - however if most of it is handled by the GPU then you would be correct.

RAM isn't the answer itself since although its FAST it's no good unless the OS accesses it -- this requires kernel modules to read / write RAM and do other "addressing" functions -- hence OS functionality is required which definitely DOES benefit from using an SSD.

A lot of these modules would probably be in a special system "pre-fetch" area or on the paging device - so SSD access would be required in any case.

The real crunch here is what percentage does the GPU play in gameplay -- if the OS functionality required is relatively small then you are correct but otherwise an SSD will STILL benefit -- especially if there is a lot of memory handling.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[kbrady1979]

When you see reviews about game/system requirements, there has never been any mention of a game "playing better on an SSD"......it's CPU/GPU/RAM. That is what makes a game go.....besides having to look up a texture pack or map or w/e, the actual gameplay doesn't need anything from the drive. I am strictly talking about what goes on when the game is up and running and being played.....the SSD will do nothing at that time.

 

[yk7]

Followed those instructions but it says the recommended is 24516 mb and my SSD doesn't have that much left..
I was expecting only a few hundred mb.

 

[roboticarm]

Followed those instructions but it says the recommended is 24516 mb and my SSD doesn't have that much left..
I was expecting only a few hundred mb.

Oh you have plenty of RAM, you dont need the pagefile much. Set it to 4096 MB. That should suffice.

 

[yk7]

So since I have 16gb of RAM, I wouldn't benefit at all from putting the pagefile on my SSD?

 

[roboticarm]

So since I have 16gb of RAM, I wouldn't benefit at all from putting the pagefile on my SSD?

No, you will, but benefit lesser. No matter how much RAM you have, the pagefile is still used, that's how Windows is designed to work.

 

[yk7]

So since I have 16gb of RAM, I wouldn't benefit at all from putting the pagefile on my SSD?

No, you will, but benefit lesser. No matter how much RAM you have, the pagefile is still used, that's how Windows is designed to work.

As for the pagefile size, would 5gb work? What happens if it's too small?

 

[roboticarm]

So since I have 16gb of RAM, I wouldn't benefit at all from putting the pagefile on my SSD?

No, you will, but benefit lesser. No matter how much RAM you have, the pagefile is still used, that's how Windows is designed to work.

As for the pagefile size, would 5gb work? What happens if it's too small?

If you have the space, 5 GB should suffice. If it's too small, active applications will start crashing when you run out of RAM as well as the pagefile which is NEVER going to happen in your case since you have plenty of RAM unless you have SEVERAL "big" applications running together, for example running 2-3 games as well as photoshop, corel draw, after effects all at the same time (still things would work in your case, 16+5 GB is more than enough).

 

[Wishmaster]

I have a 80GB SSD that has Windows and Applications only on it. Basically, everything that needs installed goes there (except games)

For games, I have a dedicated Hard Drive for them, as well as a small dedicated SSD.


From my experience, games seem to load a bit faster from the mechanical HD than when OS/Games were all on the same mechanical drive.
I think this is because that HD does nothing and only contains games, so is more responsive when needed. It has nothing else to do.

In regards to the games that are on the SSD, yes the do load faster. But once loaded it runs the same. Since games will run from RAM once loaded, the only benefit will be load times times.
Some games see a large benefit when loading, other games load up just as fast whether on a SSD or mechanical drive. Depends on the game.

I use my Game SSD for games Im currently playing or games that access the HD often (such as open world games since these benefit the most)



In regards to Pagefile etc ... Leave everything to do with Windows on the SSD. PageFile, Temp etc. You're better off this way. Putting games with OS drive doesn't really hurt or help. IMHO, the big issue here is that it just adds clutter to the installation.

I think your better off with a dedicated game drive or 2. Or a separate SSD for games if your really want one and leave Windows all by itself.
makes Imaging, Backups/Restores, scans etc much faster and keeps things simple in that drive.