Sure, it is obvious that an SSD will speed up your boot time and the loading speed of programs but will it actually make your in game experience better? [H]ard|OCP tested a Western Digital 640GB Black Edition HDD against a Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB in five different games. The results are as you might expect; consistency, framerate and gameplay performance differences all fall within the margin of error showing that in game the SSD will not have much effect. On the other hand load times for both the game and saves are vastly improved.
"We've upgraded all our video card test systems to SSDs recently. But does it actually make a difference in real world gaming performance? Today we are going to test the claim that an SSD will improve your gameplay experience compared to a spinning hard drive. We test several games apples-to-apples on our video card test system."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Brawling my way through Batman: Arkham Origins @ The Tech Report
- More-o-wind: Skywind Puts Morrowind in Skyrim @ Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN
- Interview: No Man’s Sky And Procedural Generation @ Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN
- Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Review @ Techgage
- Sharper Shadows: Thief Gold HD Mod Released @ Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN
- Q&A: Doom’s Creator Looks Back on 20 Years of Demonic Mayhem @ Wired
- 1 Game 1 Cup: New South Park: The Stick Of Truth Trailer @ Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN
- Xbox One vs PS4 head to head @ The Inquirer
Wish they would have measured
Wish they would have measured load times on games with lengthy load times, like Civ, Europa Universalis or even HL2 with its flow-breaking mid-level load screens. Also would have been interesting to see if SSD effects AI turn time in games like Total War or Civ.
agreed with mLocke. FPS
agreed with mLocke. FPS shouldn’t be in any way affected by the HDD/SSD. however load time (something only mentioned in the conclusion) is the primary reason for SSD in the system.
And as mLocke mentioned, games like HL2 with it’s continuous load screens that take you out of the game would really benefit.
Wonder what Allen things of this article.
I use that very hard drive
I use that very hard drive with an SSD cache and I’m very happy. Would games load faster with only SSD storage? Of course but hdd+ssd cache is a much better bang for the buck. I’ve used both the Intel RST method and a Sandisk SSD that comes with it’s own software, and both work well although the Intel caching mechanism is better.
The big difference between
The big difference between using SSD vs HDD is not simply load times in many cases, but is found within the frame rate quality, opposed to actual frame-rate? Am I incorrect?
For example, in game engines where textures are constantly being pulled in and out of catch, you may go to spin around quickly and experience micro-stuttering, which may deter ones ability to get dat’ headshot.
Something I’ve noticed anyways is micro-stuttering far improved. Perhaps some people could do some more specific tests with that idea.
Theres more to game quality than simply load times and frame-rate.
There is another option, WD
There is another option, WD Black or VelociRaptor. (Or equivalent from Seagate)
(Black had 100MB+ in sequential, while Raptor had 150/200)
Terms like micro-stutter and
Terms like micro-stutter and bottleneck are thrown around far too much.