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  1. #1
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    benefits of SSD?

    I'm currently thinking about buying a SSD, crucial M4 128GB to be exact.

    but before i make my final decision i would like a detailed description of the benefits of a SSD for gaming purposes.

    i would have my OS, wow, maybe D3 (read it doesn't really benefit from SSD), GW2 if i decide to buy it and a few other games on it.

    i know a SSD will cut my booting time and loading times, but if you guys could tell me how big the difference will be and what other benefits there are i would really appreciate it. if you know if D3 benefits from being on a SSD feel free to share that info.

  2. #2
    Stood in the Fire
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    It highly reduced the time for my loading screen in WoW. I always thought it's the internet connection, but it was the hard disc.

    After all, 128 GB is a bit small for the System + Programs + Games + WoW. I have it that way and I'm definitely on the limit even after moving the personal folder to the old hard disc. Already thinking about getting a second one for games + WoW.

  3. #3
    The Unstoppable Force DeltrusDisc's Avatar
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    Annu, it helps to move your pagefile to a HDD and completely disable hibernate. If you do these things then for a system with 8GB of RAM, you'll open about 16GB of space on the SSD, with 16GB of RAM, you'll open up 32GB... which obviously is a pretty hefty chunk.
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    Quote Originally Posted by mmocd061d7bab8 View Post
    yeh but lava is just very hot water

  4. #4
    The loadtimes in GW2 beta is what feels like 5 times faster with my ssd.

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    Well apart from the Loads you refereed you get better min frame rates, when your GPU needs something from disk is gets it sooner so frame comes out faster.
    On Wow You will see a big difference when you HS to a big town and see all the players load skins in no time, Instead of shadows slowly loading players.

  6. #6
    SSD's vs mechanical harddrives boot times are phenomenal, I went from 5-10min full booting time to 15-20sec boot time, so yeah I can confirm its a huge difference.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by DeltrusDisc View Post
    Annu, it helps to move your pagefile to a HDD and completely disable hibernate. If you do these things then for a system with 8GB of RAM, you'll open about 16GB of space on the SSD, with 16GB of RAM, you'll open up 32GB... which obviously is a pretty hefty chunk.
    There is no games or other (non-server) applications that use more than 8GBs of RAM.
    WoW uses 1 GB of ram. Just ONE.
    If you have 16GB of ram, create RAM drive and put pagefile on it. Believe me, SSD 200MB/s speed is nothing compared to 3GB/s Ram drive speed.
    Last edited by traen; 2012-03-28 at 10:25 AM.

  8. #8
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    Load times for games will increase. Windows booting times are like 20-30 seconds and that's not just to desktop that's desktop + being able to open and run programs. I set my pagfile to 200mb with a max of 2048mb ( not that you'll need more than your ram with 8gb ) Also if you get one remember to disable disc defrag on the SSD and by no means torrent to it.

    Hell you shouldn't torrent to any drive you actually use for OS/Gaming. Torrenting kills drives mkay.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by traen View Post
    There is no games or other (non-server) applications that use more than 8GBs of RAM.
    WoW uses 1 GB of ram. Just ONE.
    If you have 16GB of ram, create RAM drive and put pagefile on it. Believe me, SSD 200MB/s speed is nothing compared to 3GB/s Ram drive speed.
    Can you link me a procedure? Just upgraded ram to 12gb for this purpose - disabled the pagefile from HD and istantly better performance.

    afaik it's the only thing i need to do, but having some other source for confrontation would be good.
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  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by traen View Post
    There is no games or other (non-server) applications that use more than 8GBs of RAM.
    WoW uses 1 GB of ram. Just ONE.
    If you have 16GB of ram, create RAM drive and put pagefile on it. Believe me, SSD 200MB/s speed is nothing compared to 3GB/s Ram drive speed.
    I've had WoW use 1.3GB of video memory alone and I've definitely seen north of 1GB in a crowded city.

    Also is your name Xzibit by any chance? Putting virtual memory in a RAM disk so you can have RAM in your RAM only makes sense if you are still on a 32-bit OS where only 4GB worth is directly accessible. If you have more than enough RAM in your system anything worth keeping active in memory will be kept/cached there anyway.

    ---------- Post added 2012-03-28 at 10:56 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Coldkil View Post
    Can you link me a procedure? Just upgraded ram to 12gb for this purpose - disabled the pagefile from HD and istantly better performance.

    afaik it's the only thing i need to do, but having some other source for confrontation would be good.
    Disabling a pagefile or swapfile might boost your I/O a microscopic amount. Not really worth it when a pagefile acts as a safety net against runaway memory usage.
    Last edited by kidsafe; 2012-03-28 at 12:10 PM.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by kidsafe View Post
    I've had WoW use 1.3GB of video memory alone and I've definitely seen north of 1GB in a crowded city.
    The other guy is talking about RAM not vRAM

    Also my system designates 3gb of HDD space to be used as vRAM so with the 1gb on the card it shows in the system as 4gb of vRAM. Still more than is needed for wow.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Steik View Post
    The other guy is talking about RAM not vRAM

    Also my system designates 3gb of HDD space to be used as vRAM so with the 1gb on the card it shows in the system as 4gb of vRAM. Still more than is needed for wow.
    My second number was in reference to system memory. The fact is my system with WoW open, multiple browser windows/tabs open and a few other apps open uses in excess of 5GB all the time. If I open up Lightroom or some other huge media library that usage swells. If you run into swap a lot, the solution isn't to move your pagefile to a RAM disk...it's to buy more RAM.

  13. #13
    The Unstoppable Force DeltrusDisc's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by traen View Post
    There is no games or other (non-server) applications that use more than 8GBs of RAM.
    WoW uses 1 GB of ram. Just ONE.
    If you have 16GB of ram, create RAM drive and put pagefile on it. Believe me, SSD 200MB/s speed is nothing compared to 3GB/s Ram drive speed.
    Wow this post.... =|

    First of all.... you don't put a pagefile on a RAMDisk.... the whole POINT of a pagefile, is for it to write what is on your RAM at the time of a power failure or crash to a non-volatile storage-source (i.e. NOT RAM!!! HDD/SSD is optimal, HDDs are better because they are less$/GB).

    Second of all... true, hardly any games/programs use 8GB of RAM... however - add them up and they certainly can! Also WoW is easily able to hit over 1GB of RAM used, I've seen it just like kidsafe has seen it.

    Also, you seem to be very behind on SSDs. ^_^ Welcome to SATA III and 2011 buddy! We're talking 500+ on average MB/s reads now. While still, it is slower than RAM, I don't think RAMDisks are really optimal until you have at least a good 32GB. Hell I have 16GB of RAM, I made a RAMDisk for a while, already got rid of it because it's absolutely pointless unless you can put something on it that will USE it. Like WoW, for instance! ^_^ Or some other game, I wouldn't mind putting Rift on it. Cyanotical put WoW on it, but he has enough RAM to spare like 8GB afterward too.

    Either way, if you have an SSD, you should still move your pagefile and drop hibernate ANYWAYS, idk why the hell traen brought up any of this.

    ---------- Post added 2012-03-28 at 12:13 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Steik View Post
    The other guy is talking about RAM not vRAM

    Also my system designates 3gb of HDD space to be used as vRAM so with the 1gb on the card it shows in the system as 4gb of vRAM. Still more than is needed for wow.
    No point in that - your system RAM is far slower than VRAM. Not only do most video cards nowadays have GDDR5 memory on them.... it is also a hell of a lot closer to their chip as it is in fact soldered into the PCB right next to the chip - not plugged into a bloody slot a couple inches away. Also, the frequencies... they are extremely different.
    "A flower.
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    Quote Originally Posted by mmocd061d7bab8 View Post
    yeh but lava is just very hot water

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by DeltrusDisc View Post
    No point in that - your system RAM is far slower than VRAM. Not only do most video cards nowadays have GDDR5 memory on them.... it is also a hell of a lot closer to their chip as it is in fact soldered into the PCB right next to the chip - not plugged into a bloody slot a couple inches away. Also, the frequencies... they are extremely different.
    It's not allocating ram just HDD space from what i can tell in missing space.

  15. #15
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    Thank's for the tip with the pagefile, I will definitely try this

  16. #16
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    I have a WD Caviar Blue boot drive, takes about 90 seconds to get into windows. Skyrim with ludicrous texture packs is a bit long to load, but honestly I can't justify the cost of SSDs unless you've the budget lying around.

    I should get a new HDD, but the prices for those are still not quite right. Most likely going up to an i5 2500k and 24" monitor=s

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    These two should explain it.

    To make hibernation unavailable, follow these steps:
    Click Start, and then type cmd in the Start Search box.
    In the search results list, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator.
    When you are prompted by User Account Control, click Continue.
    At the command prompt, type powercfg.exe /hibernate off, and then press ENTER.
    Type exit and then press ENTER to close the Command Prompt window.
    (Sorry, no screenshots.)

    To change page file settings in Windows 7:

    In the Start Menu search box, type "Advanced System Settings" and choose the Control Panel applet that should show up, "View advanced system settings"

    Under "Advanced" tab, "Performance" section, click "Settings..."

    Under "Advanced" tab, "Virtual Memory" section, click "Change..."

    These are the actual settings. Uncheck "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives" and you can change these settings. Highlight the drive you want it on, and select either a fixed size or system managed size, and then click "Set". YOU HAVE TO CLICK THE SET BUTTON. Do the same to remove it from the drive you don't want it on. ("No paging file".)

    Click OK, OK, OK, and you should be prompted for a reboot.


    ---------- Post added 2012-03-28 at 12:39 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by UncleSilas View Post
    I have a WD Caviar Blue boot drive, takes about 90 seconds to get into windows. Skyrim with ludicrous texture packs is a bit long to load, but honestly I can't justify the cost of SSDs unless you've the budget lying around.

    I should get a new HDD, but the prices for those are still not quite right. Most likely going up to an i5 2500k and 24" monitor=s
    SSDs have really started to get cheap... and when optimized, they boot into Windows and games ridiculously fast.
    "A flower.
    Yes. Upon your return, I will gift you a beautiful flower."

    "Remember. Remember... that we once lived..."

    Quote Originally Posted by mmocd061d7bab8 View Post
    yeh but lava is just very hot water

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by DeltrusDisc View Post
    These two should explain it.





    ---------- Post added 2012-03-28 at 12:39 PM ----------



    SSDs have really started to get cheap... and when optimized, they boot into Windows and games ridiculously fast.
    Well for the price of a good SSD, e.g. 128GB with current gen controllers costs around £130, I can get a 24" LED monitor or upgrade to an i5 2500k.

    But I do have my system in perfect working order, so it boots in about 70 seconds. Don't think that I want to spend £130 to reduce 70 second boot times :P

  19. #19
    As mentioned, since WoW loads files on-the-fly when entering a big city with lots of characters, their gear, mounts, pets and so on, it will get a benefit with higher minimum FPS and not having to wait for those "empty shadows" to become actual characters.

    Loading times in Dalaran (2 years ago) when I got my SSD went from 60s to about 10s so 1/6 of the time spent waiting on the loading screen, then almost instant character loading like I said.

    I actually bought the SSD with WoW as the main reason, getting a much snappier OS was a nice bonus. I like how programs load instantly instead of stomping around on the HDD a while first. Windows + SSD makes it about as fast as an Amiga with a regular HDD X)

    I disabled hibernate and kept the swap file, but at a reduced size of 1GB. Windows 7 is smart enough not to use it unless needed anyway with my 8GB RAM.

    Keeping torrents away from the SSD would be because torrents usually are big, not because of the writes. It takes a long time still to wear out the memory cells of an SSD, since you have no mechanicalk part moving around for all those small writes.

    With swap files, cache, WoW and other stuff that writes a lot I am still only using 4% of the max I could for my SSD to last the guaranteed time of 5 years according to Intel (80GB drive, at 100GB/day for it to last the full time).
    Last edited by blackeagle; 2012-03-28 at 01:22 PM. Reason: Adding info about SSD wearing out myth
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  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by krids91 View Post
    I'm currently thinking about buying a SSD, crucial M4 128GB to be exact.

    but before i make my final decision i would like a detailed description of the benefits of a SSD for gaming purposes.

    i would have my OS, wow, maybe D3 (read it doesn't really benefit from SSD), GW2 if i decide to buy it and a few other games on it.

    i know a SSD will cut my booting time and loading times, but if you guys could tell me how big the difference will be and what other benefits there are i would really appreciate it. if you know if D3 benefits from being on a SSD feel free to share that info.
    I just picked up the same - Crucial M4 128GB SSD. With OS (Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit) and WoW on it, I still have about 58GB free space, so a fair amount of room to throw some other items on it - but you won't likely be to run a full catalog of games from it.

    Total boot time went from about 2 1/2 - 3 minutes (5400 RPM HDD) to about 20 seconds - and my motherboard only supports SATA II, so I'm not getting the full speed the SSD is capable of delivering. *edit: to be fair, I did drop some of the factory-installed bloatware and went with a fresh windows install. But even with that, the change is indisputably amazing.

    For me, WoW loading times are a far cry from instant (still takes anywhere from 5-10 seconds depending on the location), but that's still about half what it had been, and I suspect still highly restrained by my internet connection (I run over a 3g verizon wireless cellular connection). I do notice a marked difference in-game with on-the-fly graphic performance.

    I know hibernate was disabled on the drive, but will have to check when I get home if the pagefile was moved as well - thanks to other posters for pointing that out.
    Last edited by Bigslick; 2012-03-28 at 02:00 PM.

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