Long wait on auto-save is gone!

[Jeff]

Had a 2 TB Solid State Drive (SSD) in my computer which I thought would eliminate the long wait for the game to auto-save, but it still took about 5 - 6 seconds which seems like an eternity as it pauses the game. Spoke with my computer store tech and he recommended getting a Predator SSD ($137 at Amazon.com). I had that installed as a second SSD and reinstalled Satisfactory on it. What a difference! There's no delay at all and as it only takes a fraction of a second to auto-save. I don't even notice when its doing it anymore.

[McCloud]

Thanks for the update. We all missed you.

[Jack-o-Lantern]

Originally posted by Jeff:

Had a 2 TB Solid State Drive (SSD) in my computer which I thought would eliminate the long wait for the game to auto-save, but it still took about 5 - 6 seconds which seems like an eternity as it pauses the game. Spoke with my computer store tech and he recommended getting a Predator SSD ($137 at Amazon.com). I had that installed as a second SSD and reinstalled Satisfactory on it. What a difference! There's no delay at all and as it only takes a fraction of a second to auto-save. I don't even notice when its doing it anymore.

Many thinks that SSD means speed, whaterver the drive and connection to it.
If it's true that with SSD (compared to HDD) you gain a lot of speed in term of random scattered reads (no moving parts)....
It's also true that there's around many SSD that are quite slow, in particular when writing.

[Zak]

The autosave pause is not only (mainly) affected by SSD speed. The whole game literally pauses to collect data from memory before it's even written to disk. So the pause might benefit from a faster CPU and RAM first, SSD second as the amount of data actually written to SSD is only few MB. This is done to avoid data corruption when saving an active game. I tried a RAM Drive for my saves and it made no difference but I already had a very fast NVME SSD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAPc6HyryHQ

[Zak]

BTW, Jeff, is your PC alright? Did they fix it? What was it?

[simonhobnob]

I wonder what the brand of SSD he had before he upgraded? Cheap ones have terrible chipset controllers (they decide where the data is stored and retrieved from on the SSD) and VERY cheap ones have no/tiny buffer... that is vital for swift storage.

[Zak]

Originally posted by simonhobnob:

I wonder what the brand of SSD he had before he upgraded? Cheap ones have terrible chipset controllers (they decide where the data is stored and retrieved from on the SSD) and VERY cheap ones have no/tiny buffer... that is vital for swift storage.

There is an awful trend in the industry where SSD makers change specs for a given model without reflecting this in the current specs. So an SSD that had good reviews few years ago can be a piece of garbage now because they changed the controller to a cheap one, removed the cache or switched the chips to QLC. I got burned with an SSD like that from Crucial. I think Crucial was the first who started doing this ♥♥♥♥. They removed the cache and changed the controller on an otherwise good drive so it sucks now. I use it in an external USB enclosure as a portable. So it's important to check the date of a review before buying an SSD and look for recent information and latest specs.

[Cheesecake]

Originally posted by Zak:

Originally posted by simonhobnob:

I wonder what the brand of SSD he had before he upgraded? Cheap ones have terrible chipset controllers (they decide where the data is stored and retrieved from on the SSD) and VERY cheap ones have no/tiny buffer... that is vital for swift storage.

There is an awful trend in the industry where SSD makers change specs for a given model without reflecting this in the current specs. So an SSD that had good reviews few years ago can be a piece of garbage now because they changed the controller to a cheap one, removed the cache or switched the chips to QLC. I got burned with an SSD like that from Crucial. I think Crucial was the first who started doing this ♥♥♥♥. They removed the cache and changed the controller on an otherwise good drive so it sucks now. I use it in an external USB enclosure as a portable. So it's important to check the date of a review before buying an SSD and look for recent information and latest specs.

I have read about companies doing that. The change is so drastic it is for all practical purposes, but probably not legally, a different drive and should be considered fraud when its done.

[Zak]

Originally posted by cboath11:

Originally posted by Zak:

There is an awful trend in the industry where SSD makers change specs for a given model without reflecting this in the current specs. So an SSD that had good reviews few years ago can be a piece of garbage now because they changed the controller to a cheap one, removed the cache or switched the chips to QLC. I got burned with an SSD like that from Crucial. I think Crucial was the first who started doing this ♥♥♥♥. They removed the cache and changed the controller on an otherwise good drive so it sucks now. I use it in an external USB enclosure as a portable. So it's important to check the date of a review before buying an SSD and look for recent information and latest specs.

I have read about companies doing that. The change is so drastic it is for all practical purposes, but probably not legally, a different drive and should be considered fraud when its done.

There is apparently some law loophole, at least in the US, that lets them do that. The govt may eventually react, as there has been some noise about this, but you know how slow the govt moves. Not sure, in EU, but most retailers list the vital specs here in the product description.

Yeah, the change is usually drastic, it's an entirely different drive. A top performing drive can become a complete piece of crap.

As simonhobnob mentioned, even on fast TLC drives, a buffer (cache) is essential and they often remove that, crippling the drive to the point of being useless. Some have been even caught changing TLC to QLC chips without changing the model name.

Generally, if the SSD specs are (suspiciously) missing a clear info that the drive has a DRAM cache and not specifying the cell type, then it's most likely either cache-less or a QLC drive, hence not usable as system or gaming drive.

[Jeff]

Originally posted by Zak:

BTW, Jeff, is your PC alright? Did they fix it? What was it?

The motherboard was updated and he ordered a white fan for the liquid cool radiator that is faulty (makes a racket on start-up). The tech also said that the CPU was being "recalled" in a sense and Intel would replace it for only $25, but he said to wait a month before calling them as they are still figuring out problems with the chip. The tech also updated all of the drivers. Everything was on warranty (no charge) as he had built the computer.

[Jeff]

Originally posted by Jack-o-Lantern:

Originally posted by Jeff:

Had a 2 TB Solid State Drive (SSD) in my computer which I thought would eliminate the long wait for the game to auto-save, but it still took about 5 - 6 seconds which seems like an eternity as it pauses the game. Spoke with my computer store tech and he recommended getting a Predator SSD ($137 at Amazon.com). I had that installed as a second SSD and reinstalled Satisfactory on it. What a difference! There's no delay at all and as it only takes a fraction of a second to auto-save. I don't even notice when its doing it anymore.

Many thinks that SSD means speed, whaterver the drive and connection to it.
If it's true that with SSD (compared to HDD) you gain a lot of speed in term of random scattered reads (no moving parts)....
It's also true that there's around many SSD that are quite slow, in particular when writing.

All I know is that the time it takes to auto-save went from 5-6 seconds to a split second.

[Zak]

Yeah, I updated my motherboard BIOS too, just in case, even though my 13900K doesn't seem to be affected. Intel is being very scummy about this whole thing. The shop probably doesn't know yet what the warranty procedure is because of Intel not coming through clear with their intentions.

The BIOS update should make the CPU somewhat more stable, though that depends on whether any damage was done to it. So, if you can, then yeah, get it replaced.

[Zak]

Originally posted by Jeff:

Originally posted by Jack-o-Lantern:

Many thinks that SSD means speed, whaterver the drive and connection to it.
If it's true that with SSD (compared to HDD) you gain a lot of speed in term of random scattered reads (no moving parts)....
It's also true that there's around many SSD that are quite slow, in particular when writing.

All I know is that the time it takes to auto-save went from 5-6 seconds to a split second.

On the same save? My saves take a split second to save until they're about 3MB in size, then it gradually gets longer. At over 5MB it takes 3 seconds to save.

[Jeff]

Originally posted by Zak:

Originally posted by Jeff:

All I know is that the time it takes to auto-save went from 5-6 seconds to a split second.

On the same save? My saves take a split second to save until they're about 3MB in size, then it gradually gets longer. At over 5MB it takes 3 seconds to save.

Originally posted by Zak:

Originally posted by Jeff:

All I know is that the time it takes to auto-save went from 5-6 seconds to a split second.

On the same save? My saves take a split second to save until they're about 3MB in size, then it gradually gets longer. At over 5MB it takes 3 seconds to save.

You were lucky on your first SSD being that fast. I wasn't.

[Doc✪Hollywood]

Originally posted by Jeff:

he recommended getting a Predator SSD ($137 at Amazon.com). I had that installed as a second SSD and reinstalled Satisfactory on it. What a difference! There's no delay at all and as it only takes a fraction of a second to auto-save.

Product link or specifications link, please.

Is it SATA or M.2 NVMe? The difference from SATA to M.2 NVMe is huge.

But it might also depend on the cache Jeff. SSDs use oftenly free space as cache. If you fill up an SSD too much, this cache is gone. That makes a big difference.

[Jeff]

Originally posted by Gordon✪Gekko:

Originally posted by Jeff:

he recommended getting a Predator SSD ($137 at Amazon.com). I had that installed as a second SSD and reinstalled Satisfactory on it. What a difference! There's no delay at all and as it only takes a fraction of a second to auto-save.

Product link or specifications link, please.

Is it SATA or M.2 NVMe? The difference from SATA to M.2 NVMe is huge.

But it might also depend on the cache Jeff. SSDs use oftenly free space as cache. If you fill up an SSD too much, this cache is gone. That makes a big difference.

The Predator drive is PCIe Gen 4x4 NVMe 1.4 M.2 2280 New PS5 / PS5 Certified R: 7200MB/s W: 6300MB/s 3D NAND TLC GM7-2TB (correction $306 on amazon).