Will a SSD drive increase game performance without it being the main drive?

[Caitlin № GO Yεa!™]

Couldn't really find the answer on google. Any here knows?

[Talby]

Think of it this way - when the OS is running by itself, do you want it to be:

A - slower performance than the application you want to be fast
B - just as fast performance than the application you want to run

If you pick A, then the running OS is only as fast as your HDD, and prone to some I/O bandwidth restrictions when your application is running - should any background tasks need to be run when your application is running.

If you pick B, then the running OS will be just as fast as the application you are running, including any background tasks that need to be run.

Hopefully you can pick the best answer based on above...

[Caitlin № GO Yεa!™]

Originally posted by Talby:

Think of it this way - when the OS is running by itself, do you want it to be:

A - slower performance than the application you want to be fast
B - just as fast performance than the application you want to run

If you pick A, then the running OS is only as fast as your HDD, and prone to some I/O bandwidth restrictions when your application is running.

If you pick B, then the running OS will be just as fast as the application you are running, including any background tasks that need to be run.

Hopefully you can pick the best answer based on above...

Will it increase gaming performance at all?

[Wichtelman]

it will start faster and load faster but there will be no fps gain... same would be true if you have a 1tb ssd with os and your games on it...

[Caitlin № GO Yεa!™]

Originally posted by 123:

it will start faster and load faster but there will be no fps gain... same would be true if you have a 1tb ssd with os and your games on it...

kk alrighty
thank you

[OLDMAN🎅]

Yes, Increase Game Loading Times

[vadim]

Originally posted by Cαitlin № GO Yεa!™:

Will it increase gaming performance at all?

No. You will get exactly the same FPS with HDD and SSD.

[𝔇ave]

Originally posted by vadim:

Originally posted by Cαitlin № GO Yεa!™:

Will it increase gaming performance at all?

No. You will get exactly the same FPS with HDD and SSD.

this is mostly true. while the overall max fps will be the same, frame times should be more consistent and frame drops will be fewer depending on the title and how optimised it is

[nullable]

Originally posted by Dave:

Originally posted by vadim:

No. You will get exactly the same FPS with HDD and SSD.

this is mostly true. while the overall max fps will be the same, frame times should be more consistent and frame drops will be fewer depending on the title and how optimised it is

Depending on how critical disk access is to the game's performance, is how I might word that.

[_I_]

it will speed up game and texture load times (for games with texture popins)
which may decrease fps (when lower res textures/models are less work for the gpu to render)

[Randy Lahey]

Originally posted by Brockenstein:

Originally posted by Dave:

this is mostly true. while the overall max fps will be the same, frame times should be more consistent and frame drops will be fewer depending on the title and how optimised it is

Depending on how critical disk access is to the game's performance, is how I might word that.

Yes, for a game like DCS an SSD is a must to prevent stuttering. Doesn't make a difference to most games though other than load times. An SSD as your system drive however is almost a no-brainer though really. What I did was get a 500GB M2 drive as my system drive and I just put a few games on there (like DCS) that really benefit from it. I also have a few smaller SATA SSD drives (128 and 250GB) that I just put long-loading games on (Combat Mission, Squad, ARMA, etc).

[vadim]

Originally posted by George Costanza:

Yes, for a game like DCS an SSD is a must to prevent stuttering.

Disk subsystem can NOT cause stuttering if you do have enough RAM. Dependless on the game.

[Randy Lahey]

Originally posted by vadim:

Originally posted by George Costanza:

Yes, for a game like DCS an SSD is a must to prevent stuttering.

Disk subsystem can NOT cause stuttering if you do have enough RAM. Dependless on the game.

I upgraded RAM to 16GB at roughly the same time (also a must in DCS) so maybe it was the RAM. Maybe it's 'get an SSD if you don't have enough RAM'...

[Bad 💀 Motha]

16gb ram helps greatly.
What also helps most if you can't afford multiple ssds is installing os and apps to the ssd, install games to the hdd. If the game benefits from ssd, as some do, it's best to install just those to your ssd if you can, such as gtav, ark and large open world games. With all the major game clients they allow you to dictate where games install and you can have games from a single client, like steam, have options to install on whichever drive you wish. I just would not install games to an external drive or flash drive.

Every PC today should have the OS and main apps installed to an ssd, they are no longer super expensive. Nothing but really really old PC should have OS installed to a hdd, as this slows down the entire machine, no questions.

As far as fps, that alone is not the issue,the real issue is many open world games must keep caching data as you move around the world, such as gtav, this is what I mean regarding games that benefit from being installed to ssd.

[Hare+Guu!]

The only time it will increase your fps is if you only have 1gb of total ram, and windows is forced to use the pagefile for extra memory. And that's only if you compare it to a hard drive.

[Talby]

Originally posted by Cαitlin № GO Yεa!™:

Originally posted by Talby:

Think of it this way - when the OS is running by itself, do you want it to be:

A - slower performance than the application you want to be fast
B - just as fast performance than the application you want to run

If you pick A, then the running OS is only as fast as your HDD, and prone to some I/O bandwidth restrictions when your application is running.

If you pick B, then the running OS will be just as fast as the application you are running, including any background tasks that need to be run.

Hopefully you can pick the best answer based on above...

Will it increase gaming performance at all?

When your OS is running on HDD, there is an increased chance that any tasks that need to run at the same time as your game could cause some I/O waits (which could result in an FPS drop in-game), since all I/O from your OS is going to be on HDD, except any I/O from your game itself.

When the OS is on SSD, there is less chance of any tasks causing any I/O problems and you will attain your max FPS. Not an increase in FPS, just a reduction of any chances that can cause any FPS drops.