Run GTA V From SSD vs HDD

[aaron]

I have a 120 GB SSD with my OS and a few other core programs installed. GTA V says it needs 65 GB of free space and I don't quite have that much available. I also have a 2nd internal drive that I use for media: Western Digital Black 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0 Gb/s (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136795).

Will there be a noticeable performance difference if I install GTA V on my media drive rather than on the primary SSD? Is it worth upgrading to a larger SSD? I think my system will be able to run the game at high specs so I want to make sure the HDD is not slowing things down. Thanks!

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Yes the game really needs to be on SSD, especially to avoid in-game texture pops and help the Rockstar Editior run as smooth as possible.

It's hard to do on a 120GB SSD though, as game needs roughly 60-65GB total.
Plus u will still want to keep around 10-15% free space minimum on any of your drives at all times.

[aaron]

Ok thanks for the advice. Sounds like it's worth upgrading to a larger SSD.

[Azza ☠]

Stick it on the Western Digital HDD... they are quite fast as is, but here's the trick.

Ensure your motherboard supports Intel Smart Response caching.

Get another small SSD around the 90 to 128 size - such as Samsung 850 PRO 128GB.

Download and install the latest Intel Rapid Storage Technology (Intel RST) RAID Drivers/Software.

Install SSD to another SATA cable inside your PC case.

Reboot and enter BIOS - if you're currently using AHCI, swap the SATA controller under advance settings to RAID mode. You need this RAID mode, as it is the same as AHCI but also allows hard drives to be linked to work together in various ways. Don't change mode to or from IDE, as this can prevent the Windows installation from booting without a tweak or fresh install. Note it's original setting just in case, if anything fails to boot, just go and set it back.

Once back in Windows, at the taskbar open the Intel RST application and an option tab to accelerate should appear, click that, select your Western Digital HDD and accelerate with the new SSD. It will create a partition and automatically set it up for you.

Now when you play games/apps regularly on your HDD, it will cache the most commonly used files to that SSD, maxing the performance for next time it's accessed, but keeping the drive space. When you move onto another game, it will update the cache and move with you. You can have up to 90GB cache on the SSD.

[!!!Owned!!!]

What a load of ♥♥♥♥♥, it makes no difference and i've already tried both out of my own curiosity, GPU, CPU, RAM H/SDD in that order will affect your ingame speeds on a graphics heavy game like GTA.

[Azza ☠]

Originally posted by !!!Owned!!!:

What a load of ♥♥♥♥♥, it makes no difference and i've already tried both out of my own curiosity, GPU, CPU, RAM H/SDD in that order will affect your ingame speeds on a graphics heavy game like GTA.

SSD for the Operating System / Boot is best - because that speeds up the overall feeling of the system, gives fast 4-8 second boot and shutdown time, and lightning fast application loading. However, for games, yeah your right not so as much (you can easily live without) but...

Here is what was better with the SSD or a SSD cache on top of it, as you might guess as before; load times. Loading each game was significantly faster on the SSD. Transitioning maps during gameplay was also significantly faster on the SSD. When the game accesses those large files, it receives them quicker without any noise (spin up/down of moving parts). Loading times were improved, and therefore a better experience overall simply because game data loaded faster. It comes down to the person, wheither or not they consider it worth it.

However, as you said those load times do not translate into frames per second (FPS) differences while gaming. That would rely on the CPU and mostly the GPU (graphics card).

[!!!Owned!!!]

^^ He has a point i suppose, the question was a littles vague in the first place, loading times you may gain a few seconds here and there, Odds are after a few patches and optimisations you won't notice the difference at all, If your'e talking about FPS etc. thats all the expensive stuff i'm afraid mate, People often look at SSD's a quick cheap fix thinking they will get a game performance boost in fps terms and it's not just the case.

Although don't get me wrong having everything on SSD's as opposed to HDD's would be far preferable in the long term for the above reasons.

[_I_]

for games with lots of texture popins ect.. it will help with their load times, but not with the fps

[˜lokkandload˜™]

Yes, OS on SSD all games and programs on a HDD, or I chose a SSHD Solid State Hybrid Drive with 8gb front side flash...but with the lower priced storage of a normal HDD.