how much do SSD's help the game

[Saccharin]

For this game you won't see huge difference on loading times cause it doesn't read huge files

You don't get an SSD for the transfer rates you get it for the access time. Seeking a file from a chip is man many times faster than a ohysical head moving on a dsic. this is where SSDs shine.

So I wanted to jump in here and give a bit of information.

Working in IT I see a lot of HDD's and SSD's Come and go. Yes it would boost your area transitions and load times, however much of the games delays are network related, not hardware related.

On top of that, like Monty said, most people run windows from an SSD and then their programs from a HDD. The reason for this has nothing to do with performance, but maintenance. SSD's have a finite amount of Writes before they begin to fail. The technology is such right now that there's nothing that can be done with it. Always staying on top of firmware updates, keeping the drive defragmented, virus free etc.... These are all things SSD owners Need to do it stretch out the drives life as long as possible.

So while the gains are pretty appealing, the cons of it can sometimes be costly. One of the biggest cons is often when an SSD fails, there's no warning, No S.M.A.R.T Status notifications, nothing. It just fails on the spot.

If you really want to go the performance route, I'd suggest a Hybrid Drive. They can perform just as fast as an SSD with the reliability of an HDD. But just be aware if you get an SSD, weather it's OCZ or Western Digital... You could very well run into a drive that's high maintenance and more of a pain in the neck than it's worth. Moral of the story, keep an HDD handy just in case.

On a slight side note, the place I work for has been playing around with Mirror raiding an SSD and HDD with capasity matching and differential backup methods with a new Raid Driver that Seagate has put out that basically let's you mirror an SSD to an HDD and do the backup either on a timed schedule or deferentially so that the HDD doesn't reduce the speed of the SSD. Just something to think about for the more geek inclined on here lol.

Lol, you 'work in IT' and you suggest defragmenting an SSD. Do you know why you defragment a hard disk and why it's not needed on an SSD. I feel sorry for the company you work at.

[KaedrianLiang]

lolcharlimit.

Look at it it this way. zone/teleport 10 times youve saved almost 1minute of time staring at a blank screen. zone 100 times youv'e saved over 8 minutes of time. Keep multiplying that number and the time saved just keeps adding up. Time is money my friend. Don't live in the moment and view the small picture, plan ahead and make purchases and upgrades to your machine with years of useability in mind.

Those seconds count given the current state of The Hunt.

[KaedrianLiang]

dat IT guy

I bet if we ask him what "IT" stands for he wouldnt be able to answer.

Everything that guy has written in his post can be read off the product description of the box. except this "[lolz defragging an ssd] These are all things SSD owners Need to do it stretch out the drives life as long as possible. "

Which he is probably only just reiterating from someone else, probably a geek squad member.

[Dwill]

The 20-30 seconds it knocks off booting windows? That's immensely. The 3-5 seconds gained from loading a zone? That's slight. Most 7200rpm HDDs load zones up pretty quick. Again, this is all what people perceive as massive gains or not. It's like people who spend tons of cash on GPU upgrades year after year for a slight FPS performance and slight AA tweak, but to them it's huge gains.

From a strict gaming point of view, is 4-5 seconds of load time worth 100-300$? (depending which size/brand of SSD you get).

Actually, depending on the health of the HDD (bad sectors, fragmented to oblivion, etc), the SSD can actually get more than 5 seconds per. With a game like this one where zoning is extremely frequent, it's quite the upgrade.

[Monty]

Guess I'm always multi-tasking when I'm playing (minus dungeons and such) that I've hardly noticed. Watching hockey, shows, browsing, etc. I suppose, if you're strictly focused on the game, and big into hunts and constantly zoning then I guess it does add up.

Either way, the general consensus here is that they're a good upgrade, some for gaming, some for windows, some for both!

[sydh]

Enough that it makes sense to use it if you already have one and the space on it. Not enough to go out and buy a SSD just for the game. Go buy one for you OS boot drive first and foremost.

[SinisterIsBack]

Monty pretty much summed it up.

SSD's are more for Windows OS.

[Milmoko_Gemoko]

SSD's make a HUGE difference in this game, I'm still mainly on (the apparently hated) PS3 version of the game but upgraded the original HDD to a SSD and the load times are like 3/4 times faster on everything e.g. NPCs/Players, FATES, dungeons and zone load times haha like 2/3 seconds.
I havent noticed much lag, and frame rate is better then the orignal HDD but it does still sometimes drop when in the Shroud (those Ent/Tree monsters, so much animation lag).

When I get a SSD for my PC I'll maybe switch platforms but for the moment its load times are crippling :/

[odintius]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ006fUrTdc

[Hiruke]

For this game you won't see huge difference on loading times cause it doesn't read huge files from disk like other games. It's fairly optimised for this reason to run on consoles. They avoided high res textures for that reason. It's not only that the consoles do not have the processing power for this but the loading times too. This game is only 15 GBs while other MMORPGs are around 40Gbs. You will see a difference with an SDD but do not expect the big difference you see in other bigger games.

With my HDD I load areas fast. I don't feel the need to get an SDD.

People need to stop getting premade computers with cheap 5200RPM HDDs and start buying quality 7200RPM+ drives.

^Factually inaccurate, as explained by other responses.

I don't know why we have a 3 page long thread that was solved in 3 posts.

Anyone who thinks an SSD won't load a zone faster than an HDD has no idea what a "huge difference" means to begin with. I originally had FFXIV on my HDD, but I fixed that in less than a day because I hated the load times and quickly put it onto my SSD.

Is the difference between a 4 second load time and a 12 second load time "huge"? I would think that halving or thirding your load time would be considered significant. I certainly wouldn't want to do something like hunts without an SSD. Think the 8 seconds won't help? It will. Or if you have to port more than once, it adds up (going to Limsa, then Mist, then La Noscea? hey, SSD just saved you up to 24 seconds or more).

And I'm not talking about junk HDDs. I mean 7200 ones. Who even has the other? Seriously. (Edit: I guess all those Lenovo laptops do. Haha. A 7200 rpm HDD would certainly be a little faster, but the load time would still be significant, as I've seen on my own not-a-laptop. I've seen those Lenovos load a zone, and it takes foooorever.)

If you don't mind the load time on HDD being that long, obviously you don't care enough to have an SSD. If you feel going from 8-12 seconds to 4 seconds "isn't a big deal, because hey I'm eating popcorn guy" then fine. But does that help the OP? Nah. The OP has already been informed of the difference, and can make their own decision. The rest is just superfluous. Maybe you like watching that black screen between zones. I'd rather not. Maybe the OP doesn't either. Guess they can figure that out based on the math.

Similarly, many of you may think that having a better video card and more frame rate "just isn't a big deal". This thread wasn't an opinion piece, though. It was "how much do SSDs help the game" not "does random guy I don't know care about how much SSDs help the game". Really.

Anyway, I don't see why better load times would help your laptop bench better. First problem is having a laptop for gaming, but I guess for many that's unavoidable. Better keep that thing cold.