Solid state hard drive question

[Lethaltyrant]

If i get a SSD as a secondary drive and install ffxiv arr to it it wont have OS on it would i still be able to run it and also increase my loading time?

[Faeon]

If i get a SSD as a secondary drive and install ffxiv arr to it it wont have OS on it would i still be able to run it and also increase my loading time?

Yes, I run my OS on my solid state, and my games on another set of drives (raided)

[Lethaltyrant]

ok ty i think i may do this then to increase my loading times literally my loading times are like an ungodly amount of time lol

[Slynk]

If i get a SSD as a secondary drive and install ffxiv arr to it it wont have OS on it would i still be able to run it and also increase my loading time?

Yes, assuming: 1) money's no issue for you (because the rapid read and writes to the SSD from playing an MMO will seriously reduce the life of the drive), 2) you have an extra sata port to even install the drive, and 3) you're not running on a SATA I system.

[worldofneil]

the rapid read and writes to the SSD from playing an MMO will seriously reduce the life of the drive

Reading data doesn't cut away from the life of the drive, only writing, but I don't see how an MMO (or at least I don't see how this one) does massive amounts of writing for this to be a factor?

[Slynk]

Reading data doesn't cut away from the life of the drive, only writing, but I don't see how an MMO (or at least I don't see how this one) does massive amounts of writing for this to be a factor?

Typically games like this have a disk cache for things like character models (since they are dynamically generated) as well as environment caches (since they are so large.) Video games have a strict memory limit to uphold and this is bypassed by disk caching.

[worldofneil]

Typically games like this have a disk cache for things like character models (since they are dynamically generated) as well as environment caches (since they are so large.) Video games have a strict memory limit to uphold and this is bypassed by disk caching.

Ah I see your logic, but no, like in FFXI all characters are rendered on the fly (or at least if they are cached, it's only in memory), there's definitely no disk caching involved Same for the environments, it loads enough of what's around you into RAM (explaining the ~1GB the game can use at times) and I believe it loads/releases more as you move around.

It does however write out the character data to disk every time your change your gear (and possibly when the condition degrades) to the My Games\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A REALM REBORN folder, although this data is pretty tiny and compared to the amount of writes Windows itself does (especially when it uses the pagefile), this game isn't really anything to worry about.

[Slynk]

Ah I see your logic, but no, like in FFXI all characters are rendered on the fly (or at least if they are cached, it's only in memory), there's definitely no disk caching involved Same for the environments, it loads enough of what's around you into RAM (explaining the ~1GB the game can use at times) and I believe it loads/releases more as you move around.

It does however write out the character data to disk every time your change your gear (and possibly when the condition degrades) to the My Games\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A REALM REBORN folder, although this data is pretty tiny and compared to the amount of writes Windows itself does (especially when it uses the pagefile), this game isn't really anything to worry about.

I'm not entirely sure it's rendered on the fly. If it is, they could see a big performance boost from cacheing the models. That would make sense why, on my girlfriend's computer, the game comes to a screeching halt during large fates with lots of players participating. There's also the LOD cache that does exist (it's in the options) but I don't know if it's memory or disk cache.

[Lethaltyrant]

Ok thank you for the info for now i may wait just to see i just ordered a new video card and way more powerful CPU im going from dual core to quad core 3.8 ghz i was asking about the SSD because i heard someone mention it about load times but i dont want to reinstall OS lol i might upgrade memory too since that is relatively cheap