Blurries and SSDs

[darem 84]

I know that blurries can have many causes, amongst them each single bottleneck you can think of *g*, but nevertheless my question:My system:Q9550 oced to 3,41GHz8GB 1066 DDR2 RAM285GTX 2 GBrunning 1920x1080standard 5400rpm hard drivesWin 7 Ultimate 64bitsystem is pretty well tuned, running a load of addons and secondary programs. I am happy with FPS and fluidity of the scenery, but I encounter a lot of blurries when using photoscenery - as well as terrain popping with detailed meshes. Blurries aren't severe, but I'd say they are app. 2 or 3 levels above a crisp picture.My question is: would SSDs for FSX (thinking of two OCZ Vortex 2 120GB for system and secondary FSX disk, a OCZ Vortex 2 240GB as primary FSX disk) eliminate blurries for THIS system? I am not concerned about FPS, just about blurries.And yes, I know that this might probably be overkill for the system, but I intend to buy a top-notch PC in autumn and would transfer the SSD to the new machine then. All I am interested in is whether I could expect some benefit from the SSDs now or not - if not, I would wait until I buy the new PC hoping that they will be cheaper then.Your input is highly appreciated.Best,Bernhard

[fghdgdfdfgfgf 111]

The short answer is no. In your case, it's not a hardware problem. You need to tweak software.

[darem 84]

The short answer is no. In your case, it's not a hardware problem. You need to tweak software.

Could you elaborate? I think my system is perfectly tuned regarding software (fsx.cfg, limiter settings etc.).

[Bob Scott 7,745]

I think the SSDs might help over 5400RPM drives, but probably not any more than a good 7200 RPM drive with 64MB+ of cache, like some of the WD Caviar Black drives. A 10,000 RPM WD Velociraptor might be even better still. Photoscenery needs good disk system throughput to move large files fast...and because most photoscenery is so big, it's also fairly cost-prohibitive to put it on SSDs. The forte of the SSD is very fast random file reads...that's not going to be a big help with photoscenery.

[Guest PFL]

I had an OCZ Vertex 2 120 Gb SSD for about a week, then it died!Should have Google OCZ before I bought it, too many RMA´s and firmware problems.But it helped with faster loading of FSX, and no blurries, FPS the same...Lots of opinions about SSD´s and FSX:http://forum.avsim.net/topic/300997-ssd-upgrade-results/

[Kosta 122]

I am very hard thinking about getting a WD VR 600GB (WD6000HLHX).

[ohsirus 241]

I have a RevoDrive for FSX and can't look back now. Never had one issue and its crazy fast on loads.

[ZachLW 37]

I'm thinking your blurries are processor related. :Sigh: So another "No" or "definitely not" here to the original question. My blurry issues went away with this i7 rig. I had tried an SSD before on my Core 2 system, no joy. I've gone back to the Cav. Black in my signature and sold the SSD to a friend. It really wasn't worth it just to decrease load times... Not until prices are much, much less.

[Paul J 349]

I'm thinking your blurries are processor related. :Sigh: So another "No" or "definitely not" here to the original question. My blurry issues went away with this i7 rig. I had tried an SSD before on my Core 2 system, no joy. I've gone back to the Cav. Black in my signature and sold the SSD to a friend. It really wasn't worth it just to decrease load times... Not until prices are much, much less.

.. and I've had the same old 80 gig ST380817AS 8.5ms, 7200 clunker drive for probably four years. This is where I keep FSX: The C-drive is a 200 gig Maxtor 6L200M0, 9ms, 7200 and "Stuff" is on a 500 gig WD5000AAKS-00V1AO. All are non-descript, cheap, with nothing special about them. On my existing (and previous 3.2 gig system) blurries are caused by having having a FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION setting which is too low. Default is 0.33. With this proc running at 4.8 gig and a 580 I can set this to 0.15 without blurries. I agree with Zach: Bernhard may say that "I am happy with FPS and fluidity of the scenery", I know from my own experience that - at 3.41 gig - he has only two choices: - one is stuttering, but moderately crisp textures, or smoothness with blurries. The only answer here is a faster proc & gpu. The only difference the SSD's will make is faster boot, faster FSX startup, but once flying there will be diddly-squat as a performance gain.Buy them with the new system: they will be cheaper at that time.

[Bob Scott 7,745]

I think we need to keep in mind that blurries with photoscenery are a different problem than those with standard scenery. Disk system performance isn't generally critical for operation of FSX, with the notable exception of photoscenery, where disk throughput can make a difference. A good SSD or a good HDD with a large hardware cache can make a difference if running FSX with large expanses of photoscenery. But as I noted previously, SSD storage is very (probably excessively) expensive for use with photoscenery due to the large volumes of data.

[darem 84]

Well, I took the plunge and got me 2x256GB of SSD. Just reinstalling my computer, will report my results as soon as I can :-)

[ZachLW 37]

Well, I took the plunge and got me 2x256GB of SSD. Just reinstalling my computer, will report my results as soon as I can :-)

Lol. Well I think you had made your decision before your OP, then. Good luck! Report back if it was worth the price. I'm always curious of others opinions.

[TechguyMaxC 516]

If anyone else is sitting on the SSD fence and has a Micro Center nearby, take a gander at this: Corsair X256 - $255. Yes, that's a 256GB SSD for just less than $1/GB, and it's a performance-oriented drive at that. Not the newest drive on the block and it is a refurb, but that is an absolutely unbeatable deal. Apparently these Corsair X drives had some firmware issues which have been resolved, so I'd say it's a pretty safe bet to go for a refurb for once.

[darem 84]

Ok, here's my initial report:Blurries and terrain popups are greatly reduced. While there is no increase in FPS, the smoothness is vastly improved. Something I didn't expect: from time to time I had crackling sound (especially flying over Austria Professional X), those sound crackles are completely eliminated.Loading times are fantastic now, no more 5 minutes waiting from starting FSX to flying.Was this worth € 900? Of course not :-). But who cares *g*

[dazz 69]

What did you move the SSD's and how?