Is a SSD worth it.

[z06z33 781]

I currently have everything including FSX on one 1TB 7200rpm drive but I'm considering adding a 256GB SSD for FSX will it help my scenery textures loading speed? Because as of now to have sharp textures I have to set  my fiber time fraction to .40 which is killing my FPS

[odourboy 1,292]

I'm not convinced that it helps very much.

 

I was in your situation and added a 120GB SSD strictly for FSX + addons and my 'gut' feeling after spending a day renstalling and applying all the tweaks and fixes was that it really didn't seem to load much faster or run much better.

 

I added a third HDD today because i was running out of space on the SSD with the addition of some new photo scenery. I decided to do some more empirical testing with a 25GB chunk of scenery. I put identical copies on the SSD and HDD. I found had similar load times whether I loaded all the SSD (where FSX was also installed) or off the separate drive (which only had scenery).

 

I still have to test this scenario for smoothness and blurries with an extended low-level high-speed flight.

 

I'd be quite interested if anyone else has some solid empirical data concerning this question.

I currently have everything including FSX on one 1TB 7200rpm drive but I'm considering adding a 256GB SSD for FSX will it help my scenery textures loading speed? Because as of now to have sharp textures I have to set  my fiber time fraction to .40 which is killing my FPS

 

After much experimentation and consideration for the kind of aircraft and flying I do, I set my fiber time to 0.15 - trading some sharpness for improved FPS. So, YMMV with the SSD compared to my system.

[UlfB 7]

I'm not convinced that it helps very much.

 

I was in your situation and added a 120GB SSD strictly for FSX + addons and my 'gut' feeling after spending a day renstalling and applying all the tweaks and fixes was that it really didn't seem to load much faster or run much better.

 

I added a third HDD today because i was running out of space on the SSD with the addition of some new photo scenery. I decided to do some more empirical testing with a 25GB chunk of scenery. I put identical copies on the SSD and HDD. I found had similar load times whether I loaded all the SSD (where FSX was also installed) or off the separate drive (which only had scenery).

 

I still have to test this scenario for smoothness and blurries with an extended low-level high-speed flight.

 

I'd be quite interested if anyone else has some solid empirical data concerning this question.

 

After much experimentation and consideration for the kind of aircraft and flying I do, I set my fiber time to 0.15 - trading some sharpness for improved FPS. So, YMMV with the SSD compared to my system.

 

Did you have AHCI set for your SATA controller when you installed Windows? If the controller was setup in BIOS with IDE or ENHANCED IDE, TRIM wont work on your SSD. What SSD do you use? Do you have an Intel chipset on your mobo and did you install Intel RST drivers after installing Windows? Have you checked that your SSD is properly aligned?

 

In general a SSD would provide faster loading of FSX, flights and textures. But when during a flight the use of an SSD shouldn't have any noticeble impact compared to a fast HDD.

[Rocky_53 1,603]

Running FSX on an SSD or even two SSDs with the OS on one and FSX on the other, will not affect actual texture loading within the sim a single bit. I have two SSDs and I have not noticed any improvement with texture loading or improvement of blurries. It will however load the sim a LOT faster than a conventional HD.

[odourboy 1,292]

Did you have AHCI set for your SATA controller when you installed Windows? If the controller was setup in BIOS with IDE or ENHANCED IDE, TRIM wont work on your SSD. What SSD do you use? Do you have an Intel chipset on your mobo and did you install Intel RST drivers after installing Windows? Have you checked that your SSD is properly aligned?

 

In general a SSD would provide faster loading of FSX, flights and textures. But when during a flight the use of an SSD shouldn't have any noticeble impact compared to a fast HDD.

I can't answer some of your questions because I did not install Windows. I bought a gaming machine with W8 preinstalled. So I don't know about AHCI or how the BIOS was set up. It's a very recent machine. TRIM seems to work. It has a B75 chipset. I did not install RST (whatever that is). I did not check to see if my SSD is properly aligned (whatever that means).

 

I'd be happy to pursue this with your help. Perhaps I'm not getting the benefit of faster loading with the SSD because of a setup issue.

 

EDIT: Reading on AHCI Bios setting - this could be my issue with SSD - probably still set on IDE.

[SAAB340 28]

I'd be quite interested if anyone else has some solid empirical data concerning this question.

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/383881-how-different-hdds-and-ssds-performs-with-fsx/

[UlfB 7]

I can't answer some of your questions because I did not install Windows. I bought a gaming machine with W8 preinstalled. So I don't know about AHCI or how the BIOS was set up. It's a very recent machine. TRIM seems to work. It has a B75 chipset. I did not install RST (whatever that is). I did not check to see if my SSD is properly aligned (whatever that means).

 

I'd be happy to pursue this with your help. Perhaps I'm not getting the benefit of faster loading with the SSD because of a setup issue.

 

Nick Needham have some solid advice on how to setup hardware, OS and FSX here: http://www.simforums.com/forums/the-fsx-computer-system-the-bible-by-nickn_topic46211.html

 

It's a very, very long post, but Nick is an experienced guy ;-)

[Kami 1]

Ulf: "It's a very, very long post"

 

- and that might be a problem, people don´t want to, or they cannot, or they are too lazy, or, or, or... to actually READ WHAT THE MAN TELL THEM TO DO!

 

It´s a problem, people just want to fly FSX, but first they need to graduate as hardcore hardware and FSX tweakers, LOL!

[UlfB 7]

^_^ Yes Kami, I did uninstall everything. Burning all your ships is a wonderful feeling. And no Kami. Grandchildren, work, photograpy was more than enough  :lol: My old i7 940 build was as noisy OC:ed @ 4.1 as my grandchildren were. Something had to go. So my old rig had to go. No regrets, Human relations are fare more important than FSX.

 

OK. I had to put FSX aside for a couple of years, I retired from work a month ago and I'm now waiting for the parts for my Haswell build. So I'll propably reinstall FSX and Acc later this year.Good components, except the case. I'm now  accustomed to using a silent laptop workstation, so I purchased a silen case with poor airflow. I hope that the liquid cooling will help, but I'm prepared to some mods to obtain a descent airflow thru the case. I've saved all receipts from Flight1, PMDG and other vendors, so hopefully I'll be able to download my old add ons.

 

Have a nice day, Kami

[Adam T Lutley 12]

An SSD will NOT improve FPS. With that said, I would never go back to a "spinner" drive. I have 2 identical Samsung 840 pro 256GB SSD's installed and couldn't be happier. FSX resides on its own dedicated SSD in its own folder created by myself not the default X86/program/files one.The PC goes from initial boot up to Windows screen and all the associated start up programs loaded, in less than 20 seconds. The noise reduction, no de fragging, and the ability to fill up to 90% of capacity with no performance loss, is reason enough to opt for it IMO. Regards.

[Noel 4,572]

An SSD will NOT improve FPS. With that said, I would never go back to a "spinner" drive. I have 2 identical Samsung 840 pro 256GB SSD's installed and couldn't be happier. FSX resides on its own dedicated SSD in its own folder created by myself not the default X86/program/files one.The PC goes from initial boot up to Windows screen and all the associated start up programs loaded, in less than 20 seconds. The noise reduction, no de fragging, and the ability to fill up to 90% of capacity with no performance loss, is reason enough to opt for it IMO. Regards.

Hi Adam,

 

I have a new machine and used the 840 Pro 500Gb SSD for OS+FSX.  Do you know the safe procedure to make a cloned copy of this installation on a similar sized HDD?  I have several of them and would like to be able to make a cloned copy just in case, then be able to clone back to a new SSD if and when the Samsung dies.  I still can't tell if I have to do anything other than do what I've always done in cloning HDDs:  Use Seagate Disk Wizard (an acronis product), Ghost or what have you.  The discussion on 'alignment' is mysterious and I really can't find a solid answer to the question of whether cloning SSD<>HDD is any different than HDD<>HDD.

[Adam T Lutley 12]

Hi Adam,

 

I have a new machine and used the 840 Pro 500Gb SSD for OS+FSX.  Do you know the safe procedure to make a cloned copy of this installation on a similar sized HDD?  I have several of them and would like to be able to make a cloned copy just in case, then be able to clone back to a new SSD if and when the Samsung dies.  I still can't tell if I have to do anything other than do what I've always done in cloning HDDs:  Use Seagate Disk Wizard (an acronis product), Ghost or what have you.  The discussion on 'alignment' is mysterious and I really can't find a solid answer to the question of whether cloning SSD<>HDD is any different than HDD<>HDD.

Well, I've never cloned a hard drive containing FSX. My only experience cloning any hard drive was from a internal to an external HDD. Newer SSD's  have lower failure rates than HDD's. The failure mode typically allows one to clone it to a new one before it completely dies. This is not the case usually with an HDD. I hear that Paragon is superior to Acronis. You may need a USB enclosure for one of the drives but I'm just speculating. Regards and good luck.

[Noel 4,572]

 

 

I hear that Paragon is superior to Acronis.

Thanks for that Adam I'll check out Paragon.  In fact I just did and they are up front about stating no problem doing SSD clones whereas Acronis makes no mention of it that I could see.

[VeryBumpy 272]

SSD for FSX was not a large gain on my system, partly cause I'm running Raid 0 for FSX.

 

What IS a large gain was putting my OS on the SSD. Everything you do in Windows is lightening fast.

[bennyboy75 100]

Both W7 and FSX on their own SSDs. Love the speed and the response. FSX isn't any quicker but by god it loads fast. Couldn't go back to an HDD.