I've been running FSX off a 500G Barracuda 7200rpm.  I have Win7 on a dedicated 60G SSD.

 

Last night, I purchased a 250G SSD for FSX only (will probably install FS9 also).  I wanted to wait until the prices drop some more but I was fed up with FSX loading times and having to defrag after each add on, so I decided to buy one.

 

Load times is much better than I expected.  After clicking the FSX shortcut icon, it's up and running in 4 seconds!  Loading a flight is so much faster too.  And not having to defrag ever again is a big plus and will save me a lot of time while I re-install all my add ons.

 

But I also got a very unexpected surprise.  I got what seems like a very big increase in performance.  I don't notice ground texture lag while flying anymore.  Autogen are loading very fast and the pop up is so minimal compared to before that I don't really notice it anymore while flying.

The biggest improvement is the smoothness.  I don't know if there was any fps increase because I lock my frames @ 30fps through NI, but it's so much smoother now compared to the HDD.  I did my usual test by taxiing around KFJK with ai traffic turned on.  This has always been a good test for me because JFK and surrounding area is very busy and fps heavy.  Before, when using my HDD, I'd get very noticeable stutters when facing the airport and doing big turns.  With the SSD, the stutters and lag are gone.

 

I'm really glad I got an SSD for FSX.  If I had known about this, I would have purchased it a lot sooner.

 

Anybody else get a performance boost when running FSX on an SSD?

If you reinstalled FSX you probably got an FPS increase because of that. In terms of smoothness, are you sure that it's a 100% smooth, with absolutely zero jerky movement? I have an SSD, and it only solved the longer stutters but FSX still remained a little choppy. Only with VSync it's now a 100% smooth.

Only increase I saw with an introduction of an SSD was faster loading times. No increase in FPS though, which is understandable considering I only got a faster storage device.

 

Which reminds me, I need to get a bigger SSD, I only have 10GB left :(

If you reinstalled FSX you probably got an FPS increase because of that. In terms of smoothness, are you sure that it's a 100% smooth, with absolutely zero jerky movement? I have an SSD, and it only solved the longer stutters but FSX still remained a little choppy. Only with VSync it's now a 100% smooth.

 

I don't know if there was any fps increase like I mentioned on my OP because I have my fps locked @ 30.  I never said it's 100% smooth with zero stutter or jerks.  It's just that the heavy stutters I used to get while facing an airport building and turning is gone (with the same scenery settings I used previously).  I've never seen a system run FSX 100% smooth.  There will always be a bit of stutters now and then with the scenery or maybe a jerk here and there.  What I meant was, with the same settings as before, the stutters during large turns at the airport I got with the HDD is gone.  If I increase ai or autogen, I'm sure I'll get stutters.  Sorry, I should have made that more clear on my OP.

I don't think the performance increase was because I re-installed FSX.  I've re-installed countless times on the HDD and the previous install I had right before this one was very basic with only a few add ons.

The smoothness I'm getting with the SSD is big enough that I noticed it right away.  I wasn't even expecting a performance increase when I bought it.  I wanted fast load times and no more defrag.  So it's a very nice unexpected surprise.

 

I'm also using VSync with 1/2 refresh rate and 30fps locked.  It was a major improvement in smoothness as well. 

 

 

Only increase I saw with an introduction of an SSD was faster loading times. No increase in FPS though, which is understandable considering I only got a faster storage device.

 

Which reminds me, I need to get a bigger SSD, I only have 10GB left :(

 

You didn't notice faster autogen and texture loading while flying?

I used to get annoyed when flying simple props with autogen maxed out because I'd see them pop up, but with the SSD I don't notice it anymore.  It's there, but minimal compared to before.

I'm also a little concerned with storage space.  I have a feeling, I'll max this one out in about a year.  Once I get all my add ons I currently have in there, it should be around 75-100G going by my guesstimation.

i moved to HDD becouse SSD was too small for my addons. Excepting slower initial loading I can't see any noticeable difference, maybe some stutters after installing new scenery and before defragmenting, but this may be subjective

You didn't notice faster autogen and texture loading while flying?

I used to get annoyed when flying simple props with autogen maxed out because I'd see them pop up, but with the SSD I don't notice it anymore.  It's there, but minimal compared to before.

I'm also a little concerned with storage space.  I have a feeling, I'll max this one out in about a year.  Once I get all my add ons I currently have in there, it should be around 75-100G going by my guesstimation.

Maybe a little faster texture loading but definately not autogen. I thought autogen loading would be more dependant on CPU speed/processing power? I am running at 4.9GHz so don't have any issues with autogen loading slowly in the first place, so thats probably why I didn't see any difference from when I had no SSD.

i moved to HDD becouse SSD was too small for my addons. Excepting slower initial loading I can't see any noticeable difference, maybe some stutters after installing new scenery and before defragmenting, but this may be subjective

 

Thanks for your input.  I'm going to watch my add ons.  I'd hate to fill this one up too fast.  I'm currently running AS2012, GEX, REX, etc on a separate external USB3 HDD.  I want to keep these big programs away from my FSX drive.

 

 

Maybe a little faster texture loading but definately not autogen. I thought autogen loading would be more dependant on CPU speed/processing power? I am running at 4.9GHz so don't have any issues with autogen loading slowly in the first place, so thats probably why I didn't see any difference from when I had no SSD.

 

I'm not sure.  Maybe my HDD wasn't fast enough to transfer all those textures and autogen to the CPU?  Just a wild guess.  It's 7200rpm, so pretty low by today's standard.  But my CPU is nothing special (955 Phenom 2 oc'd to 4GHz).  So weird how FSX behave so differently on different machines.

Main increase = Shorter loading times

 

VERY SMALL side increase = 1 maybe 2 frames if you are lucky and its not guaranteed and its also debated as the FPS increase could also be variations of your standard FPS.

 

 

Anybody else get a performance boost when running FSX on an SSD?

 

I can't say since I did a complete upgrade so it's not possible to be real clear about what has made the difference.  But I think it's quite reasonable to expect texture loading to have less 'steal' from the CPU, and faster as well, so this is for sure some element of improved performance.

There is one step in NickN's "Bible" that you should make sure you did (assuming your SSD drive is your OS drive) ... move the locations of the temp files (windows, users and IE) from the SSD to the data drive.  This is reported to save on the number of read write operations to the SSD.

 

Here is the word dump if you don't want to go searching through that long document.

 

A. Create two directories on your dead storage mechanical drive ROOT:

 

<DRIVE>:USERTEMP

<DRIVE>:WINTEMP

 

B. Go to START - in the box type: Advanced System and above click on: Advanced System Settings. Click the ADVANCED TAB

 

C. Click the ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES button. In the top box you will see 2 temp file locations: TEMP and TMP. Highlight EACH and click EDIT and then add the exact path to the new temp directories in the VARIABLE VALUE box., 

 

EXAMPLE: for MY system I use the F drive 2TB mechanical backup therefore MY lines will appear like this for both the TEMP and TMP entries:

 

F:\USERTEMP

 

 

D. Click OK and close the box. CONFIRM the paths.

 

E. In the same ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES box go down to the SYSTEM VARIABLES section, scroll down the list and find the entries TMP and TEMP. Highlight EACH and click EDIT and then add the exact path to the new temp directories in the VARIABLE VALUE box.

 

EXAMPLE: for MY system I use the F drive 2TB mechanical backup therefore MY lines will appear like this for both the TEMP and TMP entries:

 

F:\WINTEMP

 

F. Click OK and close the box. CONFIRM the path for both.

 

G. DONE! Close the System Properties box

 

INTERNET CACHE:

 

A. Open Internet Explorer and in the menu click  TOOLS - INTERNET OPTIONS

 

 

B. Under the BROWSER HISTORY click SETTINGS and then click the button MOVE FOLDER. A box will appear, BROWSE the location to your new mechanical backup temp file dump:  <DRIVE LETTER>:\USERTEMP

 

NOTE: You will get a message that Windows must log-off to move the location. Making sure you have any other open items saved allow this logoff and then log back on.

 

 

This is reported to save on the number of read write operations to the SSD.

 

Since I don't use my Win 7 machine for anything except FSX does this still apply for me?  I truly mean just that:  I don't web browse, view email, nuttin'!

I had FSX running for a 250GB SSD, but over time, it got too big.  I actually moved it to a 2TB SSD USB 3.0 external drive (which is really a storage drive) while I decide whether to buy a 500GB SD or one of the new 1 or 2TB HDDs with.  Running it off an external drive means a slightly slower start up, but once I'm in the sim, there is no performance hit. 

 

I'm curious as to what the 64GB cache adverstised on the newer 1 or 2TB HDDs does for FSX?