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P3D and Solid State Drive (SSD) setup

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Are there substantial benefits (retrieval speeds) of using one on a dedicated flight simulator machine ?

 

Would an SSD smooth up the simulation ? (stutter?)

 

How much storage space would you need and should you put everything on them (including 3rd party scenery files) or just the P3D files ?

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-recommendation-benchmark,3269-3.html

 

 

A110-1-of-1-_w_180.jpg

 

http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?263624-Will-a-SSD-Hard-Drive-Make-Much-Improvement-In-Performance-FSX

 

 

Worth it ?

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I have one SSD dedicated to P3dV2 and FSX. I also have another dedicated to my other "games". I normally like to allow 80 GIGS of space for the SIM+addons. I have found over the years that the FSX directory can get huge with the scenery add ons. The 3rd party scenery, especially the ORBX stuff installs in the FS directory. 


Scott

KGPI

 

Banner_MJC1.png

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Would an SSD smooth up the simulation ? (stutter?)

No, but will load the sim quicker.

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So basically, the sim loading is faster and complex scenery could potentially be quicker.

 

The important aspect would be in-flight scenery loading... but is that really an issue ?. How far in advance are scenery files loaded (based on direction), are they retrieved (pre-loaded) to some sort of virtual RAM buffer until they are needed by the simulation or are they pulled from the drive and rendered as needed in real time ?

 

If there's no in-flight advantage that could make the simulated experience smoother, I don't see a point to SSD.

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Worth it ?

 

256 is sufficient for most folks... but I am 90% full in my SSD hosting FSX.. I am on the look out for a 1 TB...but its like $600 :)


Manny

Beta tester for SIMStarter 

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I put P3D on a brand new dedicated SSD. It still stagers when it load textures it's actually worse than FSX which I have on it's own HDD . The invisible plane appears bit by bit.

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I put P3D on a brand new dedicated SSD. It still stagers when it load textures it's actually worse than FSX which I have on it's own HDD . The invisible plane appears bit by bit.

 

I thought you were waiting for a patch or something ?

 

Just needed to get your daily complaint in ?  :lol:


Regards,

Brian Doney

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I thought you were waiting for a patch or something ?

 

Just needed to get your daily complaint in ?  :lol:

P3D sits on SSD waiting for a patch.

 

Just needed to add another non-constructive troll post I see? :lol:

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I have two SSD drives, one for my OS and one for FSX and Prepar3D v2.

 

No stutters... no bad behavior...

 

If you're wondering if using an SSD is a good idea, yes... but if your OS is running on a slower drive, guess what you're waiting on... yep, you got it... drive access!  Applications don't directly access hard drives, they access hardware through the OS... so if your OS is on a slow drive, having faster access elsewhere matters not.


Ed Wilson

Mindstar Aviation
My Playland - I69

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I have two SSD drives, one for my OS and one for FSX and Prepar3D v2.

 

No stutters... no bad behavior...

 

If you're wondering if using an SSD is a good idea, yes... but if your OS is running on a slower drive, guess what you're waiting on... yep, you got it... drive access!  Applications don't directly access hard drives, they access hardware through the OS... so if your OS is on a slow drive, having faster access elsewhere matters not.

 

Agreed 100%, in fact if you only have room for one or the other for some reason, OS to SSD and let your other apps have the HDD.

 

I can't really say I notice any actual difference while the sim is running with it on SSD vs HDD, not that i expected much, but having just put FSX back to HDD after having it on SSD for awhile now, I really couldn't tell one way or the other. Start time might be a little longer but...meh.


Regards,

Brian Doney

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I've had FSX and now P3D v2.0 on their own dedicated SSD. I'm yet to be convinced that it improves in game/flight performance but the main difference is most certainly a huge improvement in loading times both into the main menus and into the cockpit. 256GB is more than enough for me unless you are using lots of photo-realistic scenery.

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a huge improvement in loading times both into the main menus and into the cockpit.

 

And that's just about it, specially with the more addon aircraft, AI aircraft and scenery you have. The debate is older than the moonshine stills.

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And that's just about it, specially with the more addon aircraft, AI aircraft and scenery you have. The debate is older than the moonshine stills.

 

True but that piece of hardware has dropped and performance has increased in the last few years.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/164677-storage-pricewatch-hard-drive-and-ssd-prices-drop-making-for-a-good-time-to-buy

SSDPriceGB_01-640x440.jpg

 

http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components/storage/9-solid-state-superstars-which-is-best-for-you--1190457/2#articleContent

 

 

When I go for SSD I'll be replacing my terrabyte HDD with an SSD drive. Right now it appears there is a 30% boost in read times using an SSD compared with a HDD but some wild technologies are appearing in the horizon:

 

Another interesting development is Thunderbolt - Intel's superfast general purpose connection. The second generation of Thunderbolt is good for 20Gbps, which puts it in similar territory to a four-lane PCI Express interface. Intel has recently been showing off a 128GB Thunderbolt 2.0 thumb drive prototype. The idea of a thumb drive that outperforms today's SSDs is intriguing.

 

 
The end of the HDD era for sure !

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I am so done with mechanical hd's. No more defragging for me ever again!


Intel i7 10700K | Asus Maximus XII Hero | Asus TUF RTX 3090 | 32GB HyperX Fury 3200 DDR4 | 1TB Samsung M.2 (W11) | 2TB Samsung M.2 (MSFS2020) | Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280mm AIO | 43" Samsung Q90B | 27" Asus Monitor

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So basically, the sim loading is faster and complex scenery could potentially be quicker.

 

The important aspect would be in-flight scenery loading... but is that really an issue ?. How far in advance are scenery files loaded (based on direction), are they retrieved (pre-loaded) to some sort of virtual RAM buffer until they are needed by the simulation or are they pulled from the drive and rendered as needed in real time ?

 

If there's no in-flight advantage that could make the simulated experience smoother, I don't see a point to SSD.

==============

I believe that the program looks ahead in an off-center ellipse. That means that ahead it sees the farthest. I don't believe that actual ranges for each quadrant are given. The program, in the background, is constantly checking its scenery index (already in memory) to know when the next ground texture, building and vegetation should be loaded. If it gets behind, and the buffers(s) become empty there is a pause while loading the appropriate "stuff". The idea is for you to buy enough hardware to allow the buffers to be kept full up to a reasonable aircraft speed at a specific range of altitudes. So if you are skimming the tree tops at a high speed the details to be rendered may now become an issue since before some trees can appear another group is in view. An SSD mitigates most of this but you should be able to find some circumstances where nothing helps except money.

regards,

Dick near Pittsburgh, USA

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