SSD Did Not Make Me Say “WOW” Using FSX

[Airbus 14]

Just installed a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD to replace a 300GB WD Velociraptor (10K RPM) (16MB Cache).  I migrated (cloned) my WD drive to the SSD using Samsung's Migration software.  Using Samsung's Magician software I performed all the optimizations including settings for OS maximum performance, performance optimization (TRIM) and enabling RAPID mode.  I also conducted Samsung's SSD performance benchmark testing.

 

The reason I installed the SSD was to SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the time FSX takes to load a flight.  Observing the time it took to load several of my default Cessna flights, the time required was usually between 2-3 minutes.  I did not perform exact loading time comparisons between my WD drive and the SSD because I thought, mistakenly, that I would say "WOW" when my flights would load super fast.  In fact, I think, subjectively, that the SSD did not load flights any faster than my WD drive.

 

I know that many of you probably installed a SSD to replace an older standard drive.  Did you see any "significant" improvement with loading your flights over your older drive?  Are there any additional tweaks to SSD optimization that would result in much better FSX performance that I have missed?

 

Thanks for any comments and suggestions!

 

airbus

[Ron Attwood 3,464]

'Significant' is subjective. Maybe they were hyped a bit. I have the EVO 850 1TB and...I wouldn't have used the word significant. A lot better yes but not enough to get over excited about.

FSX loading quickly has more to do with how much stuff you've thrown at it.

 

Wouldn't change back though.

[airernie 263]

Hopefully you've installed the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver because the EVO is a bit slow without it.

 

Even then I didn't experience a wow! moment when first ran fsx with it installed.  Faster yes,  but not lightening.

 

Ernie

[Boomer 1,619]

Not much point for fsx but definitely a big boost for the OS.

[tf51d 284]

How long FSX takes to initially load to me is insignificant, I could wait a couple of minutes more. Like Ron says it's more how many aircraft models and size of the scenery DB you have installed that has the most impact on the load time. What's more important to me, with this kind of upgrade, is does it reduce stuttering in game and does it refresh scenery loads in game faster, with no blurries?

[Raven9000 272]

Like others say, it depends on what you have installed. I had a 7200 rpm drive (your 10k is not *that* much faster) and have ALL FS ultimate mesh installed.

 

Loading a flight initially (first load) would take several minutes (maybe. 5 minutes..), with the SSD it's more like 30 seconds...

[AviatorMoser 353]

I've found that the loading of files required a lot of processing, so the CPU ends up being my bottleneck and not the HDD.

[Slayer 190]

Scenery loads a bit quicker too , with mechanical drives occasionally I would get small stutters when crossing into new areas. Those are long gone.

[brianbash 26]

Thanks because you were supposed to get the Samsung 950 Pro with PCI-Express adapter in a supported motherboard

 

 

Please refer to my thread that I posted just a couple of days ago...http://www.avsim.com/topic/494424-cured-my-stutters-like-never-before/

[martin-w 3,234]

Just installed a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD to replace a 300GB WD Velociraptor (10K RPM) (16MB Cache).  I migrated (cloned) my WD drive to the SSD using Samsung's Migration software.  Using Samsung's Magician software I performed all the optimizations including settings for OS maximum performance, performance optimization (TRIM) and enabling RAPID mode.  I also conducted Samsung's SSD performance benchmark testing.

 

The reason I installed the SSD was to SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the time FSX takes to load a flight.  Observing the time it took to load several of my default Cessna flights, the time required was usually between 2-3 minutes.  I did not perform exact loading time comparisons between my WD drive and the SSD because I thought, mistakenly, that I would say "WOW" when my flights would load super fast.  In fact, I think, subjectively, that the SSD did not load flights any faster than my WD drive.

 

I know that many of you probably installed a SSD to replace an older standard drive.  Did you see any "significant" improvement with loading your flights over your older drive?  Are there any additional tweaks to SSD optimization that would result in much better FSX performance that I have missed?

 

Thanks for any comments and suggestions!

 

airbus

 

 

 

 

To be honest, I don't recall anyone claiming you would say "wow!  :smile: I too have just adopted the Samsung 850 Evo, and yes, somewhat faster... as I expected. My research prior to building my rig never threw up any "wow" claims.

 

 

Thanks because you were supposed to get the Samsung 950 Pro with PCI-Express adapter in a supported motherboard

 

 

I know that's probably tongue in cheek, but what he actually should have done was more research perhaps. Not all of us want, need or in some cases can afford the 950's price per gigabyte. 

[Airbus 14]

Like others say, it depends on what you have installed. I had a 7200 rpm drive (your 10k is not *that* much faster) and have ALL FS ultimate mesh installed.

 

Loading a flight initially (first load) would take several minutes (maybe. 5 minutes..), with the SSD it's more like 30 seconds...

 

I like the 30 seconds with the SSD :smile:  Do you have an example of what scenery gets loaded in 30 seconds and you are then ready to fly?  What hardware are you using?

 

Thanks!

Airbus

[dazz 69]

Have you run some benchmark on that SSD after migrating? Did you check if the partition is aligned properly? Try AS-SSD

[Airbus 14]

Hi DAZZ:

 

I used the Samsung Magician software to run the benchmark tests. Here are the latest results::

 

Sequential Read MB/sec 4646

Sequential Write MB/sec 4488

Random Read (IOPS) 74164

Random Write (IOPS) 97339

 

Not sure these are good numbers because I have nothing for comparison.

 

I used the command prompt "wmic partition get Name StartingOffset" to verify alignment by dividing the result by 4096.  The results produced a whole number with no digits after the decimal point.  I assume my drive is aligned.

 

I have been using my SSD for only a few days while focusing on flight loading performance.  One person responded to my post about a "30 second" load time, but I don't know what sceneries were being loaded and I am not sure if that would be attainable on my system!.  I am usually loading some heavy stuff such as Orbx, Active Sky, REX, etc. with scenery sliders almost full right.  As I mentioned I don't see any big improvement from my WD Velociraptor to the SSD loading the same flights.  So maybe I just live with it. :smile:

 

airbus. 

[vortex681 806]

I'm sure that you've already done so but do you have your BIOS set to use the Advance Host Controller Interface (AHCI) for your drives rather than IDE? I have Windows 10 and FSX-SE on a Samsung EVO 850 500Gb drive. I've just had a few cold starts of FSX with a flight from a different airport each time in an ORBX region (England) and the worst loading time was 80 seconds - most load in less than 45 seconds. On my previous system, which I used until a few weeks ago, I replaced a hard drive with a Samsung 830 256Gb SSD and saw a reduction in flight loading time of about one third so, yes, significant for me. I don't have the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver installed as the drives seem to work well enough for me without it.

[Airbus 14]

Yes AHCI is enabled.  Fortunately Samsung's Magician software had already checked for this.  The Magician software allows the user to perform some tweaks for max performance.  I am still trying to get the most from my system.

 

Thanks for your reply and comments!

 

airbus