HDD to SSD - Disappointment

[Dane Watson 38]

I keep hearing how FSX loads much faster from a SSD as opposed to a HDD.
Well - I am very dissapointed as just today I had my computer tech shop insatll a Samsung SSD and cloned evrything from HDD to SSD - everything was successful and everything works - no problems at all.

Then came my moment of disappointment - when I loaded my default saved flight that I always use and has been used for all my bench mark testing - the load time was exactly the same as before - I don't get it.

Could it be that I have tweaked my FSX.CFG so well that the SSD did not make a difference?
The only difference I have noticed is the the actual laptop boot up - that is so much quicker.

Any thoughts or wise words of wisdom?

[airernie 263]

You're not likely to see blazing speeds, but one thing I learned with my Samsung SSD was that for it to run at advertised speeds I needed to have the Intel Rapid Storage Technology app installed.

To see if it's needed run the Samsung Magician performance benchmark.    

Ernie

[Dane Watson 38]

32 minutes ago, airernie said:

You're not likely to see blazing speeds, but one thing I learned with my Samsung SSD was that for it to run at advertised speeds I needed to have the Intel Rapid Storage Technology app installed.

To see if it's needed run the Samsung Magician performance benchmark.    

Ernie

Thanks Ernie, I will run that utility and I do have the Intel Rapid Storage Technology app installed.

[airernie 263]

Good, then you're ahead of the game.  

I didn't have it installed the first time I ran the benchmark and was really bummed by the results.  

[Dane Watson 38]

3 minutes ago, airernie said:

Good, then you're ahead of the game.  

I didn't have it installed the first time I ran the benchmark and was really bummed by the results.  

I don't see where or how to run the 'Benchmark'

[airernie 263]

Do you have the Samsung Magician 4 app?  It came with my Samsung 850 EVO.  Of course, if someone else installed the drive they may not have installed the app, or one didn't come with your drive due to compatibility.

It's available here if you want it.  The link contains the drives that it applies to.

Ernie

 

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

1 hour ago, Dane Watson said:

The only difference I have noticed is the the actual laptop boot up - that is so much quicker.

Any thoughts or wise words of wisdom?

Do you only have one drive (C:) in your system?

If Windows boots up quicker, then the SSD is doing its job.

Could it be that FSX is on a separate drive??

[Dane Watson 38]

19 minutes ago, airernie said:

Do you have the Samsung Magician 4 app?  It came with my Samsung 850 EVO.  Of course, if someone else installed the drive they may not have installed the app, or one didn't come with your drive due to compatibility.

It's available here if you want it.  The link contains the drives that it applies to.

Ernie

 

I already had the same version as what is on the Samsung link. I ran it and the only thing questionable is "Rapid Mode - Not Supported".

I will read the user manual and see what that is all. Other Modes appear to be OKabout.

[Dane Watson 38]

2 minutes ago, Bert Pieke said:

Do you only have one drive (C:) in your system?

If Windows boots up quicker, then the SSD is doing its job.

Could it be that FSX is on a separate drive??

Hi Bert, Absolutely everything was cloned to the new SSD C: Drive.

The old HDD drive (now D:) is empty

[Jim Young 2,356]

1 hour ago, Dane Watson said:

Then came my moment of disappointment - when I loaded my default saved flight that I always use and has been used for all my bench mark testing - the load time was exactly the same as before - I don't get it.

It is faster when you load FSX.  How do you benchmark the loading times?  The fsuipc utility shows system time at startup and again when you get to the setup screen and select the aircraft you want, it will show the system time again but you haven't even loaded to the flight session yet.  It will not increase performance while flying.  Just at startup and the startup times may vary depending on the scenario you are loading.  Photoscenery and Orbx scenery take longer than the default.  I wish SSD's provided better performance during flights but, if it does, it is not noticeable.  I still use my old HDD's for FSX/P3D as there is little or no difference in performance during the flight.

I also have one of the fastest, if not the fastest, SSD produced for consumers to date... the Samsung 960 EVO M2 1TB - http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/samsung-960-evo-m-2-1tb-nvme-ssd-review,1.html.  Windows 10 sits on the 500GB version and FSX/P3D sits on the 1TB version.  Thought I would get all kinds of performance with this new tech but notta...

Best regards,

Jim

[lownslo 592]

Something isn't right with the SSD install, Dane.  Samsung Magician (v. 5 as shown in your screenshot above) does indeed support Rapid Mode with your 850 EVO M.2.  And to clarify... are you also unable to benchmark the SSD in Magician?  If so, you should take it all back to your computer shop and have them sort it.

HTH,

Greg

[airernie 263]

1 hour ago, Dane Watson said:

I will read the user manual and see what that is all. Other Modes appear to be OK

Dane,

You received the same 'drive is not supported' that I got when I just tried the software.

I was able to eliminate the message by clicking on the circle with the two arrows in the top left corner.  That did a second search which yield a drive found and prompt to upgrade the firmware.

Ernie

[lownslo 592]

UGH!  I tried v.5 but didn't care for it... went back to 4.9.7.  But 5 did see both my 850 and 840 PRO's.  Hopefully all Dane needs to do is follow your suggestion and he'll be set.

Greg

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

Maybe your system is very CPU bound... and you are not getting any more load performance by speeding up the I/O subsystem.  That is OK, you have done what you can.. the SSD will still help in the background and your whole system will be faster and quieter...

[Dane Watson 38]

4 hours ago, Jim Young said:

It is faster when you load FSX.  How do you benchmark the loading times?  The fsuipc utility shows system time at startup and again when you get to the setup screen and select the aircraft you want, it will show the system time again but you haven't even loaded to the flight session yet.  It will not increase performance while flying.  Just at startup and the startup times may vary depending on the scenario you are loading.  Photoscenery and Orbx scenery take longer than the default.  I wish SSD's provided better performance during flights but, if it does, it is not noticeable.  I still use my old HDD's for FSX/P3D as there is little or no difference in performance during the flight.

I also have one of the fastest, if not the fastest, SSD produced for consumers to date... the Samsung 960 EVO M2 1TB - http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/samsung-960-evo-m-2-1tb-nvme-ssd-review,1.html.  Windows 10 sits on the 500GB version and FSX/P3D sits on the 1TB version.  Thought I would get all kinds of performance with this new tech but notta...

Best regards,

Jim

Thanks Jim. First let me say that I did not know that FSUIPC had a bench marking feature (every week I learn something new about FSUIPC).

My testing was probably not very scientific but it was always consistent.

1. Always used my saved default flight (airport and aircraft).

2. Always had Active Sky Next loaded first as well as ChasePlane - nothing else.

3. Stopwatch timed from moment "Fly Now" was pressed and stopped the moment saved airport loaded.

4. Even monitored FPS for one minute and noted results.

I used this method when testing out different FSX.CFG settings to determine the impact on loading. Even though I purchased ORBX PNW I uninstalled it as it simply takes too long to load as well as other ORBX products. I have found some really great 3rd party scenery that is more than adequate and does not affect load times or FPS.