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SSD vs. Hard Drive

Featured Replies

Does MSFS 2020 load faster off a SSD or Hard Drive? I've got it on a hard drive and it takes like 10-15 mins to load. I've got a SSD and if it loads faster that way I'll move it over. Thanks guys!  

John Snyder Jr

I’ve only ever used MSFS on a SSD but generally speaking I would expect a SSD to be of benefit given the amount of data MSFS crunches through when loading.  
 

Dave

Current System (Running at 4k): ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-F, Ryzen 7800X3D, RTX 5090, 55" Samsung Q80T, 64GB DDR5 6000 RAM, EVGA CLC 280mm AIO Cooler, Brunner CLS-E NG Yoke, Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS & Stick, Thrustmaster TCA Quadrant & Add-on, VirtualFly Ruddo+, TQ6+ and Yoko+, GoFlight MCP-PRO and EFIS, Skalarki FCU and MCDU

yes for sure it will load quicker on a SSD , and a little quicker still on a NMVE drive

ROG Crossair Hero X670e , 9900X, TUF 4090 , X4 NVME's. OS  2TB 980 Pro , MSFS  2TB WD Black , Kington Fury 64GB ram ( 6000) Corsair RM1000 PSU, Artic Freezer iii 360 AIO  . Phanteks P600s Case ,TCL QM8B 50" 120 Hz  TV,second 24 inch screen for charts you tube etc, and 11" touch screen for the EFB. Warthog Stick and TCA Captains throttle ( full pack)  Velocity 1 Rudder Pedals , extreme3D for the Tiller,Streamdeck XL x2 / Streamdeck +/Streamdeck mini because i like pressing buttons 

Get a NVME drive.

Edited by Bobsk8

 

 

 

MSFS loads in 3,5 minutes from my nvme drive.

Edited by nas123

NVME iam just correcting my spelling lol

ROG Crossair Hero X670e , 9900X, TUF 4090 , X4 NVME's. OS  2TB 980 Pro , MSFS  2TB WD Black , Kington Fury 64GB ram ( 6000) Corsair RM1000 PSU, Artic Freezer iii 360 AIO  . Phanteks P600s Case ,TCL QM8B 50" 120 Hz  TV,second 24 inch screen for charts you tube etc, and 11" touch screen for the EFB. Warthog Stick and TCA Captains throttle ( full pack)  Velocity 1 Rudder Pedals , extreme3D for the Tiller,Streamdeck XL x2 / Streamdeck +/Streamdeck mini because i like pressing buttons 

MSFS loads in just over 3 minutes from my NVME drive even with over 250 addons in my community folder.  From memory it loads in around 2 minutes with no addons so I would expect an SSD to be a lot better than a hard drive and an NVM drive even quicker.  I would really get fed up waiting 10 or 15 minutes.

Ryzen 5800X3D, Nvidia RTX5080 - 32 Gig DDR4 RAM, 1TB & 2 TB NVME drives - Windows 11 64 bit MSFS 2024 Premium Deluxe Edition Resolution 2560 x 1440 (32 inch curved monitor)

2 hours ago, John Snyder Jr said:

Does MSFS 2020 load faster off a SSD or Hard Drive? I've got it on a hard drive and it takes like 10-15 mins to load. I've got a SSD and if it loads faster that way I'll move it over. Thanks guys!  

Hi John,

As others have said definitely an SSD drive or better still an NVME (if your mobo supports NVME). I have Windows 11 and the MSFS application on the NVME but the application is also pointing to the D Drive (an SSD for data) for the Community folder where all the data is held. Benefits of this arrangement are that computer startup and application running benefit from the speed of the NVME, while the D drive can easily be upgraded to a larger sizes as the Community folder grows (from all the updates and freebies!) without needing to touch the operating system and applications. I started with a 1 TB NVME and a 1 TB SSD data drive. I have just upgraded the SSD data drive to TB which was really easy.

 

If you don't have a mobo that can hold an NVME then have a 1TB SSD for the operating system and applications, and another of the same size or greater for your community folder and other application data. 

A HDD drive is just a bit slow and clunky in the face of today's NVME and SSD drives. 

Cheers

 

Terry  

  

Edited by Lord Farringdon

No. No, Mav, this is not a good idea.

Sorry Goose, but it's time to buzz the tower!

Intel (R) Core (TM) i7-10700 CPU @2.90Ghz, 32GB RAM,  NVIDEA GeForce RTX 3060, 12GB VRAM, Samsung QN70A 4k 65inch TV with VRR 120Hz Free Sync (G-Sync Compatible). 

Boeing Thrustmaster TCA Yoke, Honeycomb Bravo Throttle Quadrant, Turtle Beach Velocity One Rudder Pedals.   

2 hours ago, John Snyder Jr said:

Does MSFS 2020 load faster off a SSD or Hard Drive? I've got it on a hard drive and it takes like 10-15 mins to load. I've got a SSD and if it loads faster that way I'll move it over. Thanks guys!  

I installed MSFS on my new PC on an SSD - the difference is like night and day compared to my old HD.

19 minutes ago, Lord Farringdon said:

As others have said definitely an SSD drive or better still an NVME (if your mobo supports NVME). I have Windows 11 and the MSFS application on the NVME but the application is also pointing to the D Drive (an SSD for data) for the Community folder where all the data is held. Benefits of this arrangement are that computer startup and application running benefit from the speed of the NVME, while the D drive can easily be upgraded to a larger sizes as the Community folder grows (from all the updates and freebies!) without needing to touch the operating system and applications. I started with a 1 TB NVME and a 1 TB SSD data drive. I have just upgraded the SSD data drive to TB which was really easy.

 

  

An alternative (and free) way to store add-on files on a separate drive is to use Addon Linker, which many people do. It works by placing only links to selected add-ons in Community, never the files themselves. There are also many other advantages, not least of which is the convenience of having one's add-ons organized in a rational way. This of course is a separate issue from the need to move MSFS itself to a different drive when the need arises.

90 secs with empty Community

180 secs with tons of addons in the Community.

haven't had a hard drive in my pc for 5 years.

SSD or Nvme: you won't notice much of a difference.

"I've got a SSD and if it loads faster that way I'll move it over."

check if it is big enough to hold MSFS and your addons. 1 or 2 TB will suffice.

Edited by turbomax

AMD 7800X3D, Windows 11, Gigabyte X670 AORUS Elite AX Motherboard, 64GB DDR5 G.SKILL Trident Z5 NEO RGB (AMD Expo), RTX 4090,  Samsung 980 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD 2 TB PCIe 4.0, Samsung 980 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD 1 TB PCIe 4.0, 4K resolution 50" TV @60Hz, VR: Pimax Crystal Light + HP Reverb G2 @ 90 Hz, Honeycomb Bravo Throttle Quadrant, be quiet 1000W PSU, Noctua NH-U12S chromax.black air cooler.

60-130 fps. no CPU overclocking.

very nice.

In terms of speed ...

NVME > SSD > HDD

 

other considerations -

  • Old HDD as they start to fail will slow down massively as seek times go through the roof.
     
  • HDD when more than 85 - 90%  full can cause windows errors and fragmentation can be an issue (especially in older versions of Windows)
  • NVME/ SSD when more than 85 - 90%  slow down massively and can end up running about 25% of rated speed or worse
     
  • TLDR - regard the last 15% of your drive space as temporary storage for moving files about.as neither HHD or NVME/SSD are happy campers when continually kept very close to full.

Edited by Glenn Fitzpatrick

  • Commercial Member
11 hours ago, John Snyder Jr said:

Does MSFS 2020 load faster off a SSD or Hard Drive? I've got it on a hard drive and it takes like 10-15 mins to load. I've got a SSD and if it loads faster that way I'll move it over. Thanks guys!  

Can you share your specs. Thanks.

Switch to a SSD and your load time will go from 15 -20 min to about 5 min , my community folder has about 400 add on airports and planes and my msfs loads in about 5 min with a NVME SSD

 

 

Edited by jason74

Jason Richards

 

 

 

Just wanted to add, if this is specifically from MSFS just get either an NVME or SSD, msfs can’t saturate either of them so you won’t get any difference in load up times between the two. However I’ve seen NMVE usually £10 more than SSD so if you can afford it just go for it. You might use those speeds for something else

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