Topic: SSD Questions

[Grendel]

I'm getting frustrated with the slow map load time I am experiencing with my Raptor drive, which is otherwise fine.

My questions are these:

1.  Will a SSD speed load times?

2.  If I get one, I don't know if I should just replace the Raptor or set up two drives.  I can go either way.  Storage is not an issue, this is just a gaming machine.  If I do set up two, where should the game and the OS reside?

[Sparks]

Raptor drive is not the issue, its Bc2
Running a Vraptor as a second drive for games , ati card 5770 and latest cat drivers full install. Win7 64 bit
The 10.5 cat drivers seem to have the fastest load times for bc2.
I went from 60 sec to 10 sec load time.
Some are having issues with the 10.6 and load times. It's a video drive issue with dx10 & 11 which ati is suppose to fix.
Either roll back your drivers to 10.5 or re set your bc2 ini setting to dx9

C:\Users\\Documents\BFBC2\settings.ini

From ATI Forums : when using dx 10 or 11 it causes longer load times for maps in BF2. Went back to dx 9 and the load time was about 15 seconds to enter a game.

[Grendel]

I will try this. Thanks Sparks. 

I'm still interested in learning about ssds if anybody has advice.

[Smonkey]

What card you have Gren? Like what Sparks said sounds like you have the classic Ati GPU slow load. Might sound strange but its the GPU and not the HDD that is causing this. If you have a Ati GPU im betting you dont have the latest drivers. 10.6 is current. download from their website if this is the problem.

Ask Sipin hes got a SSD raid 0+1 I think

[Dgirl]

I love when guys talk tech!   

[Sipin]

I do have an SSD but i never put it in a RAID setup.

I have my OS on the SSD which greatly improves boot up and lowers noise level. Then I set one of my 1tb drives for all programs. I do see an increase in load times.

However, in World at War, I found that particular game made no improvement. Something about the map data access on an SSD as opposed to conventional.

When using Cat10.4, the SSD made no difference. I still had long load times. In the end, if you go with an SSD, you may see improvement but the only way to know for sure is to try.

[Grendel]

I think Sparks and Smonkey are right about it being a driver issue.  I had 10.4 (which was slow).  I updated to 10.6.  It loaded quite a bit faster, but the image shuddered constantly - a sort of high-frequency shaking - making the game unplayable.  I uninstalled 10.6 and installed 10.5.  Shaking gone, but the load time seemed the same as 10.4.  I'll mess with it more some other time. 

Thanks for the input and info, guys.