SSD Solid State Drive

Brunoad

Is it worth getting a SSD to run ESO from? My loading times can be up to a few minutes long. If so, what should I look for?

AzraelKrieg

Not worth it. An SSD on a game such as ESO would not benefit you in anyway.

SirAndy

AzraelKrieg wrote: »

Not worth it. An SSD on a game such as ESO would not benefit you in anyway.

FriedEggSandwich

Yeah it's worth getting an ssd for all your personal computing needs. ESO will probably benefit slightly from it, I still get some long loading screens though. Samsung make most of the flash memory on the market so might as well go for a samsung. Intel also make very decent ssds. Crucial are also decent and affordable. Avoid OCZ though apparently, at least that was the case a few years ago.

runagate

Brunoad wrote: »

Is it worth getting a SSD to run ESO from? My loading times can be up to a few minutes long. If so, what should I look for?

It depends upon the speed of the HHD drive you're using is. If it's not 10,000 RPM it makes a huge difference.

Blackwing_Soul

I use a SSD for all my PC gaming, my girlfriend uses a HDD. There is a noticeable difference in less load time between my computer and hers when hitting load screens at the same moment. ESO has a longer load time than most other games I play, but its still the difference between a few seconds [mine] versus a minute or so [hers]. IMO if you can get a SSD it's well worth it.

Mojmir

Shave a second off your loading screens,maybe.

Minalan

It's worthwhile to run your whole operating system on an SSD, not ESO specifically.

PC startup time is immediate, less time waiting to get in-game.

Whatzituyah

runagate wrote: »

Brunoad wrote: »

Is it worth getting a SSD to run ESO from? My loading times can be up to a few minutes long. If so, what should I look for?

It depends upon the speed of the HHD drive you're using is. If it's not 10,000 RPM it makes a huge difference.

Then again 10,000 RPM sounds like your asking for problems. @runagate

Oh also

Basks

I upgrade to an SSD with ESO and performance in every manner has increased drastically.
Examples: No more black silhouette stand-ins for characters, no infinite load screens, much higher framerate, smoother UI feel

Necrelios

AzraelKrieg wrote: »

Not worth it. An SSD on a game such as ESO would not benefit you in anyway.

This right here. I could tell almost no difference running ESO from an SSD. Most of the loading screens are just as long, presumably because it's waiting for the server to finish doing stuff and finding you an open instance of the zone you are entering. The game files use a very low compression ratio and a lot of the textures are streamed anyways so it doesn't take much time accessing the files on your hard drive.

ElliottXO

How can people even live without SSD these days. Get an SSD for your system and games, and an HDD as a file dump (pictures, videos, etc.).

Hempyre

An SSD is the cheapest and best upgrade you can do for everything.

Publius_Scipio

SSD isn't necessary for ESO. That being said SSD prices have come down over the years and if you are in the market for a new drive, SSD is a great choice for your PC.

SlayerTheDragon

My SSD made a big improvement for all loading screens (except the Cyrodiil Loading Screen of Death).

Flameheart

I bought a Samsung 850 EVO 1 TB two years ago as they were expensive as hell and I never regretted it. You get a Samsung 850 EVO 1TB for ~300 € nowadays.

Maybe it does not help much for ESO (and I do not believe that, it should at least shorten loading screens somewhat, at least for loading screens which do not rely on delayed server responses), but it's the best upgrade for overall system performance you can buy for money. No CPU or grafic card upgrade (unless you have CPUs and grafic cards from the stone age of personal computing) will boost your system performance in that way.

I can't understand people who still boot or start games/applications from normal HDs. HDs just for data storage (and speed isn't the determining factor, longevity is it).

raglau

As others say, an SSD is such a general improvement to all aspects of PC use, that it's a no brainer upgrade now they are so cheap.

Yes, mine did improve ESO loading performance up to a point, I am still at the mercy of what seems like a very flaky back-end a lot of the time however. So despite having a very high performance PC, I can end up waiting at loading screens anyway, due to server shenanigans.

Bakkagami

While I generally agree that getting an SDD is a good investment for gaming, I would caution you not to get your hopes up in regards to your loadscreens. Some games, ie. Skyrim, where a lot of load is on the pc, will show a lot of improvement but eso does most of its math server-side, meaning your client pc doesn't handle as much, and your GPU is doing most of the texture loading/processing which is what's the main cause of longer load screens/the shadow people. Other than upgrading your GPU, the best bet for decreasing load times would just be a better server connection. Unfortunately, for a lot of people, that's impacted by the region more than anything.

Epona222

I have been using an SSD for a couple of years, and I have experimented in terms of running ESO from the SSD or from a mechanical drive. It makes very little difference. (Although a big difference in time to boot up the PC from cold).

LegacyDM

AzraelKrieg wrote: »

Not worth it. An SSD on a game such as ESO would not benefit you in anyway.

What are you smoking?!

I upgraded from a western digital 10k rpm raptor hard drive to an intel ssd years ago and the performance boost was staggering. Windows and games load significantly faster and game play is significantly smoother. No stuttering or sluggishness. Now I'm using a Samsung evo pro and couldn't even imagine going back to a 10k rpm drive.

From a technical perspective you will get better performance from an ssd because it uses flash memory where data can be recalled almost instantaneously. The traditional magnetic drive uses spinning platters and a needle like a record player to recall the data which can feel sluggish once you've seen the power of an ssd.

It does benefit greatly and there is a reduction in loading screens in eso.

JDar

Some addons will need to load a lot of data from your disk (Notably, Master Merchant) and that can cause the game to stutter a little bit when you pass the login screen. So a faster SSD would help mitigate that.

If you're a serious trader that might be something to think about.

I_killed_Vivec

I haven't touched (and wouldn't) HDD since I migrated to SSD years ago.

Asardes

Most load time is due to the server side anyway, so having a faster client HDD won't do much to improve performance.

karldavy149b16_ESO

Brunoad wrote: »

Is it worth getting a SSD to run ESO from? My loading times can be up to a few minutes long. If so, what should I look for?

nope all about the cpu better cpu = better load times ... and funnily enough better fps aswell

ElBiggus

Brunoad wrote: »

My loading times can be up to a few minutes long.

Really? I have an SSD for Windows, but games all run from HDD (and until multi-TB SSDs become affordable it'll have to stay that way) and at worst my load times in ESO are 20-30 seconds -- the "Requesting login" and "Requesting character load" pauses are the longest I have to wait, and that's a server-side issue...

Bakkagami

LegacyDM wrote: »

AzraelKrieg wrote: »

Not worth it. An SSD on a game such as ESO would not benefit you in anyway.

What are you smoking?!

I upgraded from a western digital 10k rpm raptor hard drive to an intel ssd years ago and the performance boost was staggering. Windows and games load significantly faster and game play is significantly smoother. No stuttering or sluggishness. Now I'm using a Samsung evo pro and couldn't even imagine going back to a 10k rpm drive.

From a technical perspective you will get better performance from an ssd because it uses flash memory where data can be recalled almost instantaneously. The traditional magnetic drive uses spinning platters and a needle like a record player to recall the data which can feel sluggish once you've seen the power of an ssd.

It does benefit greatly and there is a reduction in loading screens in eso.

Yeah, generally an ssd will help Windows processing a lot, but if we're just talking about in game significance it won't change much because not a lot is reading/writing from hard drive while playing. And what is reading is going to get read once in a while and afterward is handled by GPU mostly.

Epona222

Asardes wrote: »

Most load time is due to the server side anyway, so having a faster client HDD won't do much to improve performance.

I agree with this. Also if we are talking about stuff like other players, npcs, and effects showing up on screen, that is more down to CPU than hard drive.

Cherryblossom

Brunoad wrote: »

Is it worth getting a SSD to run ESO from? My loading times can be up to a few minutes long. If so, what should I look for?

@Brunoad
I have done this and I can say it does make a difference. It won't solve the problem with bugs in the game causing long load screens, but does mean you will load into a zone quicker.

If you are experiencing minute long load screens, turn off all your Addon's and see if this makes a difference! Then turn them back on one by one until you find the one causing the issue.

Kirameku

Yes, ssd worths it. I changed my hhd (which I broke while wiping in vma :P) to ssd, and perfomance and fps improved a lot. Definetly worth it.

Asardes

Epona222 wrote: »

Asardes wrote: »

Most load time is due to the server side anyway, so having a faster client HDD won't do much to improve performance.

I agree with this. Also if we are talking about stuff like other players, npcs, and effects showing up on screen, that is more down to CPU than hard drive.

There could also be a snag at the server side, since all those need to be first sent to your client before they are actually rendered. Positioning data is probably sent first, since other players and NPCs appear as untextured black silhouettes first, then the armor, weapons and other stuff appears and you are able to interact with them. Same with ground textures - in zones that are not loaded they appear blurry until they fully load. And that's not a specific main/graphic board processor issue. I in fact changed my graphics board to a much stronger one a few months back and the texture load times have not improved much. So I suspect the real problem is the speed of the data stream needed for rendering, not the rendering itself.

I have pretty solid internet connection 500 Mb/s fiber link, and the data stream is not more than 10 Mb/s in any case. And I've seen quite a wide variance in loading performance in the same areas over a few days, though I have the same tasks running on my rig all the time. So I can only conclude that the long loading time are mostly due to server load and/or other remote, not local problems.

Epona222

I think in all the posts here, with one person saying oh yes SSD will fix it and others saying it won't, no-one has actually asked what the OP's spec is. There could be a performance bottleneck anywhere, and we are all just speculating. An SSD may help if the rest of your system is top notch, but may not do much if your CPU is poor and causing slow performance.