HDD vs. SSD load times. I'm leaning toward HDD as SSD is 70gb free without the game

[solfizz.5730]

I am considering downloading this onto an HDD as opposed to my SSD (because there's only 70gb remaining as is). Does anyone else here have the game installed on their HDD currently? And if so, are the load times that long? I've had it installed on my HDD on my laptop when I first got the game back in 2011, and then again on my SSD inside my new computer. If I have a pretty fast PC overall, are the load times THAT much better on the SSD?

[Hashberry.4510]

Much better. You will want it on the SSD if at all possible.

[No One.3716]

The biggest difference in load time change for me was adding an ssd to run the game back when the 32 bit client was standard. The differences then were iirc 50-75 seconds to load from a 7200 rpm seagate barracuda w/ 32m cache vs 15-25 seconds on a Samsung 840 ssd for initial load in to the bank in LA. The 64 bit client cut down the difference to less than 10 seconds and sometimes only a second or so for me with the ssd still notably faster but not by as much as it was before.

It is simple enough to try it both ways, just copy the .dat and .exe into the same folder on your other drive and create a new shortcut labelled appropriately. You can add -maploadinfo to the shortcut to show loading information, including time on loading screens to have an objective comparison point.

[solfizz.5730]

@No One.3716 said:The biggest difference in load time change for me was adding an ssd to run the game back when the 32 bit client was standard. The differences then were iirc 50-75 seconds to load from a 7200 rpm seagate barracuda w/ 32m cache vs 15-25 seconds on a Samsung 840 ssd for initial load in to the bank in LA. The 64 bit client cut down the difference to less than 10 seconds and sometimes only a second or so for me with the ssd still notably faster but not by as much as it was before.

It is simple enough to try it both ways, just copy the .dat and .exe into the same folder on your other drive and create a new shortcut labelled appropriately. You can add -maploadinfo to the shortcut to show loading information, including time on loading screens to have an objective comparison point.

If I get the game again, I will check your advice out. Thank you.

[Zavve.8205]

Moving gw2 to my ssd made a huuuuge difference for me in load times.

[OneYenShort.3189]

My machine is about 10 years old with an HDD that was "green" aka frick'n slow.The load difference is maybe 6-12 seconds.

I long for the day I have free money to upgrade to a new system, so many advances at the controller level....

[Fremtid.3528]

I load a lot faster with a SSD than with my old HDD but it all depends on what you got.

[Lambent.6375]

I know one thing, POF runs like trash on a HDD.When I had it on a HDD I not only had long loads times, but the but my screen would often lock up, or turn choppy.

I'm guessing the HDD had trouble keeping up with the huge POF zones.

[crepuscular.9047]

SSD cuts the map loading time by bout 50-65% (vs 7200rpm) into LA, but PoF maps are longer on average because the map files are bigger.

manufacturers massively scaled down production of 2.5" 7200rpm HDD couple of years ago, pretty much all laptops that have HDD are 5400rpm

slow load time can be pretty annoying if you are on a timer trying to get into good map for map meta or going for a boss killi.e. dredge commissar, literally 99% of the time it's dead when it spawns to loading in my camper toon on a SSD.This is especially annoying with VB's bosses, they actually spawn before the timer reaches 20min mark, I've had cases where by the time I took the chopper up there (loading screen), Matri is already dead@anet Devs, if you are reading this post, please fix VB's boss spawn timer

[Ameepa.6793]

After using SSD I would never return to use normal HDD for any MMO.

You can easily test this yourself because you can simply copy-paste the whole game between drives so it's not a big deal to which drive you download it first to.

[solfizz.5730]

@Ameepa.6793 said:After using SSD I would never return to use normal HDD for any MMO.

You can easily test this yourself because you can simply copy-paste the whole game between drives so it's not a big deal to which drive you download it first to.

Oh wow, I literally don't have to do anything other than that?

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

@solfizz.5730 said:

@Ameepa.6793 said:After using SSD I would never return to use normal HDD for any MMO.

You can easily test this yourself because you can simply copy-paste the whole game between drives so it's not a big deal to which drive you download it first to.

Oh wow, I literally don't have to do

anything

other than that?

GW2 (and original GW) are very self-contained that way, they function fine even if moved/copied etc.

[Ameepa.6793]

@solfizz.5730 said:

@Ameepa.6793 said:After using SSD I would never return to use normal HDD for any MMO.

You can easily test this yourself because you can simply copy-paste the whole game between drives so it's not a big deal to which drive you download it first to.

Oh wow, I literally don't have to do

anything

other than that?

No, except update the shortcut on your desktop of course :)

[Bloodstealer.5978]

Get bigger SSD.. HDD is sooo 1990's. Much better performance running stuff, no more disk optimising and defragging and as others have said, easy swap your GW1 / GW2 to SSD hassle free.

[killermanjaro.5670]

Makes a massive difference, I notice an average of about 20-30 seconds quicker with the game on an SSD rather than my HDD.

Although the latest Windows 10 update has screwed up my loading times, so it's no longer 'instant' now :( But support have my ticket, so hopefully they'll find a fix.

[Stalkingwolf.6035]

SSD is better, but loading times in GW2 overall are not very good.

[sorudo.9054]

the problem is that you need to have your OS on the SSD to get the difference, sadly that's the #1 problem i have....

[solfizz.5730]

I guess another question, since I'm more leaning toward installing it on my HDD as I really wouldn't have that much space on my SSD if I were to install it there (<20gb): for those who do have it on their HDD (or have experience in the past), would you say that it feels like a drag every single time you load into a new zone? Does it adversely affect other aspects of the game too? One person posted saying that it creates jitters even when you're not loading into a zone. Can anyone else confirm this for me?

[SlippyCheeze.5483]

@"solfizz.5730" said:I guess another question, since I'm more leaning toward installing it on my HDD as I really wouldn't have that much space on my SSD if I were to install it there (<20gb): for those who do have it on their HDD (or have experience in the past), would you say that it feels like a drag every single time you load into a new zone? Does it adversely affect other aspects of the game too? One person posted saying that it creates jitters even when you're not loading into a zone. Can anyone else confirm this for me?

So, some graphics are loaded lazily after zoning in: you will get the longer delay on the loading screen as you get all the static stuff, but some skill effects, finishers, character effects, etc, will be loaded dynamically, and that necessarily slows down their display in the game.

I can't say I personally noticed it causing "stuttering", but rather things drawn with default textures and/or models, or invisible, but I can't say that it wouldn't ever cause that. So: yes, it will cause at least some noticeable effects in the map as well as at the start.

However ... remember that this whole SSD everywhere thing is really quite new, and so the vast majority of players used to be loading off a hard disk perfectly happily, for years. GW2 definitely predates that, so doesn't assume an SSD. It just works a bit nicer with one, the same way most anything will when reading from disk.

[solfizz.5730]

@SlippyCheeze.5483 said:

@"solfizz.5730" said:I guess another question, since I'm more leaning toward installing it on my HDD as I really wouldn't have that much space on my SSD if I were to install it there (<20gb): for those who

do

have it on their HDD (or have experience in the past), would you say that it feels like a drag every single time you load into a new zone? Does it adversely affect other aspects of the game too? One person posted saying that it creates jitters even when you're not loading into a zone. Can anyone else confirm this for me?

So, some graphics are loaded lazily after zoning in: you will get the longer delay on the loading screen as you get all the static stuff, but some skill effects, finishers, character effects, etc, will be loaded dynamically, and that necessarily slows down their display in the game.

I can't say I personally noticed it causing "stuttering", but rather things drawn with default textures and/or models, or invisible, but I can't say that it wouldn't ever cause that. So: yes, it will cause at least some noticeable effects in the map as well as at the start.

However ... remember that this whole SSD everywhere thing is really quite new, and so the vast majority of players used to be loading off a hard disk perfectly happily, for years. GW2 definitely predates that, so doesn't

assume

an SSD. It just works a bit nicer with one, the same way most anything will when reading from disk.

Thanks for the detailed response. That makes me hesitant to want to install it to be perfectly honest. Sorry to all you guys who are rooting me on to give GW2 a try again and I'm sitting on the fence. It's just that these days my gaming has to be a bit more limited, and if I find myself frustrated at load times and the scenario this poster painted above, I may quickly regret the fact that I got back into it at all, not to mention the time I feel I would have wasted redownloading the client and playing long enough to run into these annoyances. Is that being too dramatic?

[Menadena.7482]

Is there anything on your SSD that can move to your HDD? For example, MP3 files do not usually need to be read quicker than you can listen to them. You should leave as much free space on the SSD as you can.

HDDs are best for backups and data that does not need fast storage.

[solfizz.5730]

@Menadena.7482 said:Is there anything on your SSD that can move to your HDD? For example, MP3 files do not usually need to be read quicker than you can listen to them. You should leave as much free space on the SSD as you can.

HDDs are best for backups and data that does not need fast storage.

Not really man, I have pretty much Windows 7 Professional, Adobe CC which I need for work, Overwatch, Civ 5, Dragon Ball Fighterz, and Cities Skylines as the biggest programs. I looked through each folder in the C:\ yesterday and those were it. I am considering uninstalling Civ 5 and possibly DBFZ if the next batch of DLC tomorrow proves to not be able to pique my interest, but that would free up roughly 12gb, whereas Guild Wars 2 requires 50gb.

[Malediktus.9250]

the game is only less than 40 GB at the moment, you can put it safely on that SSD. 30 GB of free space should be plenty

[SlippyCheeze.5483]

@solfizz.5730 said:

@SlippyCheeze.5483 said:

@solfizz.5730 said:I guess another question, since I'm more leaning toward installing it on my HDD as I really wouldn't have that much space on my SSD if I were to install it there (<20gb): for those who

do

have it on their HDD (or have experience in the past), would you say that it feels like a drag every single time you load into a new zone? Does it adversely affect other aspects of the game too? One person posted saying that it creates jitters even when you're not loading into a zone. Can anyone else confirm this for me?

So, some graphics are loaded lazily after zoning in: you will get the longer delay on the loading screen as you get all the static stuff, but some skill effects, finishers, character effects, etc, will be loaded dynamically, and that necessarily slows down their display in the game.

I can't say I personally noticed it causing "stuttering", but rather things drawn with default textures and/or models, or invisible, but I can't say that it wouldn't ever cause that. So: yes, it will cause at least some noticeable effects in the map as well as at the start.

However ... remember that this whole SSD everywhere thing is really quite new, and so the vast majority of players used to be loading off a hard disk perfectly happily, for years. GW2 definitely predates that, so doesn't

assume

an SSD. It just works a bit nicer with one, the same way most anything will when reading from disk.

Thanks for the detailed response. That makes me hesitant to want to install it to be perfectly honest. Sorry to all you guys who are rooting me on to give GW2 a try again and I'm sitting on the fence. It's just that these days my gaming has to be a bit more limited, and if I find myself frustrated at load times and the scenario this poster painted above, I may quickly regret the fact that I got back into it at all, not to mention the time I feel I would have wasted redownloading the client and playing long enough to run into these annoyances. Is that being too dramatic?

IDK. I mean, personally, I'd just give it a shot and see if I found it annoying. I'm not gonna tell you to do that, though. (I also have fast, unlimited Internet, so the download time isn't a big deal for me.)

I'd also say that you are wise to look at this, think "this thing would annoy me too much", and decide not to subject yourself to it. Like, it's totally sensible not to do something that'll annoy you.

I don't think it will be a problem, but I'm not you, and I can't tell you what you find "too slow" vs reasonable.

[Hashberry.4510]

Matriarch is often dead early because savvy players will camp at the spawn point so they can finish her before the zerg shows up, making her impossible to cc.