Upgrade to a M2 SSD?

[witwas]

I currently have an older normal ssd (kingston SA400). With a max speed of around 500mbs.

DCS takes a fair amount of time to load and the in cockpit textures can take op to 5 minutes or more to load once in the game. Should it help to buy a newer M2 version ssd?

[speed-of-heat]

what are your other specs ? 

on a HDD its a definite yes, already on SSD it will improve but might be its something else slowing you down

i'm on a SSD with a 600Mbs transfer rate and i dont see anything like that sort of load time, maybe the first time i go to a map 

Edited October 23, 2024 by speed-of-heat

[witwas]

it's already an ssd and i am on a 4090 + 7800x3d

The total diskspace used by dcs is 490gb maybe i need to check this out.

[Mr_sukebe]

Be aware that there are several types of SSD.  The type you can use is dependent upon the chipset of the motherboard.

If you’re running a 7800, chances are that you have at least a B650 chipset.  
It’s appropriate to check both the chipset AND how many NVME slots you have (the ports on your motherboard that you’ll mount the NVME SSD into).  Most 650s have at least 2 slot and will support Generation 4 NVME.  
 

Do check the above first.

If you have a free slot, the grab yourself an NVME Gen4 SSD.  The newer ones have a throughout of upto 7500 Mbps.  My suggestion would be at least a 2TB drive. 
For manufacturers, my personal preference is Samsung, which seem to be reliable.

Installation is pretty simple.

Download your motherboard manual and it’ll explain the process

[speed-of-heat]

27 minutes ago, witwas said:

it's already an ssd and i am on a 4090 + 7800x3d

The total diskspace used by dcs is 490gb maybe i need to check this out.

how much RAM ?

2/3rds full should be fine assuming you havent got anything else on that disk ?

and @Mr_sukebe is correct.

[kksnowbear]

3 hours ago, Mr_sukebe said:

Be aware that there are several types of SSD.  The type you can use is dependent upon the chipset of the motherboard.

Sorry, but I have to disagree  

While it is correct to say that the motherboard chipsets only have slots/support for a certain number and type of drives that can be used 'by default', it's also not absolute.  Many  motherboards feature expansion slots that are PCIe 3.0x4 or PCIe 4.0x4.  These slots can be used (with a ~$10 adapter card) to install much more recent gen M.2 storage than the board/chipset support 'natively'.

I have fitted additional M.2s on boards that had no open M.2 slots...I've also added storage approaching speeds of PCIe 4.0 NVMe on boards that have *zero* M.2 slots on them (and don't even support PCIe 4.0).

Of course, this requires a certain amount of knowledge, and depends a lot on a number of factors that aren't covered here.

But it can be done, and it's not necessarily constrained by M.2 slots and SATA ports on the board from the factory.

To the OP:  Running DCS on a Kingston SA400 - while it is technically an SSD - it's honestly among some of the worst SSDs ever made.  It sounds as if your machine is fairly new and top-end...so why not use the (much) faster storage options it provides?  Depending on your motherboard, you could be running a drive that's 13x or even 25x faster.

That being said, other factors like RAM also need to be considered, as mentioned above...so without knowing a lot more, it's impossible to identify the exact cause of the lengthy loading times.  Also as already mentioned, I'd suggest looking at how full the disk is, as well as whether it's the only disk in the system (which is not at all optimal).

The speed of your drive is almost certainly a factor in the slower loading.  How much of the problem is due to that vs other issues depends on a lot of other factors.  The reality is that no one can accurately say that a faster drive by itself would completely cure the slow loading - there are other things that need to be considered.

Edited October 23, 2024 by kksnowbear