solved external hard drive performance

mla306 · February 23

Hi, my C drive is full and I can't download the new map updates. I have an external E drive and I copied the entire game on the external drive. My concern is what, if any impacts, will there be on the game performance from playing entirely off an external hard drive?

Any thoughts?

Thanks

MLA306

Flappie · February 23

It is not recommended to store DCS on an external drives, for two main reasons:

Transfer speed. DCS reads a lot of files during flights. A relatively slow file transfer can cause stutters.
USB disconnecting (rather a rare issue, but you don't want it to happen during flights).

You can still give it a try and see what you get.

Rudel_chw · February 23

2 hours ago, mla306 said:

Hi, my C drive is full and I can't download the new map updates. I have an external E drive and I copied the entire game on the external drive. My concern is what, if any impacts, will there be on the game performance from playing entirely off an external hard drive?

You already copied the entire game, why don't you simply test it by launching DCS, to see if its performance is good enough for you?

mla306 · February 24

Yes I tried it yesterday. It definitely loads slower and was a little choppy....of course at the most inopportune time. I have 2 internal drives a C and D. The entire game won't fit on either single drive. Is there any way to say put the game engine on the C drive and the maps on the D drive? I haven't been able to find an option to change where the downloads go? This would help if I could split the game between the 2 internal drives?

Thoughts?

Oh and thanks for the quick replies...much appreciated.

Rudel_chw · February 24

11 minutes ago, mla306 said:

Is there any way to say put the game engine on the C drive and the maps on the D drive?

Yes, you can make a hardlink for the Maps folder, so that it points seamlessly to a folder on the other drive. The default name for the original folder is:

C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Mods\terrains

you can create on D a destination folder, for simplicity I suggest keeping an identical folder hierarchy, only that its on the other drive, like:

D:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Mods\terrains

The command to create the link is mklink /J terrains "D:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Mods\terrains"

You will need to delete the terrains folder on C (after you moved its content to D), as the link will take the place of the folder.

silverdevil · February 24

@mla306 @Rudel_chw is spot on as always. there a GUI version based on MLINK i saw in another topic. looks promising. just in case command line is daunting for you.

https://github.com/arnobpl/SymlinkCreator

DCoffey · February 24

might be a good time to upgrade HD to SSD if not already, several come with software that allows you to copy existing drive to new larger drive then simply swap them out.

mla306 · February 25

Is that command in the system Command Prompt or is it done somewhere inside DCS?

Rudel_chw · February 25

it's on windows command prompt, if you are not comfortable with this kind of operations please get help from a more experienced friend, as bad linking can impair your DCS

Beirut · February 25

On 2/23/2025 at 3:34 PM, Flappie said:

It is not recommended to store DCS on an external drives, for two main reasons:

Transfer speed. DCS reads a lot of files during flights. A relatively slow file transfer can cause stutters.

USB disconnecting (rather a rare issue, but you don't want it to happen during flights).

You can still give it a try and see what you get.

Do you think there is a performance gap between an SSD and an NVME drive?

I have DCS on a dedicated 1TB NVME but am considering a 2TB SSD.

twistking · February 25

28 minutes ago, Beirut said:

Do you think there is a performance gap between an SSD and an NVME drive?

There will be, but i doubt that it would really matter a lot. My PC only has SATA II and i don't feel that it affects DCS apart from loading times being a bit longer...
If DCS has to wait for the drive during runtime (which should not happen often), you'll get stutters no matter what bandwidth you have...

Edited February 25 by twistking

fagulha · February 25

On 2/25/2025 at 7:21 PM, Beirut said:

Do you think there is a performance gap between an SSD and an NVME drive?

I have DCS on a dedicated 1TB NVME but am considering a 2TB SSD.

"Do you think there is a performance gap between an SSD and an NVME drive?"

Yes.

I use 5 SSD´s and 2 of them are NVME GEN4, one for Windows and the other for DCS, previously i had DCS in a SATA SSD, so, from my experience if possible buy another NVME.

Tested the speeds with Crystal Disk Mark and with the SATA SSD´s i get +- 450 MB/s (Read) and with the NVME`s i get between 4,500 MB/s (Read) and 6,500 MB/s (Read).

If you motherboard supports NVME GEN4 go for it.

Edited February 26 by fagulha
Typo

twistking · February 25

19 minutes ago, fagulha said:

Tested the speeds with Crystal Disk Mark and with the SATA SSD´s i get +- 450 MB/s (Read) and with the NVME`s i get between 4,500 MB/s (Read) and 6,500 MB/s (Read).

If you motherboard supports NVME GEN4 go for it.

Do you think that DCS streams data with more than 450MB/s??? A few years ago i ran DCS from an HDD at around 60MB/s and streaming seemed to hold up ok, only load times were terrible...

Edited February 25 by twistking

fagulha · February 25

24 minutes ago, twistking said:

Do you think that DCS streams data with more than 450MB/s??? A few years ago i ran DCS from an HDD at around 60MB/s and streaming seemed to hold up ok, only load times were terrible...

I did not said, or think, that DCS streams more/less than 450MB/s. NVME´s are just a best option overall.

Either way my DCS loads significantly faster than before.

mla306 · February 25

Sorry to be a pain. It looks like I don't have quite enough space on the D drive for the terrain folder. If I leave the game engine on the C drive and mklink to the terrain folder on my external E hard drive (which has lots of storage), will that impact performance?

Flappie · February 25

59 minutes ago, mla306 said:

will that impact performance?

I've never tried that, but that is a possibility. If you don't see any performance hit, you're good to go.

But if you start witnessing issues you weren't witnessing before, you'll know the cause.

Baldrick33 · February 25

1 hour ago, mla306 said:

Sorry to be a pain. It looks like I don't have quite enough space on the D drive for the terrain folder. If I leave the game engine on the C drive and mklink to the terrain folder on my external E hard drive (which has lots of storage), will that impact performance?

I tried having a couple of terrains on an HDD with mklinks and the performance hit is very noticeable, the disk access is on 100% when loading for ages. Plus it hits 100% and causes stutters in flight.

Rudel_chw · February 25

1 hour ago, mla306 said:

Sorry to be a pain. It looks like I don't have quite enough space on the D drive for the terrain folder.

Then the best option is to replace your drive with a bigger one, even if you get to split your terrains on individual drives, it will be just a short term solution as your storage needs clearly are not being met by your current drives.

Beirut · February 26

16 hours ago, fagulha said:

"Do you think there is a performance gap between an SSD and an NVME drive?"

Yes.

I use 5 SSD´s and 2 of them are NVME GEN4, one for Windows and the other for DCS, previously i had DCS in a SATA SSD, so, from my experience if possible buy another NVME.

If you motherboard supports NVME GEN4 go for it.

Tested the speeds with Crystal Disk Mark and with the SATA SSD´s i get +- 450 MB/s (Read) and with the NVME`s i get between 4,500 MB/s (Read) and 6,500 MB/s (Read).

If you motherboard supports NVME GEN4 go for it.

I think I have a Gen 3 MB. I'm happy with the game performance, but I need a new drive and was curious about the differences.

mla306 · March 3

Thanks for the help everyone. I went with a NVME 4TB SSD drive. I can't believe the difference in the quality of the graphics.....its made a huge improvement.....and now after I save a few more toonies (that's Canadian money) I'll be able to buy the Kola map!!

Again, thanks for all the help! Love this game!!

Rudel_chw · March 3

20 minutes ago, mla306 said:

after I save a few more toonies (that's Canadian money) I'll be able to buy the Kola map!!

wait for the spring sale, around March 13th, just in case it is discounted

Rudel_chw · March 7

On 3/3/2025 at 5:55 PM, Rudel_chw said:

wait for the spring sale, around March 13th, just in case it is discounted

seems the spring sale started earlier this year, and Kola is at less than US$ 50 now.

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