DCSW on an SSD

[neroroxxx]

Hi guys, i'm ready to upgrade to an SSD, my only issue is that i'm not sure about the capacity.

 

since i'm running DCSW on a mac and i'm getting the SSD to keep both operating systems i would have to get a 512GB SSD to be able to handle both so i gotta spend close to $600 when i could instead spend half of that for a 256GB SSD and save the other half towards upgrading to a mac pro later this year if they are refreshed.

 

So what i'm wondering is:

 

#1 Will the FPS improve or will it just be the loading time for missions?

 

#2 is the improvement worth $300.00?

 

My plan is to upgrade to a mac pro since i will have more options for Graphics Cards but i won't upgrade until they are refreshed which hopefully will happen later this year, at that time i will sell this iMac i have and get an ssd for the mac os and one for windows to run dcs world along with HDDs for the content on the mac.

 

Thank you in advance for any advice!

[agrasyuk]

running OS from 128GB SSD. simulators have their own separate 120GB SSD. this way there is plenty of room for everything .FPS will not improve. loading times will however and for me thats alone worth the expense. i'm somewhat patient person but for some reason waiting those extra 10-20 seconds drives nuts!

 

running DCS on mac? why?

[Lange_666]

1: No, no improvement FPS wise, loading times will be a lot shorter just as loading stutter will (if you have those).

 

2: That is one you have to answer yourself regarding question 1. (For me personally: No)

[Vlerkies]

No fps improvement as the other said, but running an operating system and or you sim off a ssd is worth it imho.

 

Boot and load times are blitzy!

[JG14_Smil]

Fastest boot since Win3.1. I'll never be without one again.

[EtherealN]

I'd say SSD's are like mechanical keyboards and TrackIR: you'll happily make do without them and be none the worse off for it really - until you try one, then you don't want to be without it.

 

I held out for quite a while, but got myself a performance SSD (see sig) in October. Well worth it. Most hilarious moment so far was loading screens in Metro 2033 - loads levels so fast that it's done before the narrator that's meant to entertain you during the load never has time to talk... :D

[neroroxxx]

hmmm I may just hold off on the SSD for windows, i think i'll go with a 216GB to run the Mac OS and then once i upgrade to a mac pro i will get an SSD just for windows, part of issue im having is when i sell this machine i will likely sell it with the SSD installed and i don't want to raise the price by that much because it would be a lot harder to sell it.

 

Thanks guys!!

[Subliminal-SS]

Ive Run DCS World on a PCIe SSD Standard OCZ Vertex 3 SSD and to be honest most of the time I had it sitting on my Caviar Black Drive. I often chip and change games that are on SSD.

 

Sometimes I would load DCS world and I never really thought oh this is really slow when going from the spinner. and normally going back you notice more!

 

White Textures are the worst thing and what I got my SSDs for. Arma 2, FSX. But im going to put my neck on the line and say I think the render engine is better in DCS world at combating this.

 

Maybe when we get the new scenery though I think it would make a much bigger difference then. Especially if the ground textures are Larger and we get more unique textures.

[Erforce]

You know, i've promised myself to buy the first PPC G6 tower and "Pown" every single PC user in the world. But IBM/freescale made CELL for PS3 instead.

First Gen MacPro was outstanding. I can't say that for 4+ versions.

As i said somewhere else, if you look at intel's roadmap, you will be surprised that there's nothing good for Xeons this year. No DDR4, and probably no Haswell but ivy EP instead...

As it will probably be N-cores platform, it will be under-clocked.

But, i secretly wish Cookie will build an affordable monster, like Jobs did in 2006.

 

For SSDs, Yes, go for 2 smaller SSDs than 1 bigger.

Basically, mine is 256GB, almost every games are on it, plus Win7u (largest install). I'm still almost 100Gb free.

 

Depends what you're doing on Mac, maybe you would go for a smaller SSD (128Gb), because they're less games, and Videos doesn't need SSDs (even ProResHQ)

The main reason i've bought an SSD, is because DCS is always loading something, making you HDD scratching till you become crazy.

 

The loading time, depending DCS version (buggy or not) is i-n-s-a-n-e.

 

My Mac partition is still on 2Tb HDD and still fast booting/loading. Experience is still great.

 

You might also need to put your emulated bios in AHCI mode, instead of IDE on bootcamp (otherwise your SSD will loose functions and be limited to 200- Mb/s). Send me a mail if you need help on that, it's not quite easy.

[martinistripes]

since i'm running DCSW on a mac...

 

Sorry to interrupt, but can just ask very briefly whats required to do this. My colleague here has a Macbook Pro and I've got him very interested in DCS. Is it just a case of buying a full version of Windows 7 or 8 and then running Boot Camp set-up?

 

Did you come across any issues installing/running DCS World?

 

EDIT: I'm guessing it looks super awesome on a Retina Display with the extra resolution. And better for spotting targets.

Edited January 18, 2013 by martinistripes

[Erforce]

Hi Ryan, i don't think you're interrupting but anyway :

Yes, usually you run DCS via bootcamp, not VMware/Parallels for maximum power. At this moment, it's clear Win7 has a better popularity than Win8. but i can't say much.

There is no problem as you just have a (pseudo-)Native PC like others.

BUT

Retina Display, basically it's just tinier pixels. You still have a 13 or 15" in front of you. You'd be better with a 30" CinemaDisplay ;)

More you have screens, the better for immersion.

Moreover, remember mobiles GPU are not as powerful as desktop version. Add that a 2500+ pixel-wide...

Think about one thing too, the screen is low on desktop. If you have a stick ahead you, basically, the screen will be masked.

 

On a MBP, you have a compact keyboard. It WILL cause issues in DCS. The Apple Extended KB usb is one of the best KB out there, it supports Break/pause Key, has additional numkeys, but when i play on my MBP, the small KB just doesn't do the job. (no Right CTRL, no page up/dn keys etc...)

 

To sum up :

Maybe he would try DCS-W (SU 25) first on a cheap old WinXP copy ? ;)

If he wants to invest more time, he will look into a external screen, hoping the GPU can follow without burning.

What i say is based on previous experience. I don't have a Retina MBP ATM.

[neroroxxx]

You know, i've promised myself to buy the first PPC G6 tower and "Pown" every single PC user in the world. But IBM/freescale made CELL for PS3 instead.

First Gen MacPro was outstanding. I can't say that for 4+ versions.

As i said somewhere else, if you look at intel's roadmap, you will be surprised that there's nothing good for Xeons this year. No DDR4, and probably no Haswell but ivy EP instead...

As it will probably be N-cores platform, it will be under-clocked.

But, i secretly wish Cookie will build an affordable monster, like Jobs did in 2006.

 

For SSDs, Yes, go for 2 smaller SSDs than 1 bigger.

Basically, mine is 256GB, almost every games are on it, plus Win7u (largest install). I'm still almost 100Gb free.

 

Depends what you're doing on Mac, maybe you would go for a smaller SSD (128Gb), because they're less games, and Videos doesn't need SSDs (even ProResHQ)

The main reason i've bought an SSD, is because DCS is always loading something, making you HDD scratching till you become crazy.

 

The loading time, depending DCS version (buggy or not) is i-n-s-a-n-e.

 

My Mac partition is still on 2Tb HDD and still fast booting/loading. Experience is still great.

 

You might also need to put your emulated bios in AHCI mode, instead of IDE on bootcamp (otherwise your SSD will loose functions and be limited to 200- Mb/s). Send me a mail if you need help on that, it's not quite easy.

 

Well i ended up getting the 256GB for OSX since it's my bread and butter, just now after doing more research i ended up ordering a 128gb SSD with an optical drive kit to instal it on my imac, that drive will run windows since the optical drive on the 2011 imac is a SATA II while the hard drive and other ssd are both SATA III (i got a samsung 840 pro 256gb for OSX)

 

My main worry was that you can't instal windows on bootcamp from an external cd drive, but now i found a bunch of articles of people doing this for macbook airs and the new macbook pros and people followed the same method on the iMacs after replacing the optical drive with an SSD

 

I'm hoping everything will go well, in the end i saved about $150 by getting a 256gb and a 128gb ssds altho i ended up getting and additional backup hard drive.

 

Hopefully I'll get some better performance out of DCSW for now i'm just excited and terrified of having to do the upgrade myself.

[neroroxxx]

Sorry to interrupt, but can just ask very briefly whats required to do this. My colleague here has a Macbook Pro and I've got him very interested in DCS. Is it just a case of buying a full version of Windows 7 or 8 and then running Boot Camp set-up?

 

Did you come across any issues installing/running DCS World?

 

EDIT: I'm guessing it looks super awesome on a Retina Display with the extra resolution. And better for spotting targets.

 

Erforce pretty much told you the whole story, my imac has a 2560 x 1440 resolution display, changing it to 1080 doesn't make a difference in fps so i would assume that macbook would work ok, installing windows on a mac with bootcamp is pretty straight forward, i actually bought the windows 7 system builder which cost $100 but it only works on this one machine because i think it's linked to my motherboard, you should get your friend to instal windows first then the free DCSW like Erforce said.

[neroroxxx]

Hey guys, just a quick update, i successfully installed the 2 SSD's on my iMac, so far i've only set up some of the OS X stuff, next on the list is to instal window on the SSD i replaced the optical drive with. Hopefully it'll work good