[SOLVED] Can a HDD cause stutters in my game?

[Lucas G]

I know similar questions like this have been answered in the past but my case is a bit different. I'll give some background; I downloaded BF1 in my SSD and it ran fine. The game ran on ultra settings with no hassle, no stutters no nothing. I then got a HDD from a really old computer and got it setup on my PC since i needed some more storage, I then moved BF1 to the HDD and after playing I realized that there were so many stutters when I played the game, even having to crank the settings down to High to not much help. I realized too that whenever the HDD was in use some audible scratches could be heard. Is the HDD the problem?


PC specs:

CPU: Ryzen 5 2400G
GPU: RTX 570 4G
RAM: G.Skill Trident Z 16gb DDR4 3200Mhz

 

[boju]

Certainly is and you proved it. Old and sounds (excuse the pun) no good. Get another ssd for more space. Large games like bf (open world) with lots of iops (in and out operations) is best on ssds with fast random access times.

 

[Dean0919]

It's definitely your HDD. Basically your provided all the necessary information that proves that HDD is the culprit here and yes, HDD can definitely cause lag and stutter. When HDD is 100% loaded, everything lags in computer. Also note that when you have connected HDD to your computer that has SSD with OS, startup time will become slower, even if OS is on SSD and not on HDD.

 

[boju]

Also note that when you have connected HDD to your computer that has SSD with OS, startup time will become slower, even if OS is on SSD and not on HDD.

Boot partition on hdd might slow things but mostly os files will be on ssd. What Win10 install likes to do having multiple drives connected is put boot partition else where and if that was the other drive being a hdd then boot maybe be slower but won't be huge. Advice is only have destination drive connected when installing Windows.

 

[Dean0919]

Boot partition on hdd might slow things but mostly os files will be on ssd. What Win10 install likes to do having multiple drives connected is put boot partition else where and if that was the other drive being a hdd then boot maybe be slower but won't be huge. Advice is only have destination drive connected when installing Windows.

I'm telling you from my own experience:

I have SSD where OS is installed and have several HDDs too. When HDDs are connected boot time (time from turning on PC to the Windows) is quite slow (30 seconds or so), it stops at motherboard logo for several seconds (probably trying to read from drives) and when I disconnected HDDs and left only SSD, it was way much faster boot, like in a seconds and there was no delay during the motherboard logo. Also, when one of my HDDs died, if it was connected to the computer, PC wouldn't boot to Windows at all. It was stuck in an endless Windows loading mode and it happens to any computer if you connect that damaged drive. So, apparantly when we boot our computers system is trying to read from all our connected drives and the more drives and more HDDs we have, boot time will be obviously slower. That's what I was trying to say. So, if OP leaves only SSD in his system and disconnects that HDD, boot time will be much faster too.

 

[boju]

Bios scans connected drives i know that. Have never experienced slow downs and have had ssd + hdd combos. Once passed initial post where drives are scanned, from there shouldn't affect boot time once windows begins to load. It's only during post and well if hdd is bad that doesn't help.

 

[Dean0919]

Bios scans connected drives i know that. Have never experienced slow downs and have had ssd + hdd combos. Once passed initial post where drives are scanned, from there shouldn't affect boot time once windows begins to load. It's only during post and well if hdd is bad that doesn't help.

I never sad I had slow downs after booting. All I said was that if additional drives (HDDs) are connected, system loadout is slower (because bios is trying to read from them) and told OP to keep this in mind.

 

[boju]

I never sad I had slow downs after booting. All I said was that if additional drives (HDDs) are connected, system loadout is slower (because bios is trying to read from them) and told OP to keep this in mind.

Sure enough but isn't really a worry is it.

 

[geofelt]

A ssd is some 40x faster in reading small random files.
I might suspect that your game needs to load some small files like graphics textures and that will cause a delay.

It is also possible that an old HDD has many relocated sectors making access times longer.

Time, I think to replace with a ssd. Even a slow cheap QLC SSD will perform way better.