Flyfisherman :
That was an interesting answer, but I beg to disagree.
If you have certain s/w and play games, the load-times is of the very different kind.
For example: I have a Samsung 850 Pro 1TB (D
where most of my programs are installed, including Adobe Photoshop, Premiere, etc. and on top of that I have 3-HDDs (E: F:K
where I store the data (video, pictures, music). Plus my m2-SSD-drive 480GB (M
Actually you didn't disagree. Let's go back to the post.
"Outside
rendering, video editing and other specialized intensive applications, it won't affect your life in any way."
Of course my SSDs make a big difference in the performance.
Now, I also play games once in a while, and I can tell: that a good performance SSD will make a difference compare to a bad one, which probably will not do much better than a HDD.
Then what's the explanation as to why in blind testing over 6 weeks on a desktop that boots from either, SSD, SSHD or HD .... no one... ever ... **noticed** a difference ? There's a big difference in having folks say sit and watch a movie scene and saying "watch this closely and see if you notice anything out of place". And those watching it might find the cameraman reflected in the car's side view mirror after a few rewatches. But 99.9% of the folks watching the movie never notice anything. Same thing
If you switch it up and launch the same game off different storage media each day, users will not generally notice any differences. We saw that on the 6 week desktop test, we say that on the 6 week laptop test. Played Witcher 3 off SSHD and SSD, no **observable" difference difference and i was aware of the switch.
The point is yes, if you use a stopwatch you can find differences. But people leading real lives don't notice those differences. No legal secretary ever typed an extra brief in a workday because she had an SSD. No gamer ever reached a further save point because they had an SSD.
Example:
A. I finish up some work, and am ready for some "me time". I launch game, log in and it takes 20 seconds for my character to be able to move when launched off my SSD.
B. I finish up some work, and am ready for some "me time". I launch game, log in and it takes 22 seconds for my character to be able to move when launched off my SSHD.
1. Monday, I launched the game and ran downstairs to grab "a cup a cawfee" ... took 1:25
2. Tuesday, I launched game, opened browser and pout the 3 web sites on browser tans w/ maps and other data I use while playing ... having finished a mission last night, I go about looking at the maps to where I remember next mission lead.
3. Wednesday, I launch the game and while it's loading, I take the wireless headphones off the wall , open the ear piece cover, take out the wireless dongle, plug it in, put earphones on my head, open discord, send a message to my mates and after 45 seconds I'm ready to play.
As in the analogy given it doesn't matter that my Porsche tops out at 185 mph ... because we are not on a test track with nothing to interfere in how fast the car reached the finish line. This is 'real life" where the user does not res[pond as fast as the machine is capable and which is why "in blind testing" where folks are going about their every day lives, no one notices.
When SSDs firt came out I was approached by a technical assistant to put an SSD in his machine because it "would make him more productive". I said "show me', which threw him off his game and asked how. Since his job was to hep me make infrastructure decisions by data collection, I said do a cost analysis. So ee did so.
His argument was that he would ave 15 seconds of boot time every day and gave me:
260 work days x 15 seconds x 3 years = 3.25 hours
Well... that didn't cut it cause "in real live" it's 230 work days because vacation, sick and holidays.
It also didn't cut it cause it's not 15 seconds, it's about a third of that (5.6 seconds)
So we talking 1.2 hours and at his pay rate and associated overhead $36 wasn't enough to pay for an SSD. Then he came back with savings in opening and closing AutoCAD files ... So we took my personal machine and opened up a really large ACAD file, one about 8 times as large as any we had on our server.
SSD took 38 seconds
SSHD took 38 seconds
HD took 38 seconds
But the more important thing was this .... when he arrived in the office, he'd take off his jacket and undertake one or more of the following:
a) walk over to coffee machine and make coffee
b) eat his b'fast picked up from the deli on his way in
c) Talk w/ "the girls" about the the radio host's "catch a cheater show" that they all listen to on way to work
d) Water cooler chatter
When I arrive, I start the PC and then spend 10-20 minutes returning phone calls, checking my inbox.
So how fast the machine boots, in real life" is really of no consequence. You can use that time staring at the screen or using a stopwatch to reaffirm how fast your SSD is, or you can utilize that time to do something productive. I can stare at the screen and marvel that my game loaded 2 seconds faster or I can get my web sites loaded, my headphones on, and be actually ready to play by the time the game loads.
On top of that ... most folks don't have 2 TB of SSD space and if the game isn't on it, then you are not realizing any benefit from having one. So if like most, you have that 250 GB SSD, you can only fit 232 GB of files. Leaving the recommended free space, you're under 200 GB. Windows and applications are going to eat 100 - 150 GB, leaving 50 to 100 GB of game space. GTAV eats 95 GB ... Witcher 3 eats 40 GB. So with the typical user's game library, not that much actually gets to take advantage of that SSD.
I have been playing a game for some years now and it is self contained ... requires no install. All the files exist in the game folder, no files in windows and no entries in user directory or registry entries. So I can basically copy / paste the game folder on any storage device, double click and launch the game. The time it takes to get to the point where I can move my character if the same on any device because the handshaking with server takes longer than loading the game files.
I played Witcher 3 twice w/ different character builds ... I have two accounts on my desktop, one install was on SSD by user "jack" and other with user JackN on SSHD. There was no noticeable difference on either toon. Even if doing video editing ... with Windows and applications on a 250 GB SSD, you really need that 2nd SSD for a scratch drive if you want to speed that up. As we saw with AutoCAD there is no advantage, but if I was rendering, i certainly would have that 2nd SSD for that purpose because then I could realize a actual increase in productivity
In short, the same drive to work analogy applies ... no one would argue that my SUV is capable of driving 30 miles as fast as my old Porsche, but, because of other factors, no matter which I drive, I get to work at the same time. Traffic and speed limits get in the way of realizing the Porsche's advantage, real life gets in the way of the SSD.