SC4 and SSDs

[frdrcklim]

I guess we all know by now that a game such as SC4 can only go so fast. What can make SC4 faster? Definitely not the video card. Perhaps the RAM or the CPU? But what about the storage device. Usually, the speed of the storage device doesn't really have much of an impact in improving the performance of games, but this might be different for SC4. Though my HDD isn't really fast, I'm just wondering about the new fad about SSDs. SSDs are fast but are just too expensive. Cost aside, I'm wondering about its benefits when coupled with a game like SC4. SSDs usually improve the performance of speed in terms of boot times, load times, and things like that. Don't we have that loading problem as well when we load our plugins in SC4? Clearly, we have to wait for all those plugins to load so that we can pick a lot so that we can plop it. The same also goes with the LE and similar programs. Though some people have remedied solutions by using the Datpacker or choosing only the needed dependencies, would an SSD have faired better? I'd like to hear your thoughts about this, especially from those who are using these storage devices . I'm interested to have my hands on them, when the price is right of course .

[WC_EEND]

What I can tell you is that SC4 benefits from CPUs with a higher clock speed, to prove this, I ran SC4 on my old PC (2,8GHz Pentium 4 with Hyperthreading, 1,5GB DDR RAM, Nvidia 7600GS with 256MB DDR2 VRAM) and my new one (2GHz Core2Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, Nvidia 9700M GT with 512MB GDDR3 VRAM) and it ran much smoother on my old PC, so clock speed is the most crucial factor concerning game speed (ofcourse the more plugins you have, the more your RAM becomes crucial)

edit: one year later, I upgraded to a desktop (i7-2600K OC'ed to 4,4GHz) with an SSD and the speed increase is simply huge. SC4 now loads in under a minute, loading a large tile takes about a minute if it's built, less than 30 seconds if it's empty.

[SC4BOY]

SSD's do make a difference in SOME ASPECTS of SC4, but not in its general "operating speed".. SSD's can make a difference in load times, view changes, save times etc.. what percent of your "play time" is taken by those functions? That will determine what "benefit" you will perceive. Indeed the major benefit for SC4 is FASTA FASTA FASTA wrt to your processor.. unfortunately the trend in new systems is for MORE processors and MODERATE speeds (usually in the 2.0-3.0GHz range) rather than to FAST, single-core speeds. In fact the best results are often obtained from older processors, especially those which overclock well

[frdrcklim]

SSD's do make a difference in SOME ASPECTS of SC4, but not in its general "operating speed".. SSD's can make a difference in load times, view changes, save times etc.. what percent of your "play time" is taken by those functions? That will determine what "benefit" you will perceive. Indeed the major benefit for SC4 is FASTA FASTA FASTA wrt to your processor.. unfortunately the trend in new systems is for MORE processors and MODERATE speeds (usually in the 2.0-3.0GHz range) rather than to FAST, single-core speeds. In fact the best results are often obtained from older processors, especially those which overclock well

I was actually only referring to the load times since that's what pretty much wastes the time of a player. From what you said though, it seems that SSDs do make a difference.

[Haljackey]

Upgrading to a new, powerful computer soon. 

I'm probably going to get a small SSD for it too. Should be able to run Windows 7 and SC4 rather quickly. Also I'm probably getting 12 gigs of RAM (DDR 3 1600) and a 3Ghz quad core processor (Intel i7 950). Even though SC4 only uses 1 core and is 32 bit, the system should enable it to use every bit of juice it possibly can.


However I run SC4 with the CD ROM. Does anyone know if SC4 would run faster if it was downloaded? (Like from Steam, for example.)

[Andreas]

Startup times might be a little faster, as accessing the game files for copy protection validation on the CD takes probably one or two seconds, but I think it wouldn't make much difference. I'm using an image of my Rush Hour CD in a virtual CD drive - wastes about 780 MB on the HD, but it's rather convenient.

[Haljackey]

Got my new PC with lots of RAM a SSD today.. gotta say SC4 loads in about a min, even with all my plugins. Took about 10 mins for my old PC to do that.

Loading the cities themselves saw a dramatically faster load time as well. I think now's a great time to start a new region. 

[z]

I got a pair of SSDs a year ago, and I hooked them together in a RAID 0 array.  I have about 4.2 GB of plugins, and my game now loads in about 45 seconds.

[cogeo]

However I run SC4 with the CD ROM. Does anyone know if SC4 would run faster if it was downloaded? (Like from Steam, for example.)

As Andreas said, use a virtual CD drive. You can create CD images, and map them as (virtual) CD drives. I use Paragon CD Emulator. The free version works fine for me. It does use some space on the HD (equal to the CD size), but compared to current HD capacitites, this is virtually nothing.

[frdrcklim]

I got a pair of SSDs a year ago, and I hooked them together in a RAID 0 array.  I have about 4.2 GB of plugins, and my game now loads in about 45 seconds.

you make me jealous . may i ask what's the capacity of ur ssd ?

[Haljackey]

My SSD is 120GB, enough to run Windows 7 professional (34GB) and some other programs like SC4 and all it's plugins.

My PC boots in about 30 seconds, SC4 takes less than a minute to load and large developed cities take just over a minute to load.

If you have SC4, an SSD is a considerable companion for the game!

[z]

you make me jealous . may i ask what's the capacity of ur ssd ?

In order to do a RAID 0, I figured I'd get two smaller SSDs, which cost the same as one larger one.  So my two SSDs are both 80 GB each.

[gazac48]

For the ones using SSD in Raid, remember that Windows 7 at this time does not use Trim in Raid, so you could wear out you SSD faster
If you dont know what Trim is Google it for more info, & your SSD has to have trim in firmwere to work.

[z]

Whether or not Trim is used in RAID is a function of the drive controller, not Windows 7.  Also, the lack of Trim does not cause an SSD to wear out faster; it merely causes writes to become somewhat slower over time.

[Kitsune]

I use a 15k rpm SAS drive .... SC4 runs very nicely on it. SSD's are not for me yet... I have large primary storage needs (this SAS drive is 450gb... and is the next fastest thing to SSD). My major problem is RAM... I have 6 gigs and it doesnt seem enough for what I like to do. Prolly upgrade to 18gb in the near future.

[Shark7]

Not sure if using an SSD makes any discernible difference in the speed at which SC4 runs, but from my personal experience I can tell you that load times and the smoothness of the game is improved with CPU and Memory upgrades.

Perhaps I found it more noticeable due to how major my upgrade was.  I went from a Celeron 1.8 ghz (single core) with 2 GB of memory to a I-7 Core 930 2.8 ghz with 12 GB of memory.  With that, my load times (~6 GB plugins folder) went from 20+ minutes to about 3 minutes, and the game runs much, much smoother with season changes (using seasonal flora) being far less disruptive.

However, as far as the game mechanics, there is of course no difference.  In game time progresses at the same rate it did before.  The major difference is that the 4 season changes went from a noticeable 30-40 second hiccup as the graphics changed and loaded to taking 2-3 seconds.

If you were going to upgrade for the sake of running SC4 'faster' I'd recommend a new CPU or more memory over a SSD, but that is just my opinion, take it for what it is worth.