Game Loading Performance

I chose two games to show both ends of the load time spectrum. The first test is World of Warcraft, I'm simply timing how long it takes from the character selection screen to a fully loaded scene in the realm I've chosen. Fully loaded means no more popping textures or waiting for anything else to load:

The Intel X25-M does the best here, even slightly outperforming the X25-E thanks to a more consumer-optimized firmware. The two OCZ drives occupy the third and fourth places, followed by the rest of the pack. No hard drive can keep up here thanks to the superior random read speed of a SSD.

The Far Cry 2 test is simply running the default benchmark and timing how long it takes to get from clicking launch to the loaded level:

While the SSDs take the cake here, the VelociRaptor isn't far behind. Once again the two Intel drives take the lead, followed by the two OCZ drives. The Vertex and the Summit tie in performance.

Application Launch Times Final Words
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  • Hrel - Thursday, April 9, 2009 - link

    although, I have some issues which I have put in an e-mail sent to Anand; can't wait for you response.
  • Hrel - Thursday, April 9, 2009 - link

    Instead of making me dinner can you send me that test system instead??? Please!!!
  • Hrel - Thursday, April 9, 2009 - link

    I was wondering what controller the OCZ solid Series is based on??? Will I experience hiccups with that drive or not? Is the point of my question.
  • sfisher64 - Wednesday, April 8, 2009 - link

    I just purchased a Dell Latitude E6400 with a 64GB Ultra Performance Solid State Drive. Does anyone know what type of drive this is, and where it fits in the spectrum described in this article?
  • Baffo - Saturday, April 11, 2009 - link

    The Dells use the Samsung drives (you should see this on the bottom if you pull it out). However, as much as I wish this was one of the newer controllers (I have a few of these at work as well), the testing cycles demanded by Dell probably mean these are the older controllers.
  • marraco - Tuesday, April 7, 2009 - link

    This article is popular :)
  • BLHealthy4life - Monday, April 6, 2009 - link

    Intel 9.1.1.1010 (Intel) Where are these drivers? I can only find version 1007 and not 1010....

    Thanks
  • BLHealthy4life - Sunday, April 12, 2009 - link

    found it....

    Intel obviously keeps the X58 chipset drivers current for their own boards, just not other mfgs boards....

    They installed fine on my R2E..

    BL
  • irondukes - Friday, April 3, 2009 - link

    Hi-- Do SLCs suffer from performance degradation, or are the controllers pretty agressive at erasing the data since they have far longer read-write cycles? Please help! Deciding between an X25E and X25M
  • mdavies - Friday, April 3, 2009 - link

    I'm reading this about a day late - got my Patriot PE256GS25SSDR 2.5" 256GB yesterday since I'm bad about destroying hard drives. this drive, in a word, was excruciating. I'll be replacing it with one of your recommended drives today.

    Thanks

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