Track loading times

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by zenrael, May 23, 2013.

  1. zenrael

    zenrael Registered

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    Are they as absurd for everybody else as they are for me?

    While watching a few laps someone had posted on youtube, i noticed their track opened very quickly. Mine all take around a minute to fully open, including a brief 'freezing' of the screen once the track has actually loaded.

    If its normal, i can live with it - but seeing that video worried me a little.

    I have 2xSLI, 6gb ram, a quad 960 and this is all being loaded from an SSD.

    Cheers,

    John
     
  2. kaptainkremmen

    kaptainkremmen Registered

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    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjzfpQuBsII

    6 minutes in. My tracks load in a similar time to this guy. I have 2 500gb Sata drives Striped. Rfactor and all its data is installed on those drives. Windows is on another Sata drive (old and slow).

    Higher settings will increase the loading times. How much memory do the GFX cards have?
     
  3. 88mphTim

    88mphTim racesimcentral.net

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    First time loading a track, or every time? First time files are built.
     
  4. tjc

    tjc Registered

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    My loading times are about average I`d say...

    Not rapid but by no means slow. I put it down to my hardware being old and needing updated and with that hardware, running settings pretty much maxed out. Also, as Tim has said, first time always takes a bit of time...

    @ kaptain

    What do you mean by "striped"?
     
  5. Minibull

    Minibull Member

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    RAID 0 setup with 2 (or more...) drives. The data is split and written to the drives. Say with 2 drives, half the data goes on one, half on the other. Gives quicker access times.
     
  6. kaptainkremmen

    kaptainkremmen Registered

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    I'm old. It was so much easier when it was just Stripes, Mirrors and JBOD etc :)
     
  7. tjc

    tjc Registered

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    Appreciate the rundown Minibull...

    :)
     
  8. kotakotakota

    kotakotakota Registered

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    Mine takes a couple minutes. No surprise since I'm running a 5400 rpm drive from 6 or 7 years ago. I usually use the time to check my email :p
     
  9. DurgeDriven

    DurgeDriven Banned

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    Every time you change HDR or FXAA it lags ......... not just a new track load.



    hey guys how is the bang for buck for your big expensive SSD ? lmao


    Blue Sata at 1/0th the price is barely a few seconds slower.
     
  10. DurgeDriven

    DurgeDriven Banned

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    I do not want to go off topic but I think this has some bearing on the discussion.

    A lot of you have SSD for years.

    A lot of you think because they never need fragmentation software they never slow down.

    That is so incorrect.

    The more a SSD is written to the more it will slow.
    Don't believe me but if you had done a ATTO benchmark with your brand new SSD
    and a year later you would see for yourself.

    So over time that extra speed you pay for is disappearing to the point when you decide to do a fresh Operating System
    What the ??? .............you will see your WEI Rating drop ie: from 7.9 to 7.6 or 7.2 to 7.0

    That is because your SSD is now running slower........ a fresh format will not fix it ... :p


    Good thing is there is a way to bring your SSD back to brand new transfer rates !@!

    It is called Parted Magic , it will zero -write your SSD and return it to maximum performance in a few minutes !@!


    Okay the pertinent point is ............................. >>> ZERO BLOCK WRITE

    This means you will need to transfer everything off your SDD and reinstall OS and anything will not run standalone ( like Photoshop 3dsmax etc etc)

    A lot of work !

    So my advice if you want to use a bigger SSD for a OS and partition for sims over a few years use Image Software so you can restore your OS after a zero-write in a few minutes ( .....mine takes 3.5 )


    Or one day it will not just be a new track loads slower , everything on your PC will .............

    Peace
     
  11. 88mphTim

    88mphTim racesimcentral.net

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    That's good info. Failure rates are quite a concern, too, from what I've seen.
     
  12. Isarmann

    Isarmann Registered

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    If you mean failure rates due to use itself, that is, outrunning the maximum number of writes... although that's a theoretical concern, if you run the numbers for most people's use, it works out to about 5-7 years for some; 2-3 years minimum.

    So for each person, the question is, how long would you run a high-performance drive anyway, before it fell way off the curve? 5 years? 10? I think a lot of us replace something like that oftener, even if it has not failed.

    For me, anyway, that put the longevity question to bed. They do have a write limit, yes, but to a first approximation, you'll never see it. Most drives are out of use again, replaced with something better, before they ever hit that limit.
     
  13. privatebrian

    privatebrian Registered

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    DD, this is fantastic info mate, and what your best at...nice post!
     
  14. Radar

    Radar Registered

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    It is still Stripes. Striping of HDDs. Not Striped as in naked :) I think he meant this.
     
  15. Radar

    Radar Registered

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    Correct. I've seen massive failure rates on SSD. I'm in govt and see 1000's of SSDs and 100s fail. small % yes, but still too large for my personal liking. I'll stick with my 10,000 rpm and 15,000 rpm drive any day.
     
  16. 88mphTim

    88mphTim racesimcentral.net

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    I'm talking unexpected failures. I'm purposely avoiding SSD for that reason alone.
     
  17. Minibull

    Minibull Member

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    Good advice, but for very old SSD's only. Pretty much every SSD now supports TRIM, where the drive monitors what blocks are no longer in use, and returns them to a zero state in its downtime, so the nice new "fresh" blocks are available for writing. Can help to extend drive life a little bit too.

    SSD's will wear themselves out over time, simply due to wear from data writing. They do have redundant/"spare" flash chips onboard, so you do have a bit of safeguard for things going wrong. But I think the average age being seen now is getting to the 4+ year mark provided someone keeps their drive in a good state. Ideally, you want to keep the drive around half full, so it is able to perform wear leveling and cycle the data around the free blocks. As mentioned above, most people will have retired their old drive by then anyway.
    I remember seeing figures for average HDD lifespans, and they were around the 4 year mark. Not too bad really.

    Single Level Cell SSD's would be ideal, but very expensive. I think Intel may offer some very small ones. They have a very long lifespan in comparison to the cheap Multi level cell, which is what is used on most all current drives.

    Defragging your SSD won't help at all for speeds and performance, but in some cases, it can help for data recovery. If items are clustered together, you may have a better chance at pulling usuable data off a broken drive. Of course, wear leveling scatters the data around. Wouldn't be worth it in my book, besides, you should have backups anyway XD
     
  18. Jim Beam

    Jim Beam Registered

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    your sounding old school right there ;)
     
  19. 88mphTim

    88mphTim racesimcentral.net

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    :D heheh
     
  20. Saabjock

    Saabjock Registered

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    Moving the OS's temp folder to a mechanical drive, supplying your computer with enough RAM for all task and turning off the defragment option on those SSD drives also goes a long way to preserving their lifespan.
    I can't count the number of times I've had to point out turning off defrag on their expensive SSD. People simply forget.
     

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