Here is a little myth I read about every now and again from SDD supremacists on BI Forum.
"Running ArmA2 from a Solid-State Drive device will give you an instant 10fps boost"So here is a test that anyone can do!
Grab a 8GB or more USB stick and copy & paste ArmA2 OA onto it.
Here I have
Lexar USB stick vs
Samsung Spin Point F3 HDD Some huge differences here with the storage speed.
The
HDD has an average transfer rate of
119 MB/secThe
USB Dongle has a pissy average transfer rate of
16 MB/secAccess time is definitely a strong point for the dongle however ArmA uses large files so I don't think it's too relevant to this test.
I will be running ArmA2 OA on mostly high settings at 720 res.
So using the editor I have set up a Zarg map with 27 idle units.
I'll load into the map with the HDD
HDD Result = 32fpsThen I load in with the USB Stick.
USB Result = 32fpsSeems there was absolutely no difference while standing around on an idle map. Only difference was the game & map loading time.
So I decided to add a bit of speed to things.
I'll now fly an A10 over the city with 27 men on the ground. I will do my very best to take the screen shots at the very same point when the A10 passes over the city at 475mph.
HDD Result = 66fpsUSB Result = 68fpsConclusion: Is getting the latest faster SDD going to make a difference on ArmA's frame rate? I'd say NO.
If there was no difference in frame rate from a HDD that is 7x faster than an inferior USB dongle then it's very highly doubtful.
Feel free to paste this on Bi Forum.