23 replies to this topic

[MarcinX]

I want to change my old standard HDD 7200 RPM to SSD. My choice is OCZ Vertex 4 128GB. I read spec. of this drive and it is on SATA3. I of course have SATA2. Actually on old drive i have some problem with loading textures and from time to time my screen freeze for some short amount of time.
My question is, if i buy new drive, do i see any improvement in smoothness of game on SATA2 (rest of my computer is good enough to play smooth on highest details)? And how much i lose in performance to SATA3?

[GrapeKoolaid]

MarcinX, on 08 January 2013 - 08:07 PM, said:

I want to change my old standard HDD 7200 RPM to SSD. My choice is OCZ Vertex 4 128GB. I read spec. of this drive and it is on SATA3. I of course have SATA2. Actually on old drive i have some problem with loading textures and from time to time my screen freeze for some short amount of time.
My question is, if i buy new drive, do i see any improvement in smoothness of game on SATA2 (rest of my computer is good enough to play smooth on highest details)? And how much i lose in performance to SATA3?

You wont see any performance with this game IMO.  I am using an older SSD that only uses sata2 and for most games there is a noticable difference loading times but when it comes to gameplay performance (while in an instance) you will most likely not see an improvement in your frames per second.  SSD's are nice for load and boot times of programs but in my experience are worth anything if you are making the purchase for increase FPS in game.

[m4st0d0n]

The drive will perform good enough with SATA2 to make it worth, don't worry. Diablo 3 streams content from the drive, so playing Diablo 3 from SSD removes all annoying lags and lockups when you start a game session (and every time new content is loaded). Though as GrapeKoolaid said, you won't get a meaningful increase in average fps.

I'd say go for it, install your OS (Win 7 at least) on SSD, and put the game(s) you actively play on the SSD. You'll love it, even if just for the painless load times.

Edited by m4st0d0n, 08 January 2013 - 08:58 PM.

[Kring]

Got the exact same SSD as you´re looking for.. Can only say good things about it, but the best is that you dont have to wait 1-2 minutes for your computer to start, so you can open Diablo >.<

About the screen-freezes, i still get them, don´t think its possible to avoid those >.<

[Oxidys]

an SSD CAN increase the stability of your FPS even if you do not load D3 on the drive to begin with, even better if you load the game on it.

every time windows wants to do something and it spools up an HD, your computer will hang up for a split second.  and depending on the overall speed of your PC, that may not even be precievable, or increadiblly long/often/annoying.

getting any SSD at all and loading windows on it is a very good upgrade for any system.  i have always built my PC's with gaming in mind and never looked into an SSD because load times didnt really matter to me.  after getting one, even with only having windows on it and my games on another bigger HDD i can notice amazing subtle differences.  games that actually do get loaded on my SSD dont get even get load screens anymore...

though realistically, i suspect your issue is the lack of either RAM or video memory.  leaning more toward video memory.

Edited by Oxidys, 08 January 2013 - 09:32 PM.

[GingerAnger]

I have an ssd (Crucial m4 128gb) and while Windows7 and other games like BF3 loading pretty damn fast, I also get the screen freezes in D3. I'm even running the game in low detail (on a system with 16gb RAM, AMD 6950, Core i5 2500k) and it hasn't helped much.

[Vger]

I found the performance improvements to Diablo III when installing it on my SSDs were much lower than most other games.  For example, World of Warcraft loads MUCH faster on an SSD than a regular hard drive, and same with things like Skyrim and Borderlands 2 and Mass Effect 3, but with Diablo the load times are already so fast that it's hardly noticeable.

[Speaker]

The screen freezing you are getting will probably go away once you upgrade to an ssd, but if your motherboard only uses sata 2 you should save your money and get something cheaper like the OCZ Vertex 2.  You won't be able to benefit from the faster speed of the vertex 4 on sata 2.

Edited by Speaker, 08 January 2013 - 11:15 PM.

[misiceman]

On mine all i get really is a slight decrease in load times for the session and the individual zones (noticable vs my wife's HDD drive on her machine).

But quite frankly the savings here compared to BF3, Skyrim, etc, are quite small.

Long on short, is it better yes.... by huge no.... is it worth it, I think so. And the side benefit of Skyrim or shooters loading faster is the real cake (and OS).

[StoneTheRock]

I was running d3 on my old sata I HDD until I bought an OCZ vertex 4 128gb. Before, I always had massive fps lag everytime I entered a game(especially noticeable if it was the first game I ran after starting d3) and usually only ended far into the first zone or when I died(wich becuase of the fps happened quite often). Now, the game runs like charm.

However the performance gains were most notable in other games. For instance in WOW my loading times have decreased and my low end fps have become higher and more stable under heavy loading. I do not see an increase in max fps however.

[Bodycount1]

I'm not rich like the rest of you so my WD Caviar 7200RPM 16MB Cache drive will have to do.

If you have Vista or Win7.. make sure you turn on Superfetch.  It's supposed to learn your habits and load programs pre-demand.  I also use a 4GB readyboost USB drive which kind of helps.  Not much I admit but it was a cheap $8 upgrade.

[m4st0d0n]

Bodycount1, on 09 January 2013 - 02:53 AM, said:

I'm not rich like the rest of you so my WD Caviar 7200RPM 16MB Cache drive will have to do.

If you have Vista or Win7.. make sure you turn on Superfetch.  It's supposed to learn your habits and load programs pre-demand.  I also use a 4GB readyboost USB drive which kind of helps.  Not much I admit but it was a cheap $8 upgrade.

120 GB SSDs are below 100 eur nowadays, it ain't luxury at all considering the huge benefit to the overall responsiveness of your system.

Edited by m4st0d0n, 09 January 2013 - 02:00 PM.

[MarcinX]

Ok, i ordered Vertex 4 today. Price was about 110 Euros (459 polish zlotych). Hopefully tomorow or the day after i had it in my hands. At the weekend i will try to write something about improvements it made in my computer and Diablo 3.

Oxidys, on 08 January 2013 - 09:30 PM, said:

though realistically, i suspect your issue is the lack of either RAM or video memory.  leaning more toward video memory.

My comp specs is: 4GB of RAM, Phenom II X4 955 and Radeon 5850 1GB, so definitly problem is not there. I suspect that problem is on hard drive or my internet connection (Although 8Mb speed is definitly enough, there could be some stability problems). When i mount SSD will be one possibility less :-)

Edited by MarcinX, 09 January 2013 - 04:26 PM.

[Speaker]

Check out this thread for additional info on fixing stuttering.

http://us.battle.net...opic/5978349974

[MarcinX]

After few hours of playing on new disk i can write some words about the performance.
I didnt test fps, because when i test it on old drive it was about 70-90, so this has no sense. In game it was rather what my eyes saw, so that was very subjective test.

Lets start with Windows Experience Index.
My old drive: Samsung HD502HJ 7200rpm 500 GB SATA II was score of 5.9.
New drive: OCZ Vertex 4 was score of 7.0  --> Keep in mind that this is result on SATAII
After few minutes of searching internet i found some results of close related OCZ SSDs and they was between 7.7 and 7.9 for SATAIII so i didnt use full potential of Vertex 4.

Windows of course is loading a bit faster and so Diablo. But these are secondary benefits. Silence too.
But, let's get to the substance. After about 9 hours of playing alone and with party i can say that stuttering is almost gone. I can say, that now about 80%-90% of stuttering disappeared. They happen less often and they are much shorter then before.

Summing it all. I am very happy with the changes HDD to SSD

Edited by MarcinX, 11 January 2013 - 08:43 PM.

[Tsukishima]

Been on a SSD from the start but the framerate performance issues I have are likely due to older graphic and processor bottlenecks. I'm not too confident SSD to non SSD would have any framerate differences.

[Westy357]

You'll love your new SSD hardrive but Diablo is sort of a basic game, you won't notice much difference. I have a Plextor SSD Sata 3 that I am using on a Sata2 motherboard but it's still way better than a regular hardrive by a long shot.

[DontUseMyName]

Nice to hear that the buy was worth
I changed about 3 month ago to a SSD and I'm loving it. Booting of windows takes roughly 20seconds after hiting the power button and any delay I had in D3 (with the hdd I went to SC and the act I was on for hc to just load everything into the ram to not get any delays after joining). Now I just start the game and start my runs/farming etc.

[Azri]

good choice on vertex 4. i have same SSD and iam running on SATA 2 too. only improvement in D3 was that i do not have the lag (first 10-15 seconds) when i start a new game. FPS wise..not much to complain about as i have over 200 fps. So for Diablo 3, SSD is the best way to get rid of start game laging

[divineanger]

thanks for sharing this, i have the same problem as you and now i am going to buy a ssd as well