NVME (m.2) / RAM Drive / RAID / SATA III SSD Game Load Time Comparisons

I completed this testing to help folks make a more informed decision when buying a new drive (or drives) when their primary focus is gaming.


I know this won't be popular with some, but I took several hours to complete game load time testing on an EVGA X99 Classified board (2.03 BIOS) between a 8 drive RAID 6 array with an Adaptec 8805 RAID controller running at PCIE 3.0 X8, a 512GB Samsung 950 Pro NVME drive in a PCIE 3.0 X4 expansion card with passive heatsink (running at PCIE 3.0 X4 speeds), a SATA III 512GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD (RAPID mode isn't enabled), and a 42 or 55.8GB RAM drive (64GB of 3200MHz DDR4 16-18-18-32).

Full computer specs can be found in ModRigs (and my sig!).

All games were moved using Steam Mover (an awesome tool!) - it does work on both Steam and Origin games (and should work on any game as long as you point it to the correct game directory).

All results are given in seconds - e.g. 13.44 seconds, or 13 point 44 seconds. Times were taken using a stopwatch app (yes, there is a slight human reaction time error inherently built into each result).

All game loads were tested three times in a row.

No, I can't test all of the games with a RAM drive since many games are larger than 50GB (I only have 64GB of RAM you know! - unless you want to spot me 128GB or the cash for it!).

Yes, I'll test a game for you if I have it! (just ask me via PM as I may not check this thread often)


Batman Arkham Knight 1080P
Savegame of 5% at Ace Chemicals, in game settings manually set to max and 1920X1080.
My timer was started when I clicked Continue Story and was stopped when I was loaded into the game.

8 Hard Disk RAID 6 Array (WD Black 5TB 128MB Cache 7200RPM drives) (18.1TB of 27.2TB free)
9.17
9.06
8.89

512GB 950 Pro NVME in PCIE 3.0 X4 slot (with passive heatsink) (boot drive, ~75GB free)
9.75
9.14
9.07

512GB 850 Evo (empty except for B:AK)
9.69
9.44
9.38

42GB RAM drive (3200MHz DDR4 16-18-18-32)
9.41
8.94
8.94


Batman Arkham Knight 4K
Savegame of 5% at Ace Chemicals, in game settings manually set to max and 3840X2160.
My timer was started when I clicked Continue Story and was stopped when I was loaded into the game.

8 Hard Disk RAID 6 Array (WD Black 5TB 128MB Cache 7200RPM drives) (18.1TB of 27.2TB free)
9.91
9.02
9.10

512GB 950 Pro NVME in PCIE 3.0 X4 slot (with passive heatsink) (boot drive, ~75GB free)
9.95
9.34
9.22

512GB 850 Evo (empty except for B:AK)
9.71
9.12
9.26

42GB RAM drive (3200MHz DDR4 16-18-18-32)
11.56
9.16
11.27 (ran several times more to see, always between 9 and 11 seconds)


Shadows of Mordor 1080P
Storymode savegame of 3% (24 mins), in game settings manually set to max and 1920X1080.
My timer was started when I clicked Continue Story Mode and was stopped when I saw (ESC) Skip in the lower left corner.

8 Hard Disk RAID 6 Array (WD Black 5TB 128MB Cache 7200RPM drives) (18.1TB of 27.2TB free)
6.48 (I restarted the computer after this first result to be sure there wasn't anything cached as I did the RAM drive first, the NVME second, then the RAID third)
6.85
6.24

512GB 950 Pro NVME in PCIE 3.0 X4 slot (with passive heatsink) (boot drive, ~135GB free)
5.86
5.80
5.88

512GB 850 Evo (empty except for SOM)
5.86
5.99
5.88

55.8GB RAM drive (3200MHz DDR4 16-18-18-32) (~62 of 64GB in use)
6.08
6.32
6.37


Shadows of Mordor 4K (appears to be DSR)
Storymode savegame of 3% (24 mins), in game settings manually set to max and (200%) 3840X2160.
My timer was started when I clicked Continue Story Mode and was stopped when I saw (ESC) Skip in the lower left corner.

8 Hard Disk RAID 6 Array (WD Black 5TB 128MB Cache 7200RPM drives) (18.1TB of 27.2TB free)
5.95
5.91
5.88

512GB 950 Pro NVME in PCIE 3.0 X4 slot (with passive heatsink) (boot drive, ~135GB free)
6.08
5.97
5.85

512GB 850 Evo (empty except for SOM)
6.18
5.85
5.96

55.8GB RAM drive (3200MHz DDR4 16-18-18-32) (~62.5 of 64GB in use)
6.01
5.95
6.34


Batman Arkham Origins 1080P
Savegame of 0% at Blackgate Prison, in game settings manually set to max and 1920X1080.
My timer was started when I clicked Continue Story and was stopped when I was loaded into the game.

8 Hard Disk RAID 6 Array (WD Black 5TB 128MB Cache 7200RPM drives) (18.1TB of 27.2TB free)
5.31
4.60
4.59

512GB 950 Pro NVME in PCIE 3.0 X4 slot (with passive heatsink) (boot drive, ~75GB free)
5.30
4.49
4.61

512GB 850 Evo (empty except for B:AO)
4.62
4.56
4.35

42GB RAM drive (3200MHz DDR4 16-18-18-32)
5.30
4.69
4.66


Batman Arkham Origins 4K
Savegame of 0% at Blackgate Prison, in game settings manually set to max and 3840X2160.
My timer was started when I clicked Continue Story and was stopped when I was loaded into the game.


8 Hard Disk RAID 6 Array (WD Black 5TB 128MB Cache 7200RPM drives) (18.1TB of 27.2TB free)
5.56
4.70
5.07

512GB 950 Pro NVME in PCIE 3.0 X4 slot (with passive heatsink) (boot drive, ~75GB free)
5.06
4.76
5.02

512GB 850 Evo (empty except for B:AO)
5.63
4.86
4.88

42GB RAM drive (3200MHz DDR4 16-18-18-32)
5.63
4.72
4.89


Fallout 4 1080P (no mods)
Used a save game from one hour thirty minutes into the game. (1920X1080 and all game settings manually set to max)
Timer started when press Enter to Confirm (load) was pressed and stopped when the game loaded in.

8 Hard Disk RAID 6 Array (WD Black 5TB 128MB Cache 7200RPM drives) (18.1TB of 27.2TB free)
29.11
22.61
22.91

512GB 950 Pro NVME in PCIE 3.0 X4 slot (with passive heatsink) (boot drive, ~75GB free)
7.65
7.01
6.68

512GB 850 Evo (empty except for FO4)
7.49
6.81
6.67

42GB RAM drive (3200MHz DDR4 16-18-18-32)
6.9
6.54
6.63


Fallout 4 4K (no mods)
Used a save game from one hour thirty minutes into the game. (3840X2160 and all game settings manually set to max)
Timer started when press Enter to Confirm (load) was pressed and stopped when the game loaded in.

8 Hard Disk RAID 6 Array (WD Black 5TB 128MB Cache 7200RPM drives) (18.1TB of 27.2TB free)
27.83
22.74
23.07

512GB 950 Pro NVME in PCIE 3.0 X4 slot (with passive heatsink) (boot drive, ~75GB free)
8.33
7.87
7.75

512GB 850 Evo (empty except for FO4)
8.98
7.92
7.88

42GB RAM drive (3200MHz DDR4 16-18-18-32)
7.89
7.92
7.93


DOOM 1080P
DOOM Campaign, Advanced Research Complex save game (1920X1080 and in-game settings manually set to max)
Timer started when Continue Game pressed and stopped when press spacebar was displayed in the upper right corner.

8 Hard Disk RAID 6 Array (WD Black 5TB 128MB Cache 7200RPM drives) (18.1TB of 27.2TB free)
13.12
11.07
11.02

512GB 950 Pro NVME in PCIE 3.0 X4 slot (with passive heatsink) (boot drive, ~75GB free)
11.86
11.64
11.67

512GB 850 Evo (empty except for DOOM)
12.26
12.13
12.02


DOOM 4K
DOOM Campaign, Advanced Research Complex save game (3840X2160 and in-game settings manually set to max)
Timer started when Continue Game pressed and stopped when press spacebar was displayed in the upper right corner.

8 Hard Disk RAID 6 Array (WD Black 5TB 128MB Cache 7200RPM drives) (18.1TB of 27.2TB free)
12.99
11.18
11.28

512GB 950 Pro NVME in PCIE 3.0 X4 slot (with passive heatsink) (boot drive, ~75GB free)
11.89
11.78
11.73

512GB 850 Evo (empty except for DOOM)
12.22
12.24
12.19


Dragon Age: Inquisition 1080P
1920X1080 and in-game settings manually set to max.
Timer started when Continue was pressed and stopped when game loaded.

8 Hard Disk RAID 6 Array (WD Black 5TB 128MB Cache 7200RPM drives) (18.1TB of 27.2TB free)
25.16
12.87
13.00

512GB 950 Pro NVME in PCIE 3.0 X4 slot (with passive heatsink) (boot drive, ~75GB free)
13.09
12.52
13.06

512GB 850 Evo (empty except for DA:I)
16.13
12.59
13.02

42GB RAM drive (3200MHz DDR4 16-18-18-32)
12.96
13.08
13.07


Dragon Age: Inquisition 4K
3840X2160 and in-game settings manually set to max.
Timer started when Continue was pressed and stopped when game loaded.

8 Hard Disk RAID 6 Array (WD Black 5TB 128MB Cache 7200RPM drives) (18.1TB of 27.2TB free)
20.11
20.08
19.29

512GB 950 Pro NVME in PCIE 3.0 X4 slot (with passive heatsink) (boot drive, ~75GB free)
22.24
19.68
19.63

512GB 850 Evo (empty except for DA:I)
18.09
19.63
18.71

42GB RAM drive (3200MHz DDR4 16-18-18-32)
21.82
18.96
19.73


Titanfall 1080P (Multiplayer)
All match loads were into the Attrition map, in game settings manually set to max and 1920X1080.
My timer was started when I clicked on the attrition map and was stopped when I was loaded into the match, with two exceptions where I had to wait several minutes in a lobby to get a match - for those I started the timer when the match counter read 0.

8 Hard Disk RAID 6 Array (WD Black 5TB 128MB Cache 7200RPM drives) (18.1TB of 27.2TB free)
12.24 (no lobby)
11.56 (no lobby)
11.97 (no lobby)

512GB 950 Pro NVME in PCIE 3.0 X4 slot (with passive heatsink) (boot drive, ~75GB free)
9.25 (lobby load, timer started at 0)
11.88 (no lobby)
12.31 (no lobby)

512GB 850 Evo (empty except for Titanfall)
7.28 (lobby load, timer started at 0)
12.11 (no lobby)
12.52 (no lobby)


Titanfall 4K (Multiplayer)
All match loads were into the Attrition map (edit: all games loaded into were already in progress, no lobby time), in game settings manually set to max and 3840X2160.
My timer was started when I clicked on the attrition map and was stopped when I was loaded into the match.

8 Hard Disk RAID 6 Array (WD Black 5TB 128MB Cache 7200RPM drives) (18.1TB of 27.2TB free)
14.38 (no lobby)
12.67 (no lobby)
12.59 (no lobby)

512GB 950 Pro NVME in PCIE 3.0 X4 slot (with passive heatsink) (boot drive, ~75GB free)
14.32 (no lobby)
12.35 (no lobby)
12.81 (no lobby)

512GB 850 Evo (empty except for Titanfall)
14.73 (no lobby)
13.69 (no lobby)
13.57 (no lobby)


To back up my overall findings and prove that I'm not full of it, here are some reviewers who actually did some game load testing as well as Windows boot time testing - which almost NO reviewers actually do (I wonder why that is, ehhhhhh?):

http://techreport.com/review/30813/samsung-960-pro-2tb-ssd-reviewed/5

Samsung's 950 Pro 512GB SSD reviewed

Samsung SSD 950 Pro review | PC Gamer

Toshiba's OCZ VX500 512GB SSD reviewed

 

Thank you!

It very well could be that. I'm leaning more towards games not being able to utilize the massive queue depth performance that NVME drives have (and I assume that RAM drives have as well), because once we virtually eliminated seek times game load times plateaued.

 

Disk Write Caching - Enable or Disable in Windows 10

Is that what you're talking about? If so, I'll have a go at it tonight if I have the time!

 

Thanks!

All drives were present in the system so no reboot was needed, just had to move the games from one to the next. The RAM drive was disabled until the RAM drive was tested.

I didn't test each game with the exact same drive order each time either, but I did test 1080P/4K or 4K/1080P one after the other.

 

Toshiba's OCZ VX500 512GB SSD reviewed bears out that that isn't the case.

 

Correct. Even the RAM drive tests only saw me use about 55GB RAM total as seen with Afterburner.

I had two striped SSDs (and four 32GB drives once - but that was when SSDs were fairly new and drivers were so-so) some time ago. Yes, I am that guy who doesn't believe in saying "RAID" 0. While I don't have any data from that time, the game load times were no different than with a single drive.

Think about it - two SSDs optimally running at ~550 MB/s each, multiply by two and.... still slower than the top end NVME drives for sequential read and write speeds. And my data, and reviewers provided at the end of my first post, shows that sequential read/write speeds don't mean much for game load times.

If I could find it (it came out a couple of years ago) there was an article showing that striping SSDs can actually hurt game load times. I don't think I'll be able to find it, and it would be out of date anyways since drivers matured and OSs have changed.

 

Fallout 4 1080P (no mods) (Steam + FO4 moved)
Used a save game from one hour thirty minutes into the game. (1920X1080 and all game settings manually set to max)
Timer started when press Enter to Confirm (load) was pressed and stopped when the game loaded in.

Tested with steam install + FO4 moved (no other common folder steam games). Verified that other games could not be opened by trying to open one.

Order of testing: NVME, SSD, RAM, RAID. RAM drive only enabled for RAM drive test.

8 Hard Disk RAID 6 Array (WD Black 5TB 128MB Cache 7200RPM drives) (18.1TB of 27.2TB free)
30.25
23.34
21.74

512GB 950 Pro NVME in PCIE 3.0 X4 slot (with passive heatsink) (boot drive, ~135GB free)
7.54
7.26
6.9

512GB 850 Evo (empty except for Steam + FO4)
7.33
6.80
6.95

48GB RAM drive (3200MHz DDR4 16-18-18-32)
7.06
6.76
6.89



EDIT: Here's my original test for comparison:

Fallout 4 1080P (no mods)
Used a save game from one hour thirty minutes into the game. (1920X1080 and all game settings manually set to max)
Timer started when press Enter to Confirm (load) was pressed and stopped when the game loaded in.

8 Hard Disk RAID 6 Array (WD Black 5TB 128MB Cache 7200RPM drives) (18.1TB of 27.2TB free)
29.11
22.61
22.91

512GB 950 Pro NVME in PCIE 3.0 X4 slot (with passive heatsink) (boot drive, ~75GB free)
7.65
7.01
6.68

512GB 850 Evo (empty except for FO4)
7.49
6.81
6.67

42GB RAM drive (3200MHz DDR4 16-18-18-32)
6.9
6.54
6.63

 

I'm sure they are mostly heavily single threaded. That's the standard anyways.

 

I tried to get ReFS working on my 850 EVO to test if there was a difference. Unfortunately it failed to format every time.

I would have loved to test on Ubuntu or Mint as well, but Fallout 4 doesn't have Linux support. And with that game being the only one with meaningful load time differences (that I've found), I'd rather not wipe all my data from my gaming PC to test the few games that would work and likely still show minimal differences.

 

If that was directed at me, my NVME drive is using Samsung's 1.4.7.17 driver as shown by Samsung's Magician software.

 

Very glad that you found the info helpful in your storage upgrade decision!