Hi Guys,
I currently have a 250gb NVME ssd showing free space of 104gb from 232gb and i also have a regular 2tb hdd. I understand that I need to buy a bigger nvme drive but in the meantime is it worth migrating everything else and the OS to my HDD and having the NVMe drive purely for flight sim?
Will I see any benefits given that the OS will be on a HDD but flight sim and my add ons will be on an ssd? I’m currently experiencing load times of 8-10 minutes and my community folder is 25gb.
I have a 2 normal SSD drive 500GB for Windows and the other one for backups. I have a 1TB NVME drive for MSFS and Xplane. I also moved my page file to the other SSD drive I have. I’ve done this way for years with FS whether it was the HD, SSD or NVME drive but keeping it separate would be a good way go. YMMV
Thanks for this but is it worth doing and would I see the performance benefits? I would be moving my OS and everything to the slower drive but I would then have the 250gb drive purely for flight sim.
Our systems are probably very different so I’m not going to try and say what I have if you do makes your system faster. I would suspect that moving FS to the NVME drive should show some improvement, but I don’t have 8 min load times either. I have a few mins at best.
Honestly that’s the answer I can give, does it make your system have better performance. I can’t say..
MS have advised putting the launcher on the system drive, and that’s good enough for me. In my case that’s a 500GB SSD. But I have the packages on my data drive, a 1TB HDD.
It works very well.
Wait, 8-10 minute load times? To the main menu or from clicking fly?
For me loading to the main menu takes a while (2-3 minutes) and loading a flight depends on the plane, but in most stock planes it typically takes about 20-40 seconds. So if you play a lot, it may well be worth it.
This is with the OS + MSFS launcher on one NVMe SSD and the MSFS content on another (250 GB). Both are PCIe 3.0.
That said, unless you play a lot I really wouldn’t want to move back to having my OS on a hard disk again. Haven’t done that in over 12 years and I’m certainly not going back.
Edit:
So I checked some loading times. From launch to main menu took 2m 9s, with the FastLaunch option to skip the company logos.
I then set up with the Cessna 172 on ESSA, default runway. From clicking “fly” to loading being complete (“ready to fly” screen) took 18-19 seconds (all players, live traffic, live weather).
It’s also worth keeping in mind that there will be other factors than storage. Most likely CPU performance and network performance also matters, and I’m near a best-case for both as far as gaming is concerned. (Ryzen 5800X, 1000/1000 Mbps fiber.)
Third party planes tend to take several times longer though.
Should’ve said in my post, those are roughly the times I get, and my drives are all SATA.
OP, your loading times are way too long and whatever you do must surely be an improvement.
If I understood correctly are you asking if you should put MSFS on the SSD and Windows on the HDD? If that’s the question absolutely not. You always want Windows to be on the fastest drive, your system will be far slower and less responsive overall with Windows on a HDD.
I have all of MSFS, including the launcher installed on my D drive, a 2 TB Nvme. My C drive is a 1 TB Nvme that is just for windows. It works fine. I suspect the reason they recommend putting it on the C drive is that for the vast majority of people the C drive is their faster drive, and the load times are long else.
I went from HDD to SSD then to NVme when MSFS came out.
I will NEVER go back from the NVme for my OS and MSFS.
The NVme is the way to go for your OS and MSFS.
Agreed, I haven’t had my OS on an HDD for well over a decade. I don’t even want to imagine how bad and sluggish a computer would run with Windows on an HDD!
To run an optimal modern gaming/sim computer you really need a 1 TB Nvme for windows and apps, and then another Nvme for games, size dependant on what you run. 2 TB is optimal for most people probably, but 1 TB would do for people just simming only.
I still use a HDD for archival storage, movies, photos, files etc but would never run any games or apps off of a HD.
Thanks for all your advice! When I built my PC I thought that 250gb would be enough as all the games I play would run off my 2tb hd just fine but then I met flight simulation recently and thats all gone out the window!
I have been playing it alot so I probably should get the 1tb NVMe sooner rather than later. I selected the move option in programs and features as it turns out the launcher was on my slower drive aswell but it looks like it’s moving the whole game now… I didn’t think I would have enough space for it but let’s see.
I’ll refrain from moving my os to a hdd aswell. I guess I just take the smooth operations of an os from being on an ssd for granted.
Before spending any money, try the launcher on the SSD and the packages on the HD. It works for me.
Yes i’m just trying to figure that out at the moment. When I select move in programs and features it seems to want to move the community folder and the official folder within packages. Are you suggesting to have my community folder on my HD and the install of MSFS on my ssd?
If so what’s the best way to complete this?
To answer that, I’ll have to tell you a little story.
Originally, I had the whole caboodle on my system drive, and I decided to move it to my data drive, intending to move it back again minus the packages. But the “Move” option was greyed out and I couldn’t do it. So…I copied the Packages folder to the data drive and uninstalled the sim.
I then downloaded the sim again (not a huge download), and when the installer asked me where to put the packages, I pointed it to the folder I’d created. It recognised it straight away and I was ready to fly.
This may not be the only, or even the best, way but I was new to Windows 10 and it worked, so I’m happy.
EDIT: Just so we’re not talking at cross-purposes, that’s the Packages folder in %appdata%.
Hopefully it works fine ! With everything installed on the most expensive storages available for pc (SSD) !
Ok so I’ve found a 120gb SSD which I will put windows on and all of my launchers and stuff so that means my 250gb Nvme drive can be for flight sim.
Shall I just have the flight sim installed on my nvme or should I also put my community folder and stuff on it?
If the flight sim files (i.e. the stuff that takes up all the space, not the launcher) are on the NVMe disk the community folder will also be there (since it’s a subdirectory). But yes, you want the community folder there as well.
I have a Samsung 979 EVO Plus NVMe PCIe 3.0 M.2 SSD 500 GB.
I have 2 Partitions on it:
C:\ which is Windows 10, Office 365
D:\ which is FS2020, Navigraph
C:\ is 124 GB, 81 GB Used, 43 GB Free
D:\ is 340 GB, 164 Used, 175 Free
I also have another Intel 665p, 1 TB, NVMe PCIe 3.0 M.2 SSD
for anything else, programs, music, videos.
I have a similar setup (a 2 TB PCIe SSD) and similar load times to yours. SSD is the way to go for MSFS 2020 if you are able, even if it is a SATA drive. Both PCIe and SATA will render much faster load times for MSFS 2020 than an HDD SATA drive 