[civicgsir]

I put an SSD in my PS3 the day I received the CE GT5. I knew that the load times would piss me off so I took the SSD (OCZ Vertex 60GB) I was going to put in my laptop and threw on in the PS3. I had a HDD in my PS2 with GT4 on it and it made all the difference in the world with load times to me. Could've been negligible on the clock but it sure seemed quicker.

I had a 1TB external that I used to backup my PS3 on. I was going to put a 90 or 120GB SSD in the PS3 originally, but I figured that I would just use the external for anything I needed to store from the PS3.

Well, my install for GT5 only took 25 minutes including the update.

The race load screens and scrolling from menu to menu don't seem to take very long, it's not instant or anything, but a lot quicker than what has been described on these forums. Some screen changes are instant so I can't say if it would have taken longer without the SSD.

I haven't done any formal timing of load screens yet. I'll see about taking some ruff times tonight with a stop watch. Seems I'll add it later is the way nowadays.

I would highly recommend this upgrade to anyone looking to enhance their GT5 experience.

I'm only level 14 currently but I'll update this post if I experience anything noticeable from using the SSD as well as some load times.

[StogyBear]

Interesting. Can you get a video of one of the dealerships. It's interesting to see how fast the car models load. It takes forever now

[Turkey :D]

I'd like to put an SSD in both of my computers and PS3. A decent sized one costs a lot of money... Good suggestion though. When they come down in price, I hope consoles start shipping with them internally.

[Darktuna]

wow i might have to invest in one of these.. i didn't even know ssd drives were available to mass consumers yet

[BlazednSleepy]

lol ill pay way more than my GT5 collectors edition for a Solid State Drive. Those things are expensive for not that much space.

My 7200rpm works perfectly fine. I dont have long load times.

[martona]

I replaced the 5400 RPM drive in my PS3 fatty with an Intel X25-M G2 SSD. Loading times were cut in half, approximately.

I timed the A-10 license load (many different cars but they're always the same regardless how many times you try). With the HDD it took 45 seconds. With the SSD it's 23. Car models also appear much faster in your garage or the showrooms - it's more than a second but below two. Not an annoying wait anymore.

[NastyNaz]

There's a few videos comparing SSD performance on youtube. Dealership cars and whatnot load much much faster, but the gain on maps is only around 10 seconds or so.

[Neal]

The below thread was created recently regarding SSD's and GT5, I think you'll agree it's not bad for a members first post!

padadiso

Hey everyone, I'm new to the site but thought I might share a bit of info that I've collected in the past couple of days.

The title says it all: I've compared the Seagate 5400 rpm 80GB HHD that came with the PS3 and a Kingston 128GB SSD SNV425-S2BN for $175 after rebates. The reason I'm posting this is to hopefully get out to the public the information I've been readily seeking for after GT5 was released-- How much will and SSD improve the loading times? Is it worth it? I've seen in other small studies that say the speed increase isn't much due to the 2x limit of the Blu-ray drive. However, I've also heard accounts from GT5 users (specifically) that it does indeed seem faster, but we all know about the placebo effect. The reason I finally decided to back up all my data and transfer it over to the SSD and conduct this study was due to the fact that an 8GB install is allowed, which should, theoretically, allow for much faster loading times. Worse comes to worse and I just take the drive and put it in my laptop.

Now, after the first update (v1.03) and comparing the download times and install times between the two, I noticed that the game’s loading times for everything is highly dependent on how the server’s performing. Therefore, I disconnected from the internet during every other test for both drives.

Anyways, here is what I found:

Install times were 4x faster. Which was an awesome start to this study. Next, I thought the best improvement would be with the menus (I thought they would install the menu on to the drive…). I tested these by doing three runs each. Surprisingly, even with the me + stopwatch, they were almost always the same. Here are the menu results:

And to get back to the home menu from each of these items…

From the GT Mode menu to the other menus:

And back again:

I always thought buying a car took way too long, so I also tested that:

And finally, I was most curious about the loading times for races, which I expected to see very little improvement. I was wrong. Note: I had played and completed each of the races listed, along with the license test coming up (i.e. no install required).

Finally, the last test I did was on a Special Event I had not entered before this. Less improvement overall (as it likely had to install from the disc), but still substantial:

That was all of them- Phew!

So, what did I decide to do? Given that the races loading time was cut in half for the most part, I’m keeping the SSD in the PS3. I wasn’t expected such a huge difference, especially for the races. I hope this helps someone else decide whether or not it’s worth the extra money!

[garbuckle]

Nice to seem some data comparisons on SSD vs HDD

For what it's worth, I would still recommend the Seagate Momentus XT drives, as they are hybrid, so give you nearly the speed of SSD, but with capacities of up to 500GB, for around $100.

[Lain]

I've got a 120 gig OCZ Vertex SSD in my PS3. Definitely gives much snappier loading times, but don't expect the loads to disappear.

[papaspurs]

I wonder how much is the SSD and how much is due to defragmentation? (assuming there was some)

[Caliente]

papaspurs

I wonder how much is the SSD and how much is due to defragmentation? (assuming there was some)

You do not defragmentat a SSD. That only makes them slower and shorten theire lifespan. Now you know!

But nice test! I only use SSD in my PC, will never go back! Maybe I will add one in my PS3 too, when we can transfer savefiles offcourse!

[HBR-Roadhog]

I did some tests with a SSD on my pc and the results were that on sequential reads and writes my 7200 rpm Sata II drives are just a tiny bit faster. Close enough that you could not detect the difference but it is there. On random access read and writes the SSD was 10 times faster than any traditional HD I have ever tested.

So the actual difference you will see depends on how the data is being accessed. If it is installing data to the disk the speed will be about the same. If it is loading a huge file the speed will be about the same. If it is loading lots of small files or lots of peices from different places in large files the speed will be dramaticly faster on the SSD.

The price of the SSD is up there but for performance and durability it can't be beat

[papaspurs]

Caliente

You do not defragmentat a SSD. That only makes them slower and shorten theire lifespan. Now you know!

But nice test! I only use SSD in my PC, will never go back! Maybe I will add one in my PS3 too, when we can transfer savefiles offcourse!

Sorry, I should have been clearer. I'm aware there is no requirement to defrag SSDs.

The GT5 install on the original HD may have been fragmented (especially if people are like me and install and uninstall lots of demos from the store). I'd like to see the speeds on a stock PS3 HD in a brand new PC where the installation will not be fragmented.

[Stradivis]

Does anyone knows if SSD generates less heat?

[jhanson999]

Yes, SSD's produce less heat than a traditional spinning platter hard drive. They have no moving parts so they also are quieter, more power efficient, and are less prone to failure.

[DJS2005]

Stradivis

Does anyone knows if SSD generates less heat?

I would think it's impossible for an SSD to generate the amount of heat an HDD does considering the lack of moving parts. However I don't think that would cool down the PS3 much. I'm sure someone here knows to a geeky degree but my guess is that most of your heat comes from the power components and CPU/GPU chips.

[the_ryosuke]

Don't worry about the heat for an SSD. It doesn't even have a temperature probe, and don't need one.

[HBR-Roadhog]

Stradivis

Does anyone knows if SSD generates less heat?

Yes they use less power and have no moving parts. Which means no friction and less electrical heat. They will also help keep the PS3 or PC cooler as they draw less power and put off very little heat of thier own. I do not know how noticable this would be in the overall temp of a PS3 but it has to help at least a little.

After being used for a while a traditional hard drive is very warm or hot to the touch an SSD is cool or barely warm to the touch under the same conditions.

[andrewz]

Some more numbers from EuroGamer's test: "SSD halves GT5 loading times".