Game disk cache upgrade?

  • Thread starter LoudMusic
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LoudMusic

LoudMusic

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Would you pay an additional $150 for a console that had a 2GB memory cache for game disks? Basically when the game starts it would roll into normal play, but in the background anytime the system had free to copy data from the game disk to the memory cache it would be doing that. Then when you got to a level loading section it would read it straight from the memory instead of the disk. Even the slowest memory is virtually instant.

The problem with this is that when you turn off the console, it would immediately erase the memory. Not really a problem because I assume most of us play our games for hours at a time, and a large portion of that time is spent waiting for maps, or levels, or videos to load.

Thoughts?

~LoudMusic
 
No, I wouldn't pay $150 for only 2GB. Loading times right now aren't really bad. Maybe, 30 seconds for a game to load. Is $150 worth 30 seconds of your time?

PS2 and Xbox has data caches, Xbox comes with a HDD and $40(?) for PS2.
 
Originally posted by Viper Zero
No, I wouldn't pay $150 for only 2GB. Loading times right now aren't really bad. Maybe, 30 seconds for a game to load. Is $150 worth 30 seconds of your time?

PS2 and Xbox has data caches, Xbox comes with a HDD and $40(?) for PS2.
Click to expand...

In most games there are 10 to 15 second load times throughout the entire game. Look at GT3 ... nearly every menu takes a few seconds to load, and the maps take 10+ seconds. Imagine that all being instant. In an hour of regular play, you probably have 5 minutes of "Loading ... please wait ...". That's SOOO irritating.

Yes the XBox has a hard drive, but none of the games use it. It's basically a huge freaking memory card for saving games on. Woop-dee-doo. If the XBox were to cache disks to it while you were playing the game and then read from the hard drive instead of the game disk, that would totally beat the PS2 all to hell.

~LoudMusic
 
I heard that the PS2 network adaptor/modem device doesnt come with a HDD, but rather allowing you to supply your own hdd?

In most games there are 10 to 15 second load times throughout the entire game. Look at GT3 ... nearly every menu takes a few seconds to load, and the maps take 10+ seconds. Imagine that all being instant. In an hour of regular play, you probably have 5 minutes of "Loading ... please wait ...". That's SOOO irritating.
Click to expand...

Dude I think maybe your just a little impatiant :P

If GT3 did have bad loading times, i think we would get more people complaning about it in the forum. Personally I think that GT3 has some of the fastest loading times for a PS2 game. Now Toca race driver, that has got long frustrating loading times.

Mind you I would pay to upgrade the PS2`s ram capacity, because it is somewhat lacking in video memory and normal memory in comparison with the X-box and GC. Actually I think that the DC has more video memory than the PS2 (although im probably wrong about that)
 
I don't know numbers, but i know the PS2 has been criticized since day one for its relatively small amount of RAM (video RAM in particular). Sony always counters by saying that the PS2's bus is fast enough to shuffle a lot of objects between the main RAM and VRAM, but I think not having to shuffle things around would be better.
 
Yeah, here's what I'm willing to pay for:
Cache- because PS3 will come out in 2005, so that's 3 years to use it to the full potential
HDD- because GT4 will use it and also many other games
Ethernet Adapter- I already have a LAN, I just need to get another hub, seeing that I have a router already, and maybe two more ethernet cables...

All in all, about what, $230 to use for 3 years? Beets buying another system like XBox, seeing that I already have great games for my PS2(e.g. GT3, THPS3, Madden2k2[even though it gets a scratch every week, the Disk Doctor has fixed it well enough, and once Madden2k3 goes down in price, I might get that to replace 2k2], TTT)

Oh, PS, has anybody played Tekken 4 yet? Is it any good?
 

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