Fallout 4 SSD vs HDD

[hellspirit35]

Want to Install Fallout 4 for the 4th playthrough.I have a SSD 256GB but only 70GB free space.Is it real true that if you want to play with mods and especially graphic mods its better on simple HDD???

 

Thank you

[WhiskeyRiver2]

Lol no. With FO4 and your mods on the SSD, you'll see drastically shorter loading times. As in ten to thirty seconds as opposed to potentially two or three minutes.

 

And if you're worried about space, don't be. My FO4 install, including 214 mods (several of them rather large graphics overhauls) weighs in at almost exactly 61 gigs, so the 70 you have left ought to be plenty - and if not, you can always merge mods and re-pack any that use loose files so they use .ba2 archives instead (which will *also* cut down on load time and help with general performance).

[hellspirit35]

I read that somewhere on the Internet.If I will find it I will post it here :) As for the Merge ( I am noob ) is it difficult???

[WhiskeyRiver2]

There are utilities out there, IIRC one or two of the better ones are over on either the Skyrim or SSE Nexus sections. Haven't used 'em myself yet, but been meaning to learn how.

[Perraine]

Just and FYI, the reason some people do not recommend installing games on an SSD is because the incredibly heavy disc usage (constant reads/writes) may adversely effect the longevity of an SSD.

SSD's have improved a long way when it comes to lifespan, but they still have a limited number of reads/writes, and they can fail early.

[Roentgens]

Just and FYI, the reason some people do not recommend installing games on an SSD is because the incredibly heavy disc usage (constant reads/writes) may adversely effect the longevity of an SSD.

SSD's have improved a long way when it comes to lifespan, but they still have a limited number of reads/writes, and they can fail early.

Yeah I've heard that stuff too, and I'd say they are under utilizing their SSDs. I bought two TLC NAND SSDs back in 2011 (TLC is the cheap stuff with the lowest read/write cycles), and I put them into RAID 0 as my main OS drive. I put games, system pagefile, caches, everything on it and it still works to this day. It has been more reliable than my disk drives, and I can only imagine the latest SSDs are even better in all aspects.

 

As for the OP, just put the game on the SSD, just don't bother with the 55gb high res pack. My installation is 50gb with a ton of mods, add another 4gb for saves, and another few gb for NMM, it's all well under 70gb. I could have even put the NMM file directory on my disk drives to save more space.

[panurgy]

FWIW, my current install is 50GB in the main Fallout 4 directory, and 20GB in the NMM virtual install directory (Mod Organizer would be the same). I just started playing the game again, so it'll probably grow by at least 10GB if I install more textures.

 

If you use NMM or MO, you'll end up storing 2 copies of each mod. So, it's a good idea to keep NMM/MO on a separate mechanical drive, and the game on SSD.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that if you're playing with a 1080p resolution, you don't need the 4K or greater texture sizes, except maybe in a few special cases. You won't be able to tell the difference between 2K and 4K, so it's just wasted space on disk and in VRAM.

 

Looking at the Fallout Texture Overhaul for the Pipboy, the 2k version is 26MB. The 4k version is 86MB. So double the resolution, but 3.3x the size.

[Zzyxzz]

I stored my Fallout4 on my SSD+Mod, except for the Downloads, they are saved on my HDD. Check on a reguarly base your SSD health and its fine.

Reading does not damage yor SSD, only write operations. If you are playing games only and ur saves get saved on your HDD it should last forever.

 

And most important, it will resolve the low texture, weapon change delay and greatly reduce loadscreens. I only bought an SSD because of Fallout4 lol. But it works.

[Moraelin]

Just and FYI, the reason some people do not recommend installing games on an SSD is because the incredibly heavy disc usage (constant reads/writes) may adversely effect the longevity of an SSD.

SSD's have improved a long way when it comes to lifespan, but they still have a limited number of reads/writes, and they can fail early.

Actually, the biggest factor are the writes, not the reads. And more specifically the "flash" part in, err, flash memory. That's what kills the memory cells, and that's what they do to erase the memory befor writing the new data.

 

Reads are as good as infinite for any practical purpose. As in they're not literally infinite, but you'll die of old age before your game kills the SSD that way.

 

What I'm saying is that having your game directory on SSD isn't what will kill that SSD. Having the temp directory and/or swap file on SSD, however, might.

 

 

Also, if you're worried, get a Samsung. The 750 Evo is fairly cheap, and like all their new drives, it comes with software that shows you how close your drive is to kicking the bucket. Mine for example are still very very far from it. That kind of peace of mind is worth something, right?

 

Or if you have the money, you can go for a M.2 960 Pro. I only have the older 950 Pro, but man... welcome to the world of 3 second load screens.