PC Gamers Win Big
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CASE STUDY Intel® Solid-State Drives Performance, Storage and the Customer Experience PC Gamers Win Big Intel® Solid-State Drives (SSDs) deliver the ultimate gaming experience, providing dramatic visual and runtime improvements Intel® Solid-State Drives (SSDs) represent a revolutionary breakthrough, delivering a giant leap in storage performance. Designed to satisfy the most demanding gamers, media creators, and technology enthusiasts, Intel® SSDs bring a high level of performance and reliability to notebook and desktop PC storage. Faster load times and improved graphics performance such as increased detail in textures, higher resolution geometry, smoother animation, and more characters on the screen make for a better gaming experience. Developers are now taking advantage of these features in their new game designs. SCREAMING LOAD TiMES AND SMOOTH GRAPHICS With no moving parts, high reliability, and a longer life span than traditional hard drives, Intel Solid-State Drives (SSDs) dramatically improve the computer gaming experience. Load times are substantially faster. When compared with Western Digital VelociRaptor* 10K hard disk drives (HDDs), gamers experienced up to 78 percent load time improvements using Intel SSDs. Graphics are smooth and uninterrupted, even at the highest graphics settings. To see the performance difference in a head-to- head video comparing the Intel® X25-M SATA SSD with a 10,000 RPM HDD, go to www.intelssdgaming.com. When comparing frame-to-frame coherency with the Western Digital VelociRaptor 10K HDD, the Intel X25-M responds with zero hitching while the WD VelociRaptor shows hitching seven percent of the time. This means gamers experience smoother visual transitions with Intel SSDs. Additionally, the time for characters to reach their intended destination, obtain their weapons, and be ready to take action decreases. This gives gamers a distinct competitive advantage over their opponents. Being the first to take “Intel’s Solid-State Drives up arms and make an attack is key to the win. are the flux capacitor driving my PC gaming Game Load Time: RAID 0 Comparison1 experience into (Single x25-M vs. VelociRaptor HDDs in RAID 0) the future.” 90 % Faster game load compared to single HDD – EvilAvatar.com 80 Daily Gaming News 70 % Faster game load with Attitude compared to RAIDO HDDs 60 50 40 30 20 Percent Faster Game Load Faster Percent 10 (Compared to VelociRaptor HDDs) VelociRaptor to (Compared 0 FARCRY 2 Assassin’s Tom Clancy’s StarCraft II Creed II Rainbow Six Vegas SSD Load Time Improvements Intel® X25-M SSD vs. WD VelociRaptor* 10K RPM HDDs in RAID 0 ( Single Intel® SSD Beats RAID 0 HDDs in Price/Performance ) Gamers unanimously agree that Intel SSDs significantly enhance their gaming experience Top Marks for Intel SSDs Developers Embrace Installation Anandtech, a website that focuses on Improvements Besides the improvements in the gaming hardware analysis and news, used PCMark Game developers are beginning experience, tasks such as installation Vantage* to evaluate SSDs’ gaming to develop games with Intel SSD have become easier as well. Installing performance. Their test gave top marks improvements in mind. With the Blizzard World of Warcraft* and to the 80GB Intel X25-M SATA SSD.2 higher bandwidth and reduced Microsoft Windows Defender* on an PCMark Vantage is a real-world test that latency, developers are adding more Intel X25-M SSD is over twice as fast runs such things as application launches, detailed textures, higher-resolution as on a traditional hard disk drive. searches, browsing, video playback, and geometry, smoother animation, and other tasks pertinent to the class of increasing the number of characters Intel Reaches Out to Gamers applications being tested. When testing on the screen. Only Intel SSD users will The best way to understand the benefits gaming, the test suit focuses on reading experience these benefits. of Intel SSDs in the gaming community textures and loading level data. is to talk directly with the gamers. Throughout the year, Intel attends various gaming events and encourages gaming enthusiasts to share their comments PCMark Vantage* Gaming Suite2 on Intel SSDs in the competitive gaming environment. Dedicated gamers reported Score in PCMarks (Higher Is Better) a wide range of benefits, including faster load and save times, more fluid transitions, and improved responsiveness. Intel® X25-M G2 80GB (MLC) TRIM 20261 Intel® X25-M G2 160GB (MLC) 20252 Intel® X25-E G2 64GB (SLC) 20112 TechREACTION* Bloggers Kingston* SSDNow V* 40GB (Intel MLC) 19978 Get in the Game Fast Intel® X25-M G1 160GB (MLC) 19814 Sharing their knowledge and adventures Intel® X25-M G2 160GB (MLC) TRIM 19462 on a wide range of technology topics in OCZ Summit* 256GB (Samsung MLC) 19250 blogs on http://www.TechREACTION.net, OCZ Vertex EX* 128GB (Indilinx MLC) 18675 this is what technology enthusiasts had to Patriot Torqx* 128GB (Indilinx MLC) 18633 say about gaming using Intel SSDs: OCZ Vertex Turbo* 128GB (Indilinx MLC) 18332 “Not only did the Intel® X25-M get me into OCZ Agility* 128GB (Inilinx MLC) 18274 games faster, it also cut down the time Western Digital VelociRaptor* 300GB 9807 to map transition times and save a game, Seagate Momentus* 5400.6 500GB 9055 making them unnoticeable. Game play is smoother, more cohesive, and engaging.” 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 “With up to 12 percent faster load times over a 7200RPM RAID 0 array, a single Intel X25-M runs cooler and consumes less power and space. Your computer stays cooler during those all-night gaming marathons.” Blizzard World of Warcraft* and Microsoft Windows Defender* “I was a bit skeptical at first. I didn’t think Speed of installation time in seconds I would notice the speed difference, and at first I didn’t. It wasn’t until I switched back over to a 7200RPM drive and sat impatiently waiting for games and applications to load that I realized just how much the X25-M improves not only Intel® X25-M SATA SSD (Over 2x faster) 2 mins. 47 secs. game loads but overall responsiveness of the system as well.” Baseline Traditional Hard Disk Drive 6 mins. 48 secs. “Upgrading to an Intel® X25-M is not only Lower is better a breeze, but a must for any hardcore gamer or enthusiast.” 0 230 460 Intel® Core™2 Duo T9600 with Intel® Core™2 Duo T9600 with an 80GB Intel™ Mainstream SATA Toshiba 120GB 5400rpm SATA* Solid-State Drive Mobile Hard Disk Drive Overclockers HQ BenchTec UK Reviewers Reviewers Speak Up and Bloggers Rave The home of hardware reviews and The home of extreme hardware technology news for the gaming benchmarking in the United Kingdom, community, www.OverclockersHQ.com www.benchtec.co.uk showcases the best provides reviews, guides, and shopping of the best in hardware performance. This for gaming hardware, software, and is what their reviewers and bloggers have accessories. Its reviewers claim that to say about Intel SSDs: Intel SSDs are extremely fast, ensure “In my experience in gaming and other seamless gaming, provide responsive areas, I found that when using Intel® SSDs, menus in games, and are compact. They the game was far more responsive, with start up and shut down quickly, providing no lag time like you normally see when an overall productivity improvement. gaming online. In that respect, they were The following quotes highlight what far more superior to the Western Digital* Overclockers HQ reviewers have to say drives I used.” about Intel SSDs: “They were very smooth, instantaneous, “Intel SSDs are the best thing for gaming and just far superior. I would say the Intel® since the first multiple-dots-per-inch (DPI) SSD is a completely new experience for mouse came onto the market.” gaming and desktop users.” “Fluent transitions, quick load times, and extremely snappy menu and inventory If you are not gaming with Intel® improvements make hard disk drive (HDD) SSDs, you are not having the best gaming a thing of the past.” gaming experience. “I honestly think that going back to gaming Contact your Intel representative on an HDD would be the equivalent to trading in one of my testing rigs for a 486 or visit www.intel.com/go/ssd to and trying to be just as productive.” learn how Intel® SSDs can improve your gaming experience. “The truth of the matter is that if you experience Intel SSD gaming, going back to your HDD is going to look a lot like your old black-and-white TV.” 1. Configurations: Intel® Core™ i7 920 Processor (4X2.66GHz/8MB L3 Cache) Windows Vista* 64 bit, 24GB DDR3 (4GB x6), Dual Gfx ATI Radeon* (8 GPU), or NVIDIA GeForce* GTX 295 (1792MB GDDR) Storage* A: Intel® X25-M SSD; Storage B:(2) WD* VelociRaptor 10K RPM HDDs RAID 0 using onboard SATA controller. 2. Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2865/7. This document and the information given are for the convenience of Intel’s customer base and are provided “AS IS” WITH NO WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NONINFRINGEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS. Receipt or possession of this document does not grant any license to any of the intellectual property described, displayed, or contained herein. Intel® products are not intended for use in medical, lifesaving, life-sustaining, critical control, or safety systems, or in nuclear facility applications. Performance tests and ratings are measured using specific computer systems and/or components and reflect the approximate performance of Intel products as measured by those tests. Any difference in system hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance. Intel may make changes to specifications, product descriptions, and plans at any time, without notice. Intel does not control or audit the design or implementation of third party benchmark data or websites referenced in this document.