Xbox 360 load time comparison: DVD vs. hard drive

by Ross Miller { Oct 31st 2008 at 8:00PM }

One of the more touted features of the upcoming New Xbox Experience is the ability to install games onto your hard drive (watch how to do it). In an effort to quantify the benefit, MTV Multiplayer's Stephen Totilo has created three videos comparing the load times of running DVD vs. hard drive using Grand Theft Auto IV, Fable 2 and Gears of War 2. The difference is between 9 to 15 seconds for the first load, and presumably more "now loading" seconds scraped off other sections of each game.

While the verdict is out on whether or not it's worth your time to install (judging by Totilo's install times and our own, it seems to be a steady 1.7GB per minute), it's worth noting that, with installation, the console is noticeably quieter and is less likely to give you the feeling that it's about to explode.

Tags: fable-2, gears-of-war-2, grand-theft-auto-iv, install, installation, nxe

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

TheNewmanDynasty @ Oct 31st 2008 8:07PM

How do these loads work though? Like after I'm done playing with the game I can uninstall whatever was loaded right?

But then what if I come back to the game? Would I have to reinstall all that stuff again or would I be able to just put in the disc and play without any issues?

syrik zero @ Oct 31st 2008 8:12PM

From my understanding, it's not like the PS# (at least not right now) where you're forced to install any games. It's just for those that want to have quicker load times and now also a quieter console during game play.

If you uninstall it, I think you could still pop the disc in to play anytime without waiting again

PSN: johnnynumber5 @ Oct 31st 2008 8:42PM

Probablt not any forced installs because its not needed. I would imagine that this is mainly useful for multi-disc games like Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon. Because you still need to have the disc in the drive to play the title. So, you install the extra discs and leave one in the tray.

Until Microsoft drops the price of its proprietary HDD's it probably won't be practical to install multiple games. That it unless you have an "elite".

No reason that you would have to reinstall the data to play the game again. In fact, that defeats the entire purpose. This is because installing is not required for 99% of 360 games anyway.

syrik zero @ Oct 31st 2008 9:13PM

"Probablt" indeed

The_Doctor @ Oct 31st 2008 9:41PM

"PS#" indeed.

SlyTheBoss @ Oct 31st 2008 9:52PM

You can have as many games as the HDD can hold. You simply have to have the disk into the drive to run the game. If you try to install a game and do not have enough room, it will pop up a box asking you if you want to delete stuff. If you agree, all items stored on the HDD, sorted by size will appear. You delete until it says you have enough room. Very simple to do.

I've installed Fable II that way and now my 360 is as quiet as my PS3 :-)

SlyTheBoss @ Oct 31st 2008 9:56PM

LOL, I didn't even answered your question, sorry. Yes, if you uninstall the game, you can run it the 'old way', from the DVD drive. You can install/uninstall a game as many time as you want. It also doesn't affect your saved game. It simply creates a file that seems to be the image of the DVD. It's actually an easy way to find the size of a disk :-)

TheNewmanDynasty @ Oct 31st 2008 10:20PM

Hey sly thanks for all the info. Really appreciate it. Are you in the beta I'm guessing?

I applied and I was hoping I got in. How did you get notified?

Sinister Rouge @ Nov 1st 2008 6:10AM

Fuck MTV and their "not available outside the USA" video content. Copyright restrictions my ass, I'm sitting playing Fable II right now!

SlyTheBoss @ Nov 1st 2008 9:12AM

Got notified through email. Then when I turned on my 360 two evenings ago, I was greeted with an 'Update available' message. Took less than 10 minutes to download and install.

FluxWaveZ @ Oct 31st 2008 8:09PM

Now that's why I got a 120 GB Hard Drive. No more noise for the win! It's sad that the prices on the HDDs are still so high, though.

Heyyou27 @ Oct 31st 2008 8:20PM

I wouldn't say "no more noise" but it will certainly be a lot quieter. I know I'll be installing all of my games to my 120GB hard drive.

FluxWaveZ @ Oct 31st 2008 9:39PM

Almost no noise then :p

Chase @ Nov 1st 2008 3:26AM

*high fives*

I love knowing I won't have to worry about HDD space.

I also love how I got my 120 HDD on the cheap ($70). ;D

SoCoolCurt (PSN: KillaKornbread - XBL: SoCoolCurt) @ Nov 2nd 2008 8:04PM

hey this is great for me. all my games will be put on my 120GB HDD when i get the NXE. when i got my 360 on eBay it came with a 20GB and a 120GB HDD. and since i play all my media and big video files on my PS3 anyway, i need something to put on that big HDD my 360 has. plus with the 360 not spinning the disc, i dont have to worry as much about my disc getting scratched or my console burning up.

BigD145 @ Oct 31st 2008 8:10PM

My PS2 does this, so what's new?

Or as I like to put it: GTA3 load times between islands? What are you talking about?

Tom18230 @ Oct 31st 2008 8:29PM

What are you talking about?

This will install data onto your hard drive which means less loading from disk, therefore faster load times and less disk spinning (noise). The PS2 doesn't do this considering it doesn't have a hard drive.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Oct 31st 2008 8:31PM

My PS2 does this too. And my original Xbox.

Paulmichael @ Oct 31st 2008 8:46PM

Mine did, back when I used one of those HD Advance disks. Oh how that kicked ass, no hardware modifications required!

Chin-Poh @ Oct 31st 2008 9:11PM

There was an official hard drive released for the PS2. In the U.S, it was bundled with FFXI.

In Japan, several games could take advantage of the hard drive to increase performance, Final Fantasy 10 I know was one of them.

It wasn't popular at all in the U.S at least and quickly discontinued when the new slim PS2 came out as it wasn't compatible with it.

Though if your slim PS2 is hacked, you could use an external HDD and load ISOs on there as my brother did. Not all games worked though.

BigD145 @ Oct 31st 2008 10:19PM

My PS2 has a hard drive. There's about a dozen games on their right now.

BigD145 @ Oct 31st 2008 10:20PM

Ah, I fell to the their/there bug. *cough*

emotaku @ Nov 1st 2008 5:16AM

OLO LOOK AT MAI MODZ GUYS

Conor @ Nov 1st 2008 7:06AM

We're all very happy for you...

j.howlett @ Nov 2nd 2008 11:35AM

that space isn't back there just to stash illegal stuff

why not the LS2LS7? @ Nov 2nd 2008 8:28PM

There's nothing illegal about copying your own games to HDD and running them.

007craft @ Oct 31st 2008 8:12PM

Video link for those outside the us? Or free proxy server I can use based in america that loads more then 1/kb a minute?

007craft @ Oct 31st 2008 9:14PM

To answer my own question, If you live outside the US, download xb browser (built on firefox)

http://xerobank.com/xB_Browser.php

Install it then download the flash file below.

http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/xpi/current/flashplayer-win.xpi

Rename to .zip, unzip all files to C:\Program files\XeroBank\App\Browser\firefox\plugins (or whereever you installed it) This will get flash working.

Now the videos should play in XB browser (make sure to disable noscript in your addons). You might have to reload the page or browser a few times to make sure you dont get a Canadian or UK ip.

Obie @ Nov 1st 2008 11:02AM

ZOMG teh haxxorz!
;)

Thanks dude, that was helpful.
Now how do I download XBLA games outside the US?

Grant @ Nov 1st 2008 4:42PM

doesn't matter, videos are down for the US too.

edgore @ Oct 31st 2008 8:14PM

The thing I like about it is that I can buy a game, install it to the drive and never have to worry about getting read errors in the middle of play - either I will make it through the whole initial install without problems, or I will have problems upfront and be able to fix them. No more playing Rockband II in a party situation only to have a read error bring everything to crashing halt!

Courtney @ Nov 1st 2008 1:39AM

Now that is the best reason I've seen to load games. It's a rare week that goes by that I don't see at least one "Disk read error."

Nick8708 @ Nov 1st 2008 8:32AM

I'm very excited about this portion of the update. I feel like I've been playing Russian roulette with the saves during Fable 2 this past week after both my roommate and I each lost characters fairly far into the game due to "dirty disc errors" during saves. Dirty disc my ass...my console is just getting old. Now I turn off the AC before saves so I can hear the noise my console is making to hopefully determine whether or not it's near another error. This update, though, might just be the solution to extending the life of it til the next generation. Unless the dvd drive quits to the point I can't even copy the discs over any more, I'm expecting the only thing I'll need to buy is maybe a bigger harddrive.

MowDownJoe @ Oct 31st 2008 8:15PM

Really, the best way to test this new feature is with Sonic 2006. That had more load screens than you could shake a stick at!

Mr Khan @ Oct 31st 2008 9:37PM

To make playing through such a torturous experience quicker so its less... torturous?

hmm...

banballow @ Nov 1st 2008 12:24PM

What are you going on about now... ?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=naVshTpD9l0

Oh, right... that.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Oct 31st 2008 8:34PM

I'm looking forward to installing Viva Pinata to my HDD, since it is very poorly designed when it comes to accessing the DVD drive (just bring up the seed menu and listen to the seeking go crazy).

But I stop short of throwing a lot of kudos at MS for this. One of developers' jobs is to optimize their game for the optical drive. When PS3 developers fail to do this, it's lame. It's also lame when Xbox 360 developers fail to do it.

I can play Burnout:Paradise without installing it to my HDD, and that loads a ton of data on the fly. There's no reason other games can't do as well or better (looking at you, MGS4 and Viva Pinata 2).

corpirate @ Oct 31st 2008 8:44PM

My question is - does it help with games that suffer from poor frame rates? ie. Mass Effect.

I recall running around the main homeworld/base thingy-majigga with terrible stutters and jumps in frame rate, to the point where I nearly stopped playing altogether.

If I install this on to my Xbox 360, will it play nice and smooth? Or am I being far too optimistic?

FSK405K @ Nov 1st 2008 8:28AM

I never noticed any poor frame rates on my 360.

To your question, though, that would depend on what the system is slowed to do. If the framerate is slowed because it is accessing map/world/texture data from the disk, then yes, it could help, because loading from a hard drive is MUCH faster than loading from a CD. Those type of slowdowns, though, are probably not terrible common compared to regular slowdown. I would wager that most slowdown is simply because there is too much on the screen to calculate, perform AI calculations for, apply pixel shaders, etc.

Shroomsday @ Oct 31st 2008 8:49PM

Nice one Microsoft, it's about time too.
Now maybe I can play a game in peace with (hopefully) less jet-turbine noise. Also, I can enjoy the game for a bit longer before it is rendered useless by the scratches from the two-cents-too-cheap DVD drive!
>End cynical rant.

Am I right in thinking that the Xbox 360 uses a 5400 RPM HDD? If so, it's not going to be as much of a performance increase as some people would like.

Cobra951 @ Oct 31st 2008 8:57PM

I am most optimistic about avoiding read errors. I have a feeling there is a nasty flaw in the OS that basically hangs the console on disc-read errors. So it's not just a question of faster access. Reliability is a bigger plus, I hope.

I only have the small (20/13-GB) HDD, so I'll be restricted to about one game DVD at a time. *Sigh*

Charlie_Six @ Oct 31st 2008 8:57PM

This is gonna be the best feature ever for me. My 360 is scary loud when I play a game disc. Can't wait to NOT hear it!!

Paulmichael @ Oct 31st 2008 9:00PM

I'm most excited about the DVD drive not spinning constantly. I can't wait until I'm playing Fable 2 without a jet engine in the same room. Load times should be better as well, so that's another plus. It's just too bad I didn't get into the beta...

ryan @ Oct 31st 2008 9:24PM

it says "no longer available". and I'm in the US not the UK or any other country. :(

ryan @ Nov 1st 2008 11:37AM

nm, Kotaku had them up.

NobodySpecial @ Oct 31st 2008 9:26PM

As one of the lucky people who got their hands on the NXE early, I must say that this is easily the greatest thing about the update and I finally have a reason to upgrade from my 20 gig HD to something more substantial.
Playing a game off the hard drive results in no more noise than playing an arcade title. It was quite nice to actually hear what the non-subtitled townspeople were saying in Fable 2. I also learned there was quite a bit of music going on that I was literally completely unaware of before.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Oct 31st 2008 9:54PM

I agree with you about the value of silence. When I mentioned how much I valued the silence of the PS3, I was told I was insane by Xbots. It's good to see that others agree that being able to choose your own game volume instead of having loud drive noise dictate it for you is something others see as useful.

Heyyou27 @ Oct 31st 2008 10:10PM

You aren't the only one; I love the 360 and all, but the noise it makes when reading a disc is one of the things that pushed me to playing games on the PS3 instead. Even when the DVD drive isn't being used, my Xbox 360 is still considerably louder than my PS3.

jynxycat @ Oct 31st 2008 9:45PM

Great feature indeed, at least for anyone with a HDD bigger than 20gb.

Although, with an 8x speed modded firmware, noise isn't really a factor, and as I don't really care about a few seconds of loading difference, I don't see myself copying much over anyhow. Neat nonetheless.