How long does it take........

[Slick Rick]

I am wondering if you all have to wait as long as I do for the game to load up.....on average from the time I click on the icon to start the game it takes almost three to four minutes for it to get me to the menu....I was wondering if this was pretty much the norm......also...I have a Nvidia Ge force 4 TI 4600 video card...is this card outdated now and are the new ones that much better?? I am just wondering if I am missing out on a better display and quicker action......the game really seems to only slow if I TC too much......I appreciate your input...Rick

[JScones]

35 seconds max on my somewhat mid-range PC:

-Gigabyte GA-K8NPRO-SLI (nVIDIA nForce4 chipset)
-AMD Athlon 64-bit 3500+ Venice, Socket 939
-1024MB (1GB) DDR 400MHz
-Western Digital Caviar SE 200GB SATA II 8.9ms 7200rpm
-Pioneer 16x DVR-110BK
-nVIDIA 6600GT 128MB TDH PCI Express x16
-Creative Sound Blaster Audigy
-450W standard miditower with USB ports everywhere!!

This is with all background processes running. I'm sure it's faster after a fresh boot with no background processes running.

Upgrade your video card, to a MINIMUM nVidia GeForce 6600GT. But then, maybe your whole machine needs updating?

[Slick Rick]

1 220-9337 Dimension 4500 Series Intel Pentium 4 Processor at 2.0GHz
1 311-1325 1024MB DDR SDRAM at 266MHz

1 320-0320 128MB DDR NVIDIA GEFORCE4 TI4600 Graphics Card with TV-Out and DVI
1 340-2963 80GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive (7200 RPM)

1 420-3079 Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition,English

[irish1958]

I have about the same time as JScones when I load SHIII without mods. When I load a heavily moded game such as GW with carito add on, (about 2 Gb) via SH3Cmdr (with add ons in the random folder) it takes about three minutes.
Suggestions: Always use a fresh boot; close unnecessary processes and applications; consider using an utility to close them; consider adding RAM.
irish1958

[VonHelsching]

I have the impression that the GFX card does not affect the loading speed. I have an old AMD Athlon 2200+, 1GB ram and I upgraded my Nvidia 5200 to a 6800GT. Loading time was the same.

I guess in your case JS, it is a combination of a fast HD + a faster processor (yes? )

[Firebird]

2 minutes 20 seconds (GW 1.1 only) excluding StarForce check
Athlon XP 2000+
2x256 MB DDR @302 Mhz (dual channel)

2x512 MB RAM would probably make a big difference?

[JSalinger]

Mine's about 50-55 seconds (I'll round up to a minute just for the heck of it) with a 6200.

[Firebird]

I really don't see how a different video card could have any impact, as VonHelsching already demonstrated . The video card is barely processing anything at that time... I guess SH3 is preloading a number of files to lessen the loadtime when you actually want to play, because that menu doesn't require much. May I ask what CPU and RAM you have JSalinger?

Originally Posted by JScones

-Gigabyte GA-K8NPRO-SLI (nVIDIA nForce4 chipset)
-AMD Athlon 64-bit 3500+ Venice, Socket 939
-1024MB (1GB) DDR 400MHz
-Western Digital Caviar SE 200GB SATA II 8.9ms 7200rpm
-Pioneer 16x DVR-110BK
-nVIDIA 6600GT 128MB TDH PCI Express x16
-Creative Sound Blaster Audigy
-450W standard miditower with USB ports everywhere!!

Somewhat mid-range!!!

Makes mine look like a clunky old toy.

Mine takes about 1 minute to load the game, maybe 2-3 minutes to load the campaign for playing.

3GB Gateway
512 Ram
Good video card, but I can't remember what kind.
Onboard sound (too poor for a sound card).

[JSalinger]

2x 256 RAM (yeah, I know, small lol ought to upgrade)
recently upgraded 3.0 GHz

[Deep Six]

I ran the game quite happily o a Ti4200 for about a year heavily modded and before that SH2, had no probs with loading, usually under 2mins

Get your self this little program if you can it's still free somewhere on the net called "End it All", it closes down all most programs running in the background. Speeds up everything quite appreciably, also if you can get the free version of XP Smoker this little app configures a whole heap of Windows XP settings, it also has a "Game boost tab" Which in effect closes about everything else that end it all does not... I.e put XP in classic mode, and just has system files running......Big boost for running games, plus when you have finished you can just open up Smoker and reset windows by tabbing the disable game boost button...


Hope this helps


Deep six

[JScones]

Originally Posted by VonHelsching

I have the impression that the GFX card does not affect the loading speed. I have an old AMD Athlon 2200+, 1GB ram and I upgraded my Nvidia 5200 to a 6800GT. Loading time was the same.

Correct. The video card won't impact game loading times.

Originally Posted by VonHelsching

I guess in your case JS, it is a combination of a fast HD + a faster processor (yes? )

Yeah. Plus I've also made sure that I've used components that are best suited to, and most compatible with, each other.

Originally Posted by Firebird

I guess SH3 is preloading a number of files to lessen the loadtime when you actually want to play, because that menu doesn't require much.

Correct.

Originally Posted by Deep Six

Get your self this little program if you can it's still free somewhere on the net called "End it All", it closes down all most programs running in the background. Speeds up everything quite appreciably...

FSAutoStart is another similar product. I think it provides the same functionality as End-It-All plus some extra scripting features.

[tycho102]

Takes me 20-30 seconds. The loadup needs a lot of processing power and just normal disk read, so everyone with upscale processors are going to see fast load times.

[andy_311]

90 secs on mine.

[deadactionman]

For me, the menu appears in less than a minute, but I've noticed that after installing CD-RW software (Nero), the loading time goes up to about 3 minutes. This might have something to do with the game's copy protection system? Incidently, it loads much faster when using the NoCD "patch"... or so I've heard