https://youtu.be/OngP6uEfQoE?t=209

Because it streams in all planets and etc... You need an ssd to get even remotely playable performance.

Even with my SSD, I get sizeable pauses sometimes - ten to twenty seconds long on Area 18. My theory is that this is due to my swap file being on my platter drive and only having 16 gigs of RAM.

I was running the game on a platter drive for a few months before buying a cheap SSD and they aren't kidding about the load times.

When I was running 8GB and a platter drive it was unplayable.

Now on 16GB and an SSD I just get the the odd stutter.

Is your operating system on your SSD, too, Chucky?

It does depend on the game itself too. Trainz 2019 takes it´s time to load some routes on my PC, but not so anymore with SC since I got a SSD. It has to do with good, or bad programing in a way. If the house is a mess, it´s takes more time to find anything.

My O/S is on a m.2 nvme SSD.

I have a separate SSD for games that need it,the rest go on a platter drive.

I'll try moving my swap file to my SSD then and see if that helps.

I moved my swap file to my SSD and... performance at Area 18t increased immensely. Who would have thought?

I can't imagine not having an SSD today to be honest. Prices are now reasonable.

I agree, some are even cheaper, or same as mechanical ones. Life span might not be as long though...

Unless you are doing something crazy an SSD should outlive a normal HDD. The current ones are just better in every way... well... maybe not as good at long term power off storage but then again HDDs had issues with that too. For that you need magnetic tape drives.