Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General SSD Required?

It seems that software producers, including game companies, just keep making their software more and more cumbersome and bulky just because newer hardware can run it. Understandably, if what you were trying to acheive was only possible on the new hardware there would be a point, but I don't think that is the case. Often it is laziness with regard to exploitation of resources or it is simply bad design.

I remember in the early days of computing how skilled engineers were trying to optimize the code so they could make room for just one missing byte in memory space, or using clever tricks in order to speed optimizing the code. Today programmers laugh their ass to pieces if you suggest saving memory space, or arrange things in a way so that you minimize the need for saving/loading to/from a hard drive. 'With more power comes more responsibility' - not in the software world lol. Graphics wise it is true, hardware is pushed to the limits trying to obtain a better experience for the users, but the need for a SSD drive should not be necessary for a game like BG3.

I don't pretend to know how Larian did the coding of BG3, but I know what a modern computer can do, and what is possible through smart software. Starting up the hard drive should only be necessary if a) the physical memory is not a big enough memory space to contain data that needs to be readily available or b) you need to run video or load new content (new area for instance). In case of a) the game code should be smart about not needing to access hard drive data too much in the middle of time critical processes. In the case of b) well, it is perfectly possible to run HQ video fluently from a hard drive so I don't understand why games stall in cut scenes. It's not a hardware problem definitely. And new content can be loaded at times when it is ok for the user to sit and wait a little while loading is going on. All in all, I don't believe for a second that any user experience would need to be diminished if the game was made for HDD hardware.

From a user perspective though: Buy a SSD. It is a good investment in any case, and you cannot control how software developers design their code. Your windows system in general will also perform better. Happy gaming!