Intel Optane 900D SSD Optimised for Star Citizen

Bothand Nether

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So You folx may have already heard this,
but I saw in a Gamer's Nexus tech video today some type
I had not expected to see in an intel spec sheet column.....
"Optimized for Robert's Space Industries Star Citizen PC Game"
Apparently, on or around Citizen Con Intel will showcase their new
Optane 900P which will be optimized for S.C. & will come in a 240gb & a 480gb size.
View: https://youtu.be/WGQ3lxFx-DA?t=155
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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Now we have that answered, next question!

Just having a think about this, as it is stated as "Optimised" (bearing in mind they have not officially declared so may drop that wording) and the the minimum capacity of that SSD unit is 280gb, it seems the game (taking into account the operating system and necessary space to play it) is not going to go above 200gb...? I take it they have declared SC is going to be no bigger than this? If it is and doesn't fit on a 280gb would I get a refund as it clearly wasn't optimised for SC.

And depending on the final specs of the unit, if it has been "Optimised" based on what CR says the game will need maximum, potentially we will need no faster than the slowest version of this drive can do?

Basically what i'm getting at here is this: Kryders Law is basically Moores Law for Storage, predicting a doubling of density every 13 months... If they have Optimised this SSD for SC right now, by the time SC finally comes out (estimate 4 years to put a number on it), an optimum drive will be available at bargain prices - in fact by the time the game comes out, if it is delayed for a few years, we may not be able to buy SSD's this slow by that time... If this is an optimised SSD, I will have actual numbers to monitor when it finally comes time to build my game-PC (it will only be for SC) and buy the cheapest examples of the optimum stats required...

I heavily suspect the word "Optimised" to vanish from the announcement. If the game is over 70gb I'm going to need a bigger boat.
 
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EpilepticCricket

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It is in no way "optimized for" SC any more than it's optimized for anything else. It's a storage device. Outside of military or scientific applications, hardware is almost never optimized for software. It's the other way around. But since this is an SSD, there is no optimizations that can be made outside of putting artificial bottlenecks on things that aren't SC (but even then, that's a software process).

The line referenced should have been presented as the SSD will be "marketed towards systems/platforms that are optimized for SC". This is a mistake on the presenter. Not a claim from Intel that their SSD is made special for SC.
 

Radegast74

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I think the big deal is the "meta" about this, i.e., a big name hardware company (is Intel the biggest?) wants to be associated with Star Citizen.

This is good news for us, hopefully, CR will get some deals on hardware, to make our pledge dollars go further. This is also good for Intel, as they can hype a game that will really push the PC and make use of all of a PC's power. (Note that Microsoft doesn't really want to push any PC game that will make an Xbox look weak).

Other than that, I don't think there is much more to this, at the moment. But it is always good when an outside business looks at us and says, "Gee, we think these guys are going to be a winner!" You don't see Intel wanting their name associated with any of Derek Smart's games, do you?
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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But it is always good when an outside business looks at us and says, "Gee, we think these guys are going to be a winner!" You don't see Intel wanting their name associated with any of Derek Smart's games, do you?
I like this thinking a lot. I'm always pessimistic, its my way of coping with life, but this above I like :)
 

Xist

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I think the big deal is the "meta" about this, i.e., a big name hardware company (is Intel the biggest?) wants to be associated with Star Citizen.
Optane is a high speed disk solution. It requires a brand new motherboard (also Intel) to work, much to the dismay of many people with recent motherboards.

They are marketing it at high performance apps, like high fidelity games (games with huge storage requirements that actually need to read that stuff fast).

SC has millions of gamer followers, so it's the perfect thing to align with, since pretty much everyone who wants to play SC and who can afford to buy a new system at launch is planning to do so for this game.

Intel is just saying hey, put an optane drive in your new system.

And it's working. Here we are talking about a hard drive.

Good marketing.
 

Talonsbane

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Can we get it in Test colors?
I think that the better question is, given that this will not be an inexpensive item to acquire, will this order another beer or beverage of choice for each TEST member that purchases it each time their glasses get low? If so, will the SSD also pay for said beverage so that even if it isn't as good as its hype, it would eventually pay for itself 1 drink at a time?
 

Sirus7264

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Optane is a high speed disk solution. It requires a brand new motherboard (also Intel) to work, much to the dismay of many people with recent motherboards.

They are marketing it at high performance apps, like high fidelity games (games with huge storage requirements that actually need to read that stuff fast).

SC has millions of gamer followers, so it's the perfect thing to align with, since pretty much everyone who wants to play SC and who can afford to buy a new system at launch is planning to do so for this game.

Intel is just saying hey, put an optane drive in your new system.

And it's working. Here we are talking about a hard drive.

Good marketing.
Do we know what the speed is yet per card? Also what raid arrays are available?
 

Printimus

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I think that the better question is, given that this will not be an inexpensive item to acquire, will this order another beer or beverage of choice for each TEST member that purchases it each time their glasses get low? If so, will the SSD also pay for said beverage so that even if it isn't as good as its hype, it would eventually pay for itself 1 drink at a time?
no
 

Xist

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Do we know what the speed is yet per card? Also what raid arrays are available?
Not sure. It seems to be a competitor to M.2 SSDs with probably comparable performance.

From what I've read the main benefit is additional caching which can be good for an OS drive. Not sure it makes any real difference for a data drive if you already use M.2 or PCI NVMe for that.
 
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Sirus7264

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Not sure. It seems to be a competitor to M.2 SSDs with probably comparable performance.

From what I've read the main benefit is additional caching which can be good for an OS drive. Not sure it makes any real difference for a data drive if you already use M.2 or PCI NVMe for that.
Yeah I think PCI NVMe is still going to be better but maybe this new optane will compete for space conservation to free up those PCI slots. Is there anyword on if they got SLI or Crossfire working again or a new structure? I kinda fell off for a while due to real life stuff and what not.
 

mindfart

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Optane won't come to m.2. Because of heat and power issues.

Optane has super low access times. Much lower than any ssd today. I think the throughput is also capable of much higher speeds than most ssd's available today, but this will depend on how it's implemented by the intel.

Anyways, see linus' video for more info
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwH5Q8ZFJvw
 
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