Bootcamp on Fusion Drive

[TripleMoxy]

Can anyone comment on the performance of Windows 8.1 on the Hard Disk section of the Fusion Drive? I'm considering getting a 3TB Fusion Drive, and I understand that the Bootcamp partition goes on the 7200 HDD, so I just want to know whether the performance is horrible.

I'm thinking of the full 1TB SSD, but I feel like it might be overkill as I'll only be using the Bootcamp partition for gaming.

 

[yjchua95]

Can anyone comment on the performance of Windows 8.1 on the Hard Disk section of the Fusion Drive? I'm considering getting a 3TB Fusion Drive, and I understand that the Bootcamp partition goes on the 7200 HDD, so I just want to know whether the performance is horrible.

I'm thinking of the full 1TB SSD, but I feel like it might be overkill as I'll only be using the Bootcamp partition for gaming.

It's far slower compared to OS X off the SSD part. I Boot Camp from an external 7200rpm drive in an Thunderbolt enclosure, so I know how it performs on a 7200rpm drive (my 27" iMac has a 512GB SSD, but I did not Boot Camp it, and installed Windows in the TB drive instead).

However, performance is good if you can cope with the slow startup times and slow app launching. Gaming is okay on a 7200rpm drive.

 

[hfg]

Can anyone comment on the performance of Windows 8.1 on the Hard Disk section of the Fusion Drive? I'm considering getting a 3TB Fusion Drive, and I understand that the Bootcamp partition goes on the 7200 HDD, so I just want to know whether the performance is horrible.

I'm thinking of the full 1TB SSD, but I feel like it might be overkill as I'll only be using the Bootcamp partition for gaming.

When you create a BootCamp partition on the Fusion drive, it simply removes a portion of the hard disk from the Fusion management algorithms. A Windows installation on the BootCamp partition will thus run just like Windows on any other hard disk ... and just like users have been running Windows for years.

If you want to improve the Windows performance experience, install your Windows to an external Thunderbolt SSD on your iMac.

 

[TripleMoxy]

Thanks for your replies. I've bitten the bullet and ordered this 27" iMac:

• 3.5GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
• 8GB RAM
• 1TB Flash Storage
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4GB GDDR5

Estimated delivery in one week. Quite excited!

 

[yjchua95]

Thanks for your replies. I've bitten the bullet and ordered this 27" iMac:

• 3.5GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
• 8GB RAM
• 1TB Flash Storage
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4GB GDDR5

Estimated delivery in one week. Quite excited!

I've got a similar setup but with 32GB of RAM (added them myself) and a 512GB SSD

It'll fly like a rocket

 

[Mac32]

When you start to get into mods, like with STALKER games, which have an amazing mod community, SSD can make a big difference in loading times and a smoother gameplay (with less stuttering because of HD access/loading during playing).

 

[TripleMoxy]

I've got a similar setup but with 32GB of RAM (added them myself) and a 512GB SSD

It'll fly like a rocket

I'm considering the upgrade to 16GB for memory, but I think that I'll see how it behaves with 8GB first. I'm not sure that I'm so high-end that I'll use 32GB

Do you notice a huge difference with 32?

 

[yjchua95]

I'm considering the upgrade to 16GB for memory, but I think that I'll see how it behaves with 8GB first. I'm not sure that I'm so high-end that I'll use 32GB

Do you notice a huge difference with 32?

I only see the difference when working with huge Photoshop files and doing heavy video editing. Otherwise, 8GB is fine for most needs.

PS: Don't buy RAM upgrades from Apple, they charge daft prices. Order it with 8GB of RAM and get 4x8GB sticks later from Crucial or elsewhere if you need it

 

[TripleMoxy]

I only see the difference when working with huge Photoshop files and doing heavy video editing. Otherwise, 8GB is fine for most needs.

PS: Don't buy RAM upgrades from Apple, they charge daft prices. Order it with 8GB of RAM and get 4x8GB sticks later from Crucial or elsewhere if you need it

Thanks for that. I've used Crucial before, for my ageing Mac mini, so I'll probably go with them.

32GB is a heroic amount of RAM!

 

[yjchua95]

Thanks for that. I've used Crucial before, for my ageing Mac mini, so I'll probably go with them.

32GB is a heroic amount of RAM!

I have 32GB of RAM in my 27" and 64GB in each of my nMPs because:

1. The nMPs are used by my dad for rendering work (he's a physicist)
2. One of the nMPs has ESXi 5.5 on it and is used to host multiple OSes on one machine, using hardware pass-through.
3. I run several VMs at the same time on my iMac, and also use it for 4K video editing, plus heavy Photoshop work.

It's easy to use up 32GB of RAM fully (and even more) if the tasks that you do demands it