How to optimize Intel 660P 2TB for Final Fantasy XV assets?
The asset loading in this game is a joke; scenes just go black and then pop in out of nowhere. My drive was tanking to 50MB/s at the worst moments. Because the Intel 660P uses QLC NAND, once the SLC cache runs dry, the performance falls off a cliff, pushing my frame times to 40ms. I tried dropping the resolution to 1080p, but it looked like a blurry mess, which was just masochism. I eventually manually locked my virtual memory to 32GB in system settings and dialed the texture quality down from 'Ultra' to 'High'. In Resource Monitor, the disk active time finally settled between 15-25%, and the popping disappeared. My boot time took a 3-second hit after the VM change, but disabling Fast Startup fixed that. Drive temps are between 40-48℃ with fans at 1200 RPM. I exported the read curves via analysis tools, and the fan speed is now stable at 1400-1600 RPM, though QLC drives will always have these limits.
