FNR4 360 Hard Drive Performance Evaluation

Something I’ve done in that past that has been popular is taking a look at the differences in games on the 360 when played from disc vs the hard drive. Installing to the HDD has shown performance improvements in the games as well as cutting down on the stress to and noise from the console. Here is a look at the difference being seen in Fight Night Round 4.

Size of install- 4.4 GB. This is the smallest install I’ve completed since the feature was added.
Time to install- 6:20

Loading Times
Boot to menu screen- Disc 38 seconds vs HDD 24 seconds (14 seconds)
Load into Fight Now- Disc 29 seconds vs HDD 22 seconds (7 seconds)
Load back into menu- Disc 3 seconds vs HDD 2 seconds (1 second)
Load into Legacy- Disc 5 seconds vs HDD 4 seconds (1 second)
Load into Legacy fight- Disc 26 seconds vs HDD 22 seconds (4 seconds)

So significant improvement to the loading time is seen in the initial boot-up and a decent one for heading into each fight. It may also speed up the simming somewhat but that is harder to judge. Once again it is worthwhile to install the game not only for the better load times but also to keep the 360 running under minimal stress and reduced noise.