NXE Update Improving Game Experiences
by 
One of the anticipated elements to the New Xbox Experience (NXE) is the ability to install the games to the hard drive. While the disc is still required to be in the 360 while playing, drawing from the hard drive is supposed to put less strain on the hardware as well as decrease loading times as the disc isn’t spinning or being read.
So I thought I would go through and experiment with some of the more recent sports titles to see what if any effect is had by installing the game to the hard drive. The actual installs took about 10 minutes each. I went through a few scenarios with NCAA Football 09, Madden 09, NBA 2K9, and NHL 09. Continue on to see the results.
Size of Install: 6.3 GB
Start-up of game into the menu screen: 1:10 (disc) vs 1:01 (hard drive)
Loading into a play now game: 24 seconds (disc) vs 16 seconds (hard drive)
Loading out of a game into the menu screen: 35 seconds (disc) vs 34 seconds (hard drive)
Total time saved: 18 seconds
Size of Install: 6.7 GB
Start-up of game into the menu screen: 54 seconds (disc) vs 38 seconds (hard drive)
Loading into a play now game: 41 seconds (disc) vs 37 seconds (hard drive)
Loading out of a game into the menu screen: 15 seconds (disc) vs 9 seconds (hard drive)
Total time saved: 26 seconds
Size of Install: 6.7 GB
Start-up of game into the menu screen: 57 seconds (disc) vs 42 seconds (hard drive)
Loading into a play now game: 29 seconds (disc) vs 22 seconds (hard drive)
Loading out of a game into the menu screen: 6 seconds (disc) vs 3 seconds (hard drive)
Total time saved: 25 seconds
Size of Install: 5.7 GB
Start-up of game into the menu screen: 43 seconds (disc) vs 38 seconds (hard drive)
Loading into a play now game: 27 seconds seconds (disc) vs 24 seconds (hard drive)
Loading out of a game into the menu screen: 2 seconds (disc) vs 1 second (hard drive)
Total time saved: 9 seconds
While the times were not reduced drastically there is some improvement seen from loading off the hard drive as opposed to the disc. Just saving a few seconds here and there is a good thing and can really add up.
Browsing through menus I found some cases where moving through them seemed a little more fluid, while other times it seemed the same as before with some occasional lag/stuttering. There have been reports of people believing that the games actually play better when running off the hard drive, though I did not attempt to evaluate that for this article.
The thing I noticed most while doing the comparisons is the noise that the 360 generated. When reading off the hard drive it was very quiet. Basically the same amount of sound the 360 produces when just sitting on the dashboard is what you get when playing the games that are installed to the hard drive.
So this has taken me to the conclusion that I need to upgrade my hard drive to at least the 60GB. There is the immediate benefits being seen of slightly quicker load times, potentially smoother menus and gameplay, and a quieter running 360. It seems well worth the investment now.
November 19, 2008 at 6:23 pm
i was wondering how much putting them on the hard drives would help thanks for taking the time to show us. ah now i need a bigger hard drive too.
November 19, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Just happy to beat that SDot spanner. :-/
November 19, 2008 at 7:03 pm
so when it says strain is reduced, does that mean that it reduces your chances of RROD?
November 19, 2008 at 7:08 pm
I played nba live on this does playing off the Hard drive Dumb Down The graphics at all it seemed weird to me?
November 19, 2008 at 7:29 pm
it reminds me of wii with the avators and all
November 19, 2008 at 7:29 pm
^^^ probably because you played NBA 2k9?! : p
November 19, 2008 at 7:31 pm
@ Jbledyaboi:
i hope
November 19, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Pasta, how long did it take to install/delete each of these games?
I’ve only got a 20GB hard drive, but I change games on about a weekly basis; I’m just wondering if the installation/deletion time is short enough to warrant making the install/deletes as frequently as I’d need to.
November 19, 2008 at 8:10 pm
yeah, i gotta switch to a 60 GB. I’ve been putting it off. But the games on hard drive, stops that disc from spinning and making all that noise.
November 19, 2008 at 8:18 pm
About 10 mins to install, 1 second to delete
November 19, 2008 at 8:31 pm
so do you mean you still have to have that game disc running after you download to your harddrive to play the game? if it is then whats the point? its just the same as playing from the disc. Its just wasting memory room just for game time saved and quietness. Whats the point????
November 19, 2008 at 8:40 pm
good thing i have a 120 GB HD on the Elite. I installed nba live 09 an dit’s very quiet and seemed faster and more fluid. As long as it reduces freezing and heating up of the box itself, I am good.
November 19, 2008 at 8:42 pm
alexguy96 wrote:
the disc probably needs to be there for piracy issues. it reads i guess the code on the disc , but the disc is not being read so it reduces acivity of the drive >>> less heating>>>>less loading times>>>> less freezing.
November 19, 2008 at 8:56 pm
I have mixed opinions about this. It seems a little harder to navigate through everything. Liked the Avatars though. I installed NCAA on my HDD and I did notice slight decrease in load times.
November 19, 2008 at 8:57 pm
@ GHOG RELAX lil homie I WON’T be ON it like dat til FNRD4 DROPS
den U will see plenty of
if ur NOT 1ST ur LAST
November 19, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Yet another reason to switch to a bigger HD for me….Xmas is close!
November 19, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Yay I get to save 20 seconds! This feature is pointless.
November 19, 2008 at 10:12 pm
that’s quite an experiment, thanks Pasta
November 19, 2008 at 11:04 pm
you probably have a slow connection pasta.
I heard it takes 5 mins to install to harddrive and sports games shouldn’t take that long to install.
November 19, 2008 at 11:48 pm
This is dumb. You still need the game to play it. Pointless. and no, it does not make the gameplay better..lol
November 20, 2008 at 12:00 am
got a 120 GB HDD…its pretty nice to be able to play a game in silence…and not have to crank of the TV volume to hear the action in the game….
November 20, 2008 at 12:32 am
i saved madden to my hard drive and i was playing on line and it booted it me out of every game i played….. and i was like whats going on so than im guessing its this stupid hard drive thing cuz its never happened before….anyone have any thoughts on that?
November 20, 2008 at 12:34 am
I just played madden and nba live online tonight off HD and it was fine worked even better then normal more smooth
November 20, 2008 at 2:09 am
Justin tuck wrote:
it has nothing to do with a connection. if he says it takes 10 min than its 10 min it looks like he loaded a lot of diff games, I believe he would know.
November 20, 2008 at 2:17 am
Lalo418 wrote:
I would be willing to bet that its because you and the guy you are playing against aren’t getting completely synced up together due to the differing load times. my copy of ncaa football takes forever to load, so when I play online I get past the match up screen & I wait for the game to load, it takes a lil longer to load. I can even hear the other player over mic. but at the coin flip I get disconected.
November 20, 2008 at 3:03 am
NBA 2K9 motion and frame rate seem to be more improved when playing from the hard drive also.
November 20, 2008 at 4:32 am
some people that say they dont care about loading times need to understand, your 360 isnt working as hard when running from hard drive. Maybe it will stop the infamous red light issue, or maybe not. Its weird because i got this message from halo saying i need to use the disc and not install from the hard drive or I will have issues. I ignored that message ad did it anyway, and was quite surprised how quick the load times were and matchmaking!!
November 20, 2008 at 7:00 am
di wrote:
exactly…its the sound and the work that the 360 was doing previously that is greatly reduced…that’s a MONSTEROUS plus…plus…future games are going to take advantage of the harddrive install option in order to make double and triple disc games a possibility on the 360…
November 20, 2008 at 7:02 am
I’m loving the new look,but yea you can install games on your xbox.Also by installing the game it will load faster and make almost no system noise,and we all no the xbox 360 is loud as hell so its definetly a plus.
Note:dont be a fool and waste over a hundred dollars on another hard drive if your lacking space to install more games because if you do need more just delete what you installed and download it some other time because all it takes is ten minutes to install. Peace
November 20, 2008 at 7:21 am
would be a good thing if you didn’t have to have the disc inside the xbox… install the game and put the disc where it’s nice and safe… 60 bucks lost due to a scratch is not fun… yet it’s business for the retailers
November 20, 2008 at 7:34 am
great experiment, I loaded three games already, NCAA football, Basketball 2K9, and End War, games seem to load fatser and I’m thinking it will cut down the RROD.
Good work Microsoft
November 20, 2008 at 8:05 am
Do some of you idiots have brains…Why would it be dumb to leave the disc in when anybody can then go rent 10 games in block buster and save them to the hd and not have to pay for them…Sometimes I am baffled by americas youth and their lack of brain usuage…..Idiots…..Biggest reason to load it to the hd is to reduce the sound and make load times quicker….only and idiot would question why you have to put the disc in when you know that it is done for the purpose that no company wants to give free games away…
November 20, 2008 at 8:33 am
I’m glad I got an Elite w/120gb now! Does any1 know if the 360 can auto detect like the PS3? What I mean is, if a game or movie runs better in 1080p (blu rays & SOME games) on the PS3 it will run in that form. If a game (like most PS3 games) run in 720p it will run 720p and doesn’t try to upconvert. I play Gears 2 in 720p b/c it is a lil smoother and I can’t see any graphics difference on a 1080p TV w/1080p Xbox. Any1, any1???
November 20, 2008 at 8:45 am
Touche’
Oh the possibilities……
Jonathon wrote:
November 20, 2008 at 8:53 am
I installed Gears 2 so far on my harddrive but that’s it. Runs smoother, 360 doesn’t make noise, etc. Problem is like you said Pasta, I might have to upgrade the the 60 GB now.
November 20, 2008 at 9:39 am
MLB 2k8 also has some nice speedups. Mostly in the game loading. The actual game play itself is less of an issue. Sometimes when it has to go search out images like player faces that is increased.
But the initial game loading is faster (although I didn’t actually TIME it). Saves are faster, too oddly enough.
And of course, the quiet 360 is a serious improvement. I do have just the 20GB drive, so I can only realistically install one game at a time due to all the other stuff I have on there.
November 20, 2008 at 9:52 am
I installed NBA 2K9 to my hard drive & it definately plays smoother. I was suprised how much smoother it played. Not that it didn’t run smooth before but little things like the crowd cutscene between quarters was smooth where before the framerate was choppy. There were some drops in framerate on some freethrow cutscenes before but now I don’t notice any. Too bad it doesn’t correct the issue with the framerate dropping when playing on other camera angles though. Overall this will definately prolong the life of the 360.
November 20, 2008 at 10:02 am
Joe Siegler wrote:
I was just wondering how this might affect MLB2K8 performance, specifically the framerate issue (load time doesn’t really concern me). My 360 is away getting fixed, so if anybody else could experiment with MLB2K8 performance on the hard drive I’d definitely appreciate it.
November 20, 2008 at 11:18 am
lynn wrote:
I will experiement with MLB2K8 tonight and let you know.
November 20, 2008 at 12:02 pm
NJPapi1977 wrote:
your one mad vatoe.
November 20, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Best part of the NXE so far –
Netflix Integration
VERY impressed with how smoothly it’s running – spent my lunch hour adding a ton of movies to my “Play Now” queue
November 20, 2008 at 3:04 pm
how do u install them to the hard drive?
November 20, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Maurice N. wrote:
Before you load the game go to the MY XBOX section from the home page & wait a second. Then just press Y & it will give you the option to install to hard drive.
November 24, 2008 at 3:26 am
I used to get "unreadable disc" errors all the dang time before downloading my NCAA 09 game to the hard drive…Now that it's d-loaded, not one error and no freezing episodes. I love it!!!!!!!!!!
December 7, 2008 at 1:05 am
yo pasta are u or is anybody having problems with their xbox360 while turning it on… i just upgraded my xbox yesterday now its actin funny