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    Playing Games Installed vs Not Installed

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by Valour549, Nov 11, 2014.

  1. Valour549

    Valour549 Notebook Geek

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    If u play a game where u simply copy an entire folder over and launch the game from there, compared to properly installing the game on ur laptop, is there any difference at all in terms of launch speed or performance?

    In particular I'm talking about on an SSD. I feel like pasting a folder in an SSD and running from there won't be as fast as properly installing a program in ur SSD. Might be wrong though.

    Thanks in advance for any thoughts or expertise on this matter.
     
    Valour549, Nov 11, 2014
    #1
  2. fatboyslimerr

    fatboyslimerr Alienware M15x Fanatic

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    Sounds good but might there be registry conflicts?
     
    fatboyslimerr, Nov 11, 2014
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  3. Redbeard

    Redbeard Notebook Consultant

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    Redbeard, Nov 24, 2014
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  4. D2 Ultima

    D2 Ultima Livestreaming Master

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    Most new games require actual installation. Some games don't; the launch speed doesn't change too much. Especially on a SSD; at worst it'd be like 1/4 second or something.
     
    D2 Ultima, Nov 24, 2014
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  5. Apollo13

    Apollo13 100% 16:10 Screens

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    It depends on the game. If the game looks up files in the registry, it may well fail to run without a proper installation. If it runs everything locally, then there shouldn't be any speed difference, since it's just looking in its folder, anyway.
     
    Apollo13, Nov 24, 2014
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  6. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    Most games rely on registry entries and also sometimes on tertiary programs installed/running (i.e Punkbuster, .Net, etc) that would come with the installation process. As far as performance, it wouldn't really matter. As noted, Starcraft 2 doesn't care, a lot of people run it off their USB thumb drives.
     
    HTWingNut, Nov 24, 2014
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  7. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Fixed that for you.

    If you're running a game from Steam, where you put the game doesn't make a difference since it's downloading all the files it needs. Where what you want to do wouldn't work so well is with games on physical media due to the aforementioned registry conflicts.
     
    saturnotaku, Nov 24, 2014
    #7
    D2 Ultima likes this.
  8. maxheap

    maxheap caparison horus :)

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    Steam games can be copy-pasted because Steam has its own registry entries after installation and the copy-pasted game communicates through Steam.
     
    maxheap, Nov 24, 2014
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  9. James D

    James D Notebook Prophet

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    I alway do it... keep games on drive D and sometimes reinstall OS on drive C. Game will create registry entries when first launched.
    But my Documents folder is on drive E so I never delete it when install OS.

    The only game which didn't run was Halo so I keep extracted registerstrings for it.
     
    James D, Nov 24, 2014
    #9