Tips for loading Team Fortress 2 maps faster

[Elliot B.]

I'm generally the 4th-5th in, in a server of 24-32.

 

Let's assume I wanted to become the first person in the game each time the server changes the map - what would you suggest? :p

 

My PC:

 

Asrock H77M
Intel Core i5-3570K
8 GB DDR3-1600
AMD Radeon HD 7870 XT
Microsoft Windows 8.1 (x64)

 

The game is installed on my SanDisk Ultra Plus SSD (C:\, where Windows is also installed)

[Roger H. Veteran]

Maybe install to D with another SSD? Pagefile writes prolly slowing it down to you may want to move the pagefile to D on a normal HDD instead and keep it the game on C if that's cheaper :P

 

Speaking of pagefile too, you may want to bump up RAM to 16GB too so that the system doesn't need to use the pagefile as much anyways.

[Elliot B.]

Maybe install to D with another SSD? Pagefile writes prolly slowing it down to you may want to move the pagefile to D on a normal HDD instead and keep it the game on C if that's cheaper :p

 

Speaking of pagefile too, you may want to bump up RAM to 16GB too so that the system doesn't need to use the pagefile as much anyways.

I'll move the pagefile to one of my internal 7,200 RPM HDDs and I'll grab another 8 GB RAM (y)

[D!ABOL!C]

I second running an SSD. I have an older PC running a core2duo and 4GB of RAM, but have a Crucial M4 and I am generally the first person on the server.

 

Do note, that when you fire up TF2 and join a server the first time, it will take longer initially. I was reading on the Steam forums and that appears to be an issue with the old Source engine. So once you pre-load a map, the map loads should be faster going forward.

[Elliot B.]

I second running an SSD. I have an older PC running a core2duo and 4GB of RAM, but have a Crucial M4 and I am generally the first person on the server.

 

Do note, that when you fire up TF2 and join a server the first time, it will take longer initially. I was reading on the Steam forums and that appears to be an issue with the old Source engine. So once you pre-load a map, the map loads should be faster going forward.

It's already installed on an SSD.