Nov. 11, 2006 @ 20:11
GCFScape updated with better-than-Valve defragging!

Nem has been busy updating GCFScape and HLLib and has included much better defragging of GCF files than Valve’s own. To quote from Nem’s post:

“The results of HLLib’s defragmenter were better than I had expected with an average speedup on HLLib tests of 2.62 and an average speedup on Steam tests of 2.32 (for a total average speedup of 2.47). The baseline tests were all conducted on Day of Defeat: Source GCF files that had been run through Steam’s defragmenter (which claimed 0% fragmentation even though I calculated an average of 8.38%).”

Interesting to note that Valve’s own defragmenter claimed 0% fragmentation when Nem calculated almost 10% in some case. Nem continues:

“Of particular interest is the 3.35 speedup for DOD: Source validation through Steam. This is because validation is more IO bound than CPU bound meaning the speedup is indicative of Steam’s raw file IO speedup. The result of this IO speedup can be seen in the dod_anzio test where I was able to load dod_anzio 26 seconds faster than before defragmentation. Even the casual gamer should appreciate that.”

I know myself that some of the slow load times with Steam have frustrated me so if in some cases you could be gaining 20 seconds or more it’s certainly worth a look!

You can read the rest of Nem’s post and more details of his tests and results here and download the latest GCFScape and try it for yourself.

I wonder what Valve will make of it…

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Responses to “GCFScape updated with better-than-Valve defragging!”


Thanks for the plug Jed!

I posted my results on Steam’s forums hoping to get some confirmations for my tests, so far so good:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=505840

Nem

Posted by Nem
Sun, November 12th, 2006 @ 23:29

Wow…time to defrag CSS’ GCF and DOD’s GCF and every GCF I can find! :p

Posted by Frostbite
Wed, November 15th, 2006 @ 07:23