Skyrim PS3 vs 360 Load Times

Solution 1:

Since I don't know too many people who buy a $60 game for both XBox and PS3, I decided to compare load times using youtube vidoes.

Summary Table of Average Load Times (in seconds)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Console  New Game  Saved Game  Dungeon  House  Outside  City  Fast Travel
XBox     47        10*         21       9      22       20    28
PS3      22*       33*         17       7*     17       18    36*

*Low sample size (< 3)

Loading a new game:

• Xbox
  • 0:58
  • 0:58
  • 0:25
• PS3
  • 0:23
  • 0:21

Loading a new area (dungeon):

• Xbox
  • 0:30
  • 0:20
  • 0:15
  • 0:20
  • 0:21
• PS3
  • 0:15
  • 0:19
  • 0:18

Loading a new area (house):

• Xbox
  • 0:09
  • 0:08
  • 0:08
  • 0:10
  • 0:08
  • 0:12 (larger house)
  • 0:17 (castle)
  • 0:17 (castle)
• PS3
  • 0:07
  • 0:06
  • 0:14 (castle)

Loading a new area (outside):

• Xbox
  • 0:19
  • 0:21
  • 0:28
  • 0:22
  • 0:21
  • 0:05 (from house)
  • 0:05 (from house)
  • 0:05 (from house)
  • 0:07 (from house)
  • 0:25 (from larger house)
  • 0:24 (fast travel)
  • 0:30 (fast travel)
• PS3
  • 0:21
  • 0:12
  • 0:19
  • 0:05 (from house)
  • 0:05 (from house)
  • 0:29 (fast travel)
  • 0:42 (fast travel)

Loading a new area (city):

• XBox
  • 0:18
  • 0:20
  • 0:21
  • 0:20
  • 0:21
  • 0:30 (fast travel)
• PS3
  • 0:19
  • 0:20
  • 0:16

Loading a saved game:

• XBox
  • 0:10
• PS3
  • 0:32 (after death)
  • 0:33 (after death)

Solution 2:

This article is all you need:

Loading: When we look at the loading times for each version, there is a clear cut winner here. In just about every instance the PS3 version managed to load at least fifteen to almost thirty seconds faster than its 360 counterpart. One can only help but feel that the PS3 mandatory install played a huge roll in this, as these times are made with the 360 running off of the disk. Sure you could install the game on your 360 to remedy the insane loading times, but by doing so you compromise the visual advantage of the 360 due to the streaming glitch that is still present on Microsoft’s console when run off of the HDD. When you look at all of these factors based on how the game CURRENTLY runs, there is little doubt that the PS3 commands a large advantage here.

PlayStation 3 Load Times        Xbox 360 Load Times
Sample 1: 33 Seconds            Sample 1: 59 Seconds
Sample 2: 38 Seconds            Sample 2: 48 Seconds
Sample 3: 30 Seconds            Sample 3: 45 Seconds
Sample 4: 34 Seconds            Sample 4: 52 Seconds
Sample 5: 29 Seconds            Sample 5: 50 Seconds
Sample Average: 32.8 Seconds    Sample Average: 50.8 Seconds

Solution 3:

Technically on xbox if you install the game to your hard drive the load times increase but it also scales down textures and makes the graphics look worse because of the xbox's cacheing system. PC completely depends on your setup and if your pc is more powerful than the xbox/ps3.

According to this

Another article says that xbox 360's gameplay is "smooth as silk" and ps3 has slow downs and lag.

also on ps3

Solution 4:

I'm playing on xbox360 (not installed).

Most load times are approx 10 seconds. While in a load screen, they throw a 3d model viewer up that you can control with the sticks, which helps pass the brief time.

What is jarring, is the auto-safe every 15 minutes on menu activation. It completely freezes the game. This is approx 5 seconds, but it comes at a time when I open the menu for a purpose, and I can forget that purpose during the frozen 5 seconds. This feature can be turned off, but I haven't done that yet. Also, I'm auto-saving to a flash drive, which may be slower/faster than saving to the main drive.