Add a RAM Disk to Your Computer for Faster-than-SSD Performance

[terence_fdes]

Add a RAM Disk to Your Computer for Faster-than-SSD Performance



Feel the need for more computer speed? Even if you're already rocking a fast SSD (one of the best upgrades you can make), you can still improve your computer's performance by adding more memory and turning it into a RAM disk, which can be as much as 70 times faster than a regular hard drive or 20 times faster than an SSD. We've previously mentioned how you can move caches to a RAM disk to increase your SSD's longevity. Besides that benefit, though, a RAM disk can make your programs launch as much as twice as fast—whether you have an SSD or not.

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[Revolution]

RAM Disk will bring any improvement for PC gaming ?
Is 64GB DDR3 RAM really cheap ?
May be just under 20K I guess ?

 

[terence_fdes]

RAM Disk will bring any improvement for PC gaming ?
Is 64GB DDR3 RAM really cheap ?
May be just under 20K I guess ?

.... But 64GB ..... on the Intel platform means socket 2011/X79 Motherboards - which are a lot more expensive than the 1155/56 Sockets -which support only upto 32GB.

I guess this is where AMD takes the lead - since almost 2 years, their sockets/motherboard series support 64GB and above & these combo's (mobo + procs work out to be a lot cheaper).

Which means that all those who have 1155/56 boards have to first maximise their RAM [16/32 GB] and keeping 6-8GB for the OS can allocate the rest for RAM-DISK (most games today ..... AC III take up like what 14-18GB space), so theoretically there should be a major improvement in PC gaming. Is this reasoning correct ?

I need to still brush up my own facts about this RAM DISK concept - however one thing is clear - cost-to-benefits/performance .... It will burn a huge hole in one's pocket as compared to getting another 128/256 GB SSD (cheaper alternative).

 

[booo]

ram disk cannot persist across reboots...

 

[Arv90]

Is this reasoning correct ?
I need to still brush up my own facts about this RAM DISK concept

Am i missing the memory paging concept. The whole OS or the game doesn't go to the RAM.
And what about the volatility part??

 

[terence_fdes]

Am i missing the memory paging concept. The whole OS or the game doesn't go to the RAM.
And what about the volatility part??

The volatility part is taken care of by using third party Ramdisk emulators - Note: the "free" ones have a limitation of utilising ONLY upto 4GB

Fortunately, if you use your RAM disk to hold applications, you don’t need to resave the image file on a regular basis. When you install or update an application, you can manually save the image file by hitting the Save Image Now button under the Load and Save tab in the RamDisk configuration utility.

Primo Ramdisk (VSuite Ramdisk II) - Powerful RAM Disk Emulator for Windows

Faster Than an SSD: How to Turn Extra Memory Into a RAM Disk

Lastly, it's not possible to install OS into RAM as @Vasishta.Sushant has pointed out

 

[booo]

unlike linux third party software is not free. at our company (storage company) we were checking if we could use ramdisk to improve the io. we ended up changing the /proc/sys/vm/ settings instead.

 

[Vasishta.Sushant]

You can not install an OS over a RAM Disk. RAM Disk works on top of an OS and OS execution is limited on the media on which it is installed. Do the comparison.

 

[The_Falcon]

Thanks for sharing. This was a very good "upgrade" I reserved 2GB out of 4GB RAM and browsing is really fast. Unfortunately I cant play Youtube videos(keeps saying Video not available) in IE in the full screen mode in win8. But it works fine in desktop mode. Jumping between open pages and loading pages is also very fast.

 

[The_Falcon]

Update: Uninstalled and reinstalled DiskRAM and now you tube videos are playing without issues in IE under full screen mode.

 

[techygeek]

I had once tried running netbeans off a small RAMDISK I created and it was a big performance gain.

 

[comp@ddict]

So do I try this out or not? Will reserve 1 GB of RAM for this purpose.

 

[The_Falcon]

So do I try this out or not? Will reserve 1 GB of RAM for this purpose.

1GB out of how much total RAM on your system? Before RAMDisk, only 30% of my RAM was being used typically on my system. After installing RAMDisk (reserved 2GB out of 4GB) 70% is the typical usage, which is good since it was all laying idle all the time.

 

[comp@ddict]

I have 4 GB RAM.

Peculiar thing. Opened task manager on Windows 8. Shows 72% RAM usage at 1.6 GB.

BUT I HAVE 4 GB OF RAM! w00t w00t! WTH is this?

CCleaner shows 4 GB of RAM

 

[Revolution]

Will 1GB RAM Disk be helpful for me.
I have 4GB RAM and WIndows 7(NTFS) 32Bit OS.

 

[terence_fdes]

Just a few thoughts & suggestions:
1. Please share which ramdisk app you are trying out & the allocated ram for the purpose.
2. Also mention which app's you have installed on this ramdisk
3. Lastly, which RAM are you using & it's MHz | and do you have an SSD

AMD Users can check this
AMD Radeonâ„¢ RAMDisk for Consumers


Meanwhile - these are available ramdisk apps
RAMDisk - Software - Server Memory Products & Services - Dataram
RAMDisk : High-performance RAM Disk for Windows
RamDisk - Microsoft Certified Software
Primo Ramdisk (VSuite Ramdisk II) - Powerful RAM Disk Emulator for Windows

Querry:
How easy is it to revert back - just in case things do not work out to one's satisfaction?

Note: I have 16GB RAM @1866 Mhz with a 3770K and 128GB SSD - I really do not know how much of a performance gain would I get if I allocate 8GB for the ramdisk purpose..... even if it's just for the purpose of testing this concept.

 

[Lord Nemesis]

^^ You won't get any advantage just by launching apps from a RAM disk if the app is again going to use the swap file which is on the HDD. However if you have the swap file on RAM, that can be a major boost.

I used RAM disks many years back during the Windows 95/98 era using the RAMDRIVE.SYS driver that gets supplied with the OS. The disk was created before windows start up and was available to windows by the time its booted.

With my latest rig, I wanted to do the same i.e create a 8GB RAM Disk and put the swap file on it. But the newer RAM disk software get kicked in during windows load and windows already wants to use the page file by that time. Since the drive letter for the RAM disk is not yet available, windows just gives a warning and creates the swap file on the OS partition defeating the purpose of the RAM disk.

btw, note that putting the swap file on ram does not always make sense. It makes sense for apps that make allocations to virtual memory directly.

Lastly, I am not sure why you created this thread in the news section. Its not like its a new concept.

 

[kartikoli]

Time to allocate 4gb out of 8gb to ram disk. Let's see how it goes

 

[saifbukhari]

OK.. So yeah the numbers do look sick.. huh... nice .... pssstt thats 16gig @2400Mhz



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@Lord Nemesis

Can you please shed some light on "swap file " thingy? or guide to the right direction ? thanks in advance

^^ You won't get any advantage just by launching apps from a RAM disk if the app is again going to use the swap file which is on the HDD. However if you have the swap file on RAM, that can be a major boost.

I used RAM disks many years back during the Windows 95/98 era using the RAMDRIVE.SYS driver that gets supplied with the OS. The disk was created before windows start up and was available to windows by the time its booted.

With my latest rig, I wanted to do the same i.e create a 8GB RAM Disk and put the swap file on it. But the newer RAM disk software get kicked in during windows load and windows already wants to use the page file by that time. Since the drive letter for the RAM disk is not yet available, windows just gives a warning and creates the swap file on the OS partition defeating the purpose of the RAM disk.

btw, note that putting the swap file on ram does not always make sense. It makes sense for apps that make allocations to virtual memory directly.

Lastly, I am not sure why you created this thread in the news section. Its not like its a new concept.

 

[Revolution]

@Lord Nemesis
Hey,pls can u tell me how to swap file or proper use of 1GB RAMDisk ?
I created RAMDisk 1GB FAT32.
But,with this very tiny 1GB RamDisk what should I do ?
I know that I can't install any application or game at that 1Gb space ?
So,what's gonna be best use of that little RAMDisk ?

Will 1GB RAM Disk be helpful for me.
I have 4GB RAM and WIndows 7(NTFS) 32Bit OS.

I installed Radeon RAMDisk and currently using 1024BM RAMDisk for my temp and firefox catche.
But,I'm kinda confused.
I have 32bit OS.
So,before RAMDisk computer property was showing 4GB(3.25GB usable) and after 1GB Radeom RAMDisk still it showing 4GB(3.25GB usable).
Now,my question the 1GB RAMDisk from that 3.25GB usable RAM ?
I mean currently I'm getting 1GB RAMDIsk+(3.25-1)2.25GB System RAM ?
Or 3GB System RAM+1GB RAMDisk ?
How,can I confirm about that ?
If above situation correct then I have to uninstall RAMDisk for now and have to wait until I install 64bit(4GB RAM) Windows 7 to get full use of my RAM.