Wow -- ramdisk

G

gersson

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 6, 2006
Messages
481
I wanted to test out the ramdisk app folks have been mentioning.
I tried loading a Quake 4 level.

From HDD: 45 seconds to load
from Ramdisk: 25

:eek:

too bad it is $100 cos I'd pounce on this thing if the x64 version was $50.
is this really popular or did I happen upon some secret knowledge :p
 
there are some free ramdisk software out there that work really well
But the features and support of Superspeed are worth a 100 IMO
 
This is RAMdisk

hdtunebenchmarksuperspedv8.png
 
Yea I did that during a BluRay reencode to the Ramdisk...so this is while it was getting hit hard.

When I'm not doing anything its pretty much the same stats except its not as jagged.
 
I've mentioned it several times before but you should really consider Qsofts Ramdisk app. A LOT cheaper and has pretty much all the features that superspeeds does. Qsoft has been around for a long while now and he is quick to reply with help if you need it and the program works great.

http://members.fortunecity.com/ramdisk/RAMDisk/ramdrivmain.htm

I am not affiliated either. I'm a paying customer of his....

 
superspeed ramdisk plus owns, very reliable and great features.

here's one of mine
HDTune_Benchmark_SuperSpeed_LLCRAM_Disk-read.png

HDTune_Benchmark_SuperSpeed_LLCRAM_Disk-write.png
 
Bah, now I suddenly wish I had more than 8gb ram, so I could make disks large enough to hold some of today's 10'ish gb game installations.
 
Raap said:
Bah, now I suddenly wish I had more than 8gb ram, so I could make disks large enough to hold some of today's 10'ish gb game installations.
Click to expand...

Hehe same here.
Kind of crazy, though.

8GB is cheap but 16 is like 3x-4x as much $$
 
Sorta, kinda, maybe... if I could sit down without interruptions for like 2 days I could get it and all the testing/setup done, but honestly I just can't get that kind of "free" time so... at least more people are coming to see the usefulness of such tools. ;)

For those that might be interested that are running a 32 bit version of Windows, check out this page for one that works great (I mean, they all do basically the same things) and is free. No 64 bit support, sad to say, but hey, it's free... can't beat that. ;)

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/05/27/free-ramdisk-for-windows-vista-xp-2000-and-2003-server/
 
I've messed around with RAMdisks a lot and have yet to see any practical application FOR A TYPICAL ENTHUSIAST where there is any tangible performance benefit. Most games won't fit on a RAMdisk and even if they do, you're unlikely to fit more than one. Way too much time lost swapping data in and out of the RAMdisk to justify the hassle and risk of data loss for me. Superspeeds backup/restore option is not very reliable either, I don't care what anyone says.

I'll be happy for someone to prove me wrong in this thread. If you only have one hard drive, then I can see some limited use for a RAMdisk as a scratch disk, but it's a lot easier to just have separate physical disks to begin with.
 
If theres one game you play most often, could make a HUGE difference. And just setup a startup shortcut to do a copy from the "real" drive to the ramdisk. Easy and automatic.

Other than that, as JA talks about, its mostly for scratch or temp directories.

Once I hit 12GB, Ill pull together a 6-8GB ramdisk, which will contain supcom...coming from the Vraptor, it will only take around a minute to swap 8GB of data (change games) anyway. Do CoD4 for lans, and have a batch file to swap in crysis or back to supcom. Easy and simple. Easy way to guarentee you are first onto the map.
 
Just out of curiosity, can you make a small RAM disk with the leftover GB or so from a WinXP installation if you have 4GB installed (only accessable 3.2GB or so).
 
GLSauron said:
hardware limit, so no, you shouldnt be able to.
Click to expand...

Uhhhmmm... wrong. ;)

SuperSpeed.com said:
RamDisk Plus 9 has a most unique feature. Our patent pending technology can access memory beyond the limitation imposed by a Windows 32-bit operating system! In other words, RamDisk Plus 9 can use "unmanaged" Windows' memory e.g. above 4GB. It can also use the stubbornly inaccessable memory between 3.2GB and 4GB.
Click to expand...

As for the comment about just adding another hard drive, you go get two Velociraptors and set up Photoshop with the scratch disk on one of 'em, I'll set up my 8GB of RAM with a 6GB RAMdisk for the scratch disk, and I guarantee you my benches when working with Photoshop will make those Velociraptors look like they're standin' still... ;)
 
Joe Average said:
Uhhhmmm... wrong. ;)



As for the comment about just adding another hard drive, you go get two Velociraptors and set up Photoshop with the scratch disk on one of 'em, I'll set up my 8GB of RAM with a 6GB RAMdisk for the scratch disk, and I guarantee you my benches when working with Photoshop will make those Velociraptors look like they're standin' still... ;)
Click to expand...

i just upgraded to 8GB ram tonight, i run CS3 so how would you suggest i set my photoshop settings and how big a ram disc.

this is on XP64 BTW
 
XP64... XP Pro x64... smart fella... ;)

I'll get right to the point: there is NO WAY TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION because there is no specific setting that works best for every single situation and pattern(s) of usage. What you'll need to do is do some testing on your own, with Performance Monitor in XP Pro x64, set it to monitor some of the virtual memory usage (just using Task Manager is simply unacceptable for this 'tweaking' stuff as it's too lackluster in accurate info) and disk read/write activity on the physical hard drive(s) you have.

Some people don't do a lot of photo editing (personally, I don't, but I design/configure/build/service workstations geared for service bureaus and photo labs with a minimum of 8GB of RAM in 'em and of course Photoshop as well). I have 6GB set aside for RAMdisk duties on my primary workstation just because I don't feel like messing around with not having that much assigned. Kinda weird, but there it is. 2GB of physical RAM is more than adequate for my day to day tasks with anywhere from 15 to 25 applications up and running simultaneously, from Word to Maya 3D, Firefox 3 to 3DStudio and a whole helluvalot of other stuff in between. A lot of stuff I have (including Firefox) are designed as "portable apps" now (some by default, others I turned into portable apps myself) and reside/run directly from the RAMdisk with a backup on a secondary hard drive - but they do run directly from RAM.

So, unfortunately there's no specific answer to your question, you'll just have to play around with the software you choose for RAMdisk duties and check out the statistics from Performance Monitor and "get your feet wet" as the saying goes. Over time, doing some research and monitoring will get you a configuration and a RAMdisk sized to something I'm sure will keep your machine flying...
 
nitrobass24 said:
Its not a hardware limit....its a software limitation imposed by windows.

However the Ramdisk Plus can address that memory.
Click to expand...

Is Ramdisk the one you have to pay for? (I'm new to the whole Ramdisk thing...I've heard about it before, but I feel like checking it out).
 
SuperSpeed.com sells RamDisk and RamDisk Plus, yes, and they are commercial products - meaning THOSE products are commercial. There are other "RAMdisk" software applications (they're basically all just a driver that installs in the system to control the RAM and make it appear as a 'hard drive' to the system so you can assign a drive letter, file system, etc).

As I noted in a post earlier in this thread, there are free alternatives available that vary in complexity and installation but really they all end up doing the same sorts of things. I recommend SuperSpeed.com's products because I've been using them for a long long time (close to 15 years now) and have never been disappointed in the stability and exceptional support (if required, which is very rare) they provide.

Also, I'm not aware of any free RAMdisk applications for 64 bit versions of Windows; it seems the necessity of creating the 64 bit driver required for operation in 64 bit environments is a bit more complex so... if anyone knows of a free one, I'd sure love to do some testing with it.
 
In your experience, do any of the free programs address the 0.8 GB "leftover" by WinXP?
 
Nope, that one little thing is "handled" by RamDisk Plus apparently. But now that the concept is out there, perhaps other RAMdisk providers might be able to take advantage of it, but I think SuperSpeed put a patent on it, so...

There are a lot of things you can spend money on these days, but buying a RAMdisk app from SuperSpeed.com is most definitely one of the best investments - which is precisely how I look at it - that you can make to improve the overall performance of your personal computer, especially if you have 2GB or more of RAM, the more the merrier.
 
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