Help with settings for QSoft RamDisk

[wyssin]

I need help choosing the settings for QSoft's RamDisk (now WinRamTech's RamDriv).

I don't understand the difference between their "resident memory" and "system memory," or what "reserve" means.

If I have 16 GB RAM and I want to reserve 4GB for use by the OS (Win 7 64 Pro) and background programs, leaving me 12 GB for files and programs to load into my ramdisk, how do I put the settings?

 

[Cerb]

1. No idea what those settings mean.

2. Don't squeeze Windows like that! Make the RAM disk just big enough for the files you have I/O issues with.

I've only got half the RAM, but 4GB is actually in use, not counting the cache, and most of the rest is cache, totaling over 4GB. With only 4GB, it would not be nearly as nice of a system to use (I'd add more, too, if I could).

Without that extra space for cache:
1. Programs that use non-incremental GC would be running panic GC runs a lot, eating up CPU time, and reducing responsiveness (though, with no 64-bit, FF can do this with plenty of free RAM, grrr).
2. A PF would not only be a necessity to prevent crashes (I am running w/o one), but be almost constantly thrashing.
3. You would run the risk of slowdowns as Windows increased the PF size, and pushed more data into it, as spare RAM got tight.
4. Programs might start to get out of memory errors, and/or Windows may go on RAM compacting sprees, which would otherwise be a non-issue in 64-bit versions.
5. Windows would be forced to constantly hit the disk, as RAM use increased, for any set of files not in the RAM disk, rather than read them from RAM, if they have been read once recently ("recently," could very well be a couple days ago--it's more to do with what has needed to be thrown out of cache due to newer files needing access, than an actual time), because it might not have enough room to cache your current working set.

If you're going to use a RAM disk, don't make it big like that, and penalize Windows. Let the OS have some room to breathe in. Just because your applications might not be directly using it doesn't mean that it is being wasted.

 

[kmmatney]

Can't help you with QSoft, but I use ImDisk RamDisk and it works well (and seems quite fast).

http://www.overclock.net/t/1086220/imdisk-open-source-ram-drive-with-no-size-limitations

http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html/#ImDisk

Works fine with Win 7 64, and Windows 8 64-bit.

 

[wyssin]

1. No idea what those settings mean.

2. Don't squeeze Windows like that! Make the RAM disk just big enough for the files you have I/O issues with.

I've only got half the RAM, but 4GB is actually in use, not counting the cache, and most of the rest is cache, totaling over 4GB. With only 4GB, it would not be nearly as nice of a system to use (I'd add more, too, if I could).

How much of that is due to Superfetch?
http://www.osnews.com/story/21471/SuperFetch_How_it_Works_Myths

Anyway, thanks for putting a lot of thought into the response, but I actually have 32GB RAM, so I'm not wanting for more memory space. I used 4GB/12GB/16GB in the OP just for the sake of example.

 

[wyssin]

Can't help you with QSoft, but I use ImDisk RamDisk and it works well (and seems quite fast).

http://www.overclock.net/t/1086220/imdisk-open-source-ram-drive-with-no-size-limitations

http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html/#ImDisk

Works fine with Win 7 64, and Windows 8 64-bit.

The two benchmarks I have seen suggested that ImDisk may be a slower performer (although I haven't seen any good recent benchmarks directly comparing performance with Win 7 64 Pro, which is what I'm using).

 

[Cerb]

How much of that is due to Superfetch?

None. The last time I gave Superfetch a chance, it was loading files I didn't care about (big game data files, FI, that I'd just as well wait on when I start the game next time), and making the PC all stuttery, if I left it for a seconds. Low priority IOs are still HDD IOs in the queue, and the HDD itself has no concept of those priorities. It works for others, but...

Contrary to what many Windows tweaking guides on the internet tell you, SuperFetch does not impact your every day computing experience in a negative way.

They can say that all they want, but a little Googling can get you more examples than just me of it doing exactly that (P.S. there are a few in the comments of the linked article, even). The statement is only true if you have a regular routine, that involves opening and closing certain applications and files, and/or if you restart more often than Windows Update requires. That does seem to encompass quite a bit of users, of course.

Otherwise, it can't seem to figure out a good set of data, but goes and loads stuff anyway, unnecessarily, when I'd rather just have an idle HDD. A smarter version, that waited until application load, but then went ahead and loaded all relevant files that it was going to open anyway, and what would optimize their disk locations for such loading during defrag, I would be singing the praises of (such an implementation would be more tolerant of less cyclic file opening patterns). Alternatively, allow configurable deviation and confidence, so that it an be configured to only preload files that it can be highly confident are used right after bootup, right after coming from idle, at 6PM, or whatever, instead of a semi-random assortment of recently used files.

Anyway, thanks for putting a lot of thought into the response, but I actually have 32GB RAM, so I'm not wanting for more memory space. I used 4GB/12GB/16GB in the OP just for the sake of example.

Say so next time! That's a big difference. Reserve is almost surely a minimum amount to keep allocated, regardless of what is in the disk. IE, the disk's RAM use should probably be between reserved and max, whatever they call that.