Discussion Benefits and drawbacks of RAM disks for gaming?

[Order 66]

I would like to know the benefits and drawbacks of RAM disks for gaming and whether it is even worth using, I am assuming it is not worth it, but I digress.

 

[USAFRet]

A RAMDisk carves off a portion of your RAM, to use as a pseudo hard drive.

In real world use, I doubt you'd see any real benefit vs just having the game installed on the NVMe (or even SATA SSD).

 

[Order 66]

A RAMDisk carves off a portion of your RAM, to use as a pseudo hard drive.

In real world use, I doubt you'd see any real benefit vs just having the game installed on the NVMe (or even SATA SSD).

How much RAM (in your opinion) do you need to have a RAM disk? I guess if you wanted to have the entire OS in a RAM disk, you would need at least 64GB of RAM just for the disk. I think you could pretty much forget about storing everything inside of a RAM disk unless you have 1TB of RAM.

 

[USAFRet]

How much RAM (in your opinion) do you need to have a RAM disk? I guess if you wanted to have the entire OS in a RAM disk, you would need at least 64GB of RAM just for the disk. I think you could pretty much forget about storing everything inside of a RAM disk unless you have 1TB of RAM.

How much, depends on what.

A game, for instance...how large is it on the physical hard drive or SSD?
Thats how much you need...😉

Trying to do that with the OS would be a monumental kludge, getting it running, and keeping it running.

 

[Order 66]

Trying to do that with the OS would be a monumental kludge, getting it running, and keeping it running.

What happens if the system gets powered off? Do you lose all of your data and the OS?

 

[Colif]

ramdrive is gone on a restart. needs to be made every start and have game installed every time... sounds like a waste of time to me.

 

[USAFRet]

What happens if the system gets powered off? Do you lose all of your data and the OS?

Depends on how the RAMDisk is instantiated.

Some are "persistent", in that during shut down, it saves the contents to a space on the physical drive.
During boot up, the content is read from the drive and put into the RAM.

How that would work with the OS...absolutely no idea.

Here is a discussion on Linux in RAM:

Is there a linux OS that can be loaded entirely into RAM?

I have 32 GB of memory in my PC. This is more than enough for a linux OS. Is there an easy to use version of Linux (Ubuntu preferably) that can be booted via optical or USB disk and be run completely

unix.stackexchange.com

 

[Colif]

thats probably how rapid worked, but its only for sata ssd, and not overly useful unless you boot off ssd - https://download.semiconductor.sams...aper/Samsung_SSD_Rapid_Mode_Whitepaper_EN.pdf

 

[Order 66]

How that would work with the OS...absolutely no idea.

Yeah, I don't understand how you would do that with an OS either, because it couldn't be persistent if there is no other disk for it to save to.

Some are "persistent", in that during shut down, it saves the contents to a space on the physical drive.
During boot up, the content is read from the drive and put into the RAM.

Isn't there a setting in Windows that takes the content of RAM and saves it to storage? I know that is not what you are talking about here, but that reminded me of the Windows setting that I can't remember.

 

[USAFRet]

thats probably how rapid worked, but its only for sata ssd, and not overly useful unless you boot off ssd - https://download.semiconductor.sams...aper/Samsung_SSD_Rapid_Mode_Whitepaper_EN.pdf

RAPID just used a part of your RAM as a cache for the SSD.
I tried it for a while, saw NO improvement. So I disabled it and haven't looked back.

And it is no longer available for NVMe drives, because they are 'too fast'.

 

[Order 66]

ramdrive is gone on a restart. needs to be made every start and have game installed every time... sounds like a waste of time to me.

Yes, I agree. I recently downloaded Star Wars Jedi Survivor, and it took 7 and a half hours, to download. I couldn't imagine having to do that every time the system restarts. On second though, how would you update windows? considering that the RAM disk is gone every restart, when you would restart to update, the OS would just be gone.

 

[USAFRet]

Here is RAMDisk for Windows:

RAMDISK OS? Installing Windows 10 on a ramdisk

Is it possible to put the entire operating system on a ram disk? If I have 16 GB of RAM and it is an Intel Xeon. I don't have an SSD and my hard drive is killing my boot time. So can I just allocat...

superuser.com

Note - A good portion of your OS is already in RAM. Thats why you have it.

 

[Zerk2012]

I always seen it as more of a gimmick than useful like a SSHD.

 

[Order 66]

Here is RAMDisk for Windows:

RAMDISK OS? Installing Windows 10 on a ramdisk

Is it possible to put the entire operating system on a ram disk? If I have 16 GB of RAM and it is an Intel Xeon. I don't have an SSD and my hard drive is killing my boot time. So can I just allocat...

superuser.com

Note - A good portion of your OS is already in RAM. Thats why you have it.

The link you posted mentioned a RAM disk card, and mentions that it would solve the problem of the RAM disk getting wiped every restart, but how? I suppose I could see RAM disks being used by people who are being tracked by intelligence agencies, because everytime said watched person would power off the system, it would be wiped, leaving no evidence of their (hypothetical) crime. It still seems like a hassle even for that use case.

 

[USAFRet]

I suppose I could see RAM disks being used by people who are being tracked by intelligence agencies, because everytime said watched person would power off the system, it would be wiped,

No.
For that use, you'd just use a Linux OS that can be run from CD/DVD or USB.

Power off, take the drive with you.

 

[Order 66]

No.
For that use, you'd just use a Linux OS that can be run from CD/DVD or USB.

Power off, take the drive with you.

Ok, but would that be risky if said person was caught with the USB drive? Is there any reason to use a RAM disk for everyday use, or is it only for enterprise/data center?

 

[USAFRet]

Ok, but would that be risky if said person was caught with the USB drive? Is there any reason to use a RAM disk for everyday use, or is it only for enterprise/data center?

Running a Linux OS off a USB does not necessarily write back to that USB.
Power off, and the only thing on the USB is the bare OS.

But if the FBI has you in their grasp, you have MUCH larger problems than the contents of the OS.

 

[Order 66]

But if the FBI has you in their grasp, you have MUCH larger problems than the contents of the OS.

elaborate, please.

 

[USAFRet]

elaborate, please.

They would have a LOT of other info on you.

 

[Order 66]

They would have a LOT of other info on you.

I could totally see something like you are describing with the linux USB used in oppressive countries. Is there anything that relies on RAM disks to work?

 

[USAFRet]

I could totally see something like you are describing with the linux USB used in oppressive countries. Is there anything that relies on RAM disks to work?

The only thing a RAMDisk would give you is "speed".

If you're looking for "security", that RAMDisk is just one more PITA.

 

[Order 66]

The only thing a RAMDisk would give you is "speed".

If you're looking for "security", that RAMDisk is just one more PITA.

speaking of security, is there any encryption method that is currently "uncrackable" by traditional computers? I know that quantum computers will be able to eventually but not right now.

 

[USAFRet]

speaking of security, is there any encryption method that is currently "uncrackable" by traditional computers? I know that quantum computers will be able to eventually but not right now.

Security

xkcd.com

 

[COLGeek]

speaking of security, is there any encryption method that is currently "uncrackable" by traditional computers? I know that quantum computers will be able to eventually but not right now.

Technically, no. Practically, maybe. Data typically has a shelf life.

Once again, you are wandering off topic.

 

[Order 66]

Once again, you are wandering off topic.

I apologize, I just have so many little questions about technology in general that starting a thread for every little question would be pointless. I know I could google it, but so many of my questions require no more than simple answers or discussion to sate my curiosity that googling it would probably give a more complicated answer than I need. Not to mention, I don't even get curious about these little topics until someone else mentions something similar and then I get sidetracked.