Question Wanted: Driver to Create Graphics Card Dynamic Memory Drive

[I_Got_Crabs]

Is there any reason why Graphics Card memory cannot be used to create a Dynamic Drive?

 

[kanewolf]

Is there any reason why Graphics Card memory cannot be used to create a Dynamic Drive?

Could be done, but is a scare, expensive resource. A standard RAM disk, using system RAM is cheaper and widely available.

 

[I_Got_Crabs]

Could be done, but is a scare, expensive resource. A standard RAM disk, using system RAM is cheaper and widely available.

I disagree. My 4070 card has 12gb of memory. I can easily use a chunk of gb's for a virtual drive.

 

[USAFRet]

I disagree. My 4070 card has 12gb of memory. I can easily use a chunk of gb's for a virtual drive.

At the expense of game or graphics performance.
How much of that 12GB would you consider donating to this?

What might be the benefit of using VRAM freom the GPU as opposed to regular system RAM?
Yes, the VRAM is "faster".
But a RAM drive is already a poor solution.

 

[kanewolf]

I disagree. My 4070 card has 12gb of memory. I can easily use a chunk of gb's for a virtual drive.

Most people with a 4070 video card have 32GB of system memory. I run an 8 GB RAM disk with 32 GB system RAM.

 

[I_Got_Crabs]

At the expense of game or graphics performance.
How much of that 12GB would you consider donating to this?

What might be the benefit of using VRAM freom the GPU as opposed to regular system RAM?
Yes, the VRAM is "faster".
But a RAM drive is already a poor solution.

Most people with a 4070 video card have 32GB of system memory. I run an 8 GB RAM disk with 32 GB system RAM.

I would use it for a virtual drive/RAM drive. The idea is that running swapping or multi-short read/write programs such as torrent cause extensive ware down of NVME/SSD devices. Having a ram drive to do the catching/temp storage will eliminate the wear/tear on the NVME/SSD. That is the general idea and with that, say, 4 gb would be a lot of space to take advantage of using. I'm not a gamer so I have nothing to loose. The dynamic drive would simply release all of the cached/temp data when turned off, as opposed to a static drive that saves to a disk. Also, if you run any disk intensive programs the said programs can be loaded into the virtual ram drive and executed from there, thus getting the fastest speeds and the lest disk read/writes. I run 64gb of RAM on two 32gb DIMMs, achieving the fastest memory speed by using 1 DIMM per channel. In reply to your comment that a RAM drive is a poor solution - you are correct. A RAM drive is a portion of your existing hard disk drive that is set aside as a drive of its own. The idea is that the RAM drive would be dynamic so everything that is stored to it would then be erased completely when the PC is powered off or the drive is unmounted. So, a ram disk drive is no faster than a plain disk drive. A virtual drive will simulates a disk drive but exists within a chunk of RAM memory and therefore works much faster than a RAM disk. If dynamic, not static, the RAM memory drive will be entirely erased when the PC is powered off. The terminology is confusing. A DRIVE, e.g. a Ram Drive is still a drive and the space is storage located on a hard disk, versus Virtual Drive consisting of RAM storage space put to use in simulating a disk drive.

 

[hotaru.hino]

The solution to this problem is simple: buy more RAM.

Even if you could use the video card's VRAM as a virtual disk...

• It's hampered by the PCIe interface which is slower than RAM
• GDDR RAM is designed for high throughput at the cost of high latency. This is on top of the PCIe overhead
• Any data stored in VRAM that's needed by the system would need to be copied in system RAM, because the CPU can't use data directly from VRAM

 

[DSzymborski]

I could use my kitchen sink as a toilet and save money on groceries by going through the neighbor's garbage for unused food, but that doesn't mean either is a good idea.

This is an absolutely terrible idea, and anybody who had the expertise to engineer such a solution would be expert enough to not even consider it in the first place. This is a 1989 solution for problems that existed in 1989 and not 2023.

 

[I_Got_Crabs]

The solution to this problem is simple: buy more RAM.

Even if you could use the video card's VRAM as a virtual disk...

• It's hampered by the PCIe interface which is slower than RAM
• GDDR RAM is designed for high throughput at the cost of high latency. This is on top of the PCIe overhead
• Any data stored in VRAM that's needed by the system would need to be copied in system RAM, because the CPU can't use data directly from VRAM

That is music to my ears.

 

[I_Got_Crabs]

I could use my kitchen sink as a toilet and save money on groceries by going through the neighbor's garbage for unused food, but that doesn't mean either is a good idea.

This is an absolutely terrible idea, and anybody who had the expertise to engineer such a solution would be expert enough to not even consider it in the first place. This is a 1989 solution for problems that existed in 1989 and not 2023.

I would think that a Moderator on Toms Hardware, with all that it entails, would not be a disparaging "put down" to the individuals, like myself who post here. You should be reported. So, I have reported your post. Sorry, that's the way it goes.

 

[DSzymborski]

I would think that a Moderator on Toms Hardware, with all that it entails, would not be a disparaging "put down" to the individuals, like myself who post here. You should be reported. So, I have reported your post. Sorry, that's the way it goes.

"Help me, someone gave me advice I didn't want to hear!"

It's a bad idea. Pretending it isn't would have been doing you a disservice.

Report away! Good luck with that. I see you described my post as "filthy."