Might be useful as scratch space, compiling, audio, video, pictures. Can't think of much else unless you cant use m.2 nvme. Imdisk can be used to save and restore images.

The last directstorage benchmarks I saw were underwhelming but don't think anyone has tested directstorage with a ram drive.

cyclone3d wrote on 2022-06-15, 16:53:

I've been wanting to get one of the old Gigabyte iDrive RAM disks for quite a while but the prices are always crazy. […]
Show full quote

I've been wanting to get one of the old Gigabyte iDrive RAM disks for quite a while but the prices are always crazy.

I do a search for such things every once in a while and ran across a company that is making PCIe RAM disks.

Their next version even has a backup battery that will store the data on the RAM disk for up to a year.

Imagine having one of these in a newer system.
CrystalDiskMark pic from their web page
3.jpg

https://ddramdisk.store/

They're out of stock, anyway. Could be another vaporware.

Were they ever available, though?

It would also be great as a HDD cache device for say a Steam or other game library.

The software that drive that type of thing basically stores the files that are used the most on the faster storage. So the first time something is loaded, it is the speed of the slower storage but then subsequent loads come from the faster storage.

However, with the new battery backed version, if the computer is a daily driver, you could use this as a boot drive or programs drive.

The throughput and latency on these are insane.. and you don't have to worry about them wearing out like you do SSDs.

kitten.may.cry wrote on 2022-06-15, 18:06:

cyclone3d wrote on 2022-06-15, 16:53:

I've been wanting to get one of the old Gigabyte iDrive RAM disks for quite a while but the prices are always crazy. […]
Show full quote

I've been wanting to get one of the old Gigabyte iDrive RAM disks for quite a while but the prices are always crazy.

I do a search for such things every once in a while and ran across a company that is making PCIe RAM disks.

Their next version even has a backup battery that will store the data on the RAM disk for up to a year.

Imagine having one of these in a newer system.
CrystalDiskMark pic from their web page
3.jpg

https://ddramdisk.store/

They're out of stock, anyway. Could be another vaporware.

Were they ever available, though?

I'm guessing they are focusing on getting the new battery backed version with RAM slots produced.

cyclone3d wrote on 2022-06-15, 18:10:

kitten.may.cry wrote on 2022-06-15, 18:06:

cyclone3d wrote on 2022-06-15, 16:53:

I've been wanting to get one of the old Gigabyte iDrive RAM disks for quite a while but the prices are always crazy. […]
Show full quote

I've been wanting to get one of the old Gigabyte iDrive RAM disks for quite a while but the prices are always crazy.

I do a search for such things every once in a while and ran across a company that is making PCIe RAM disks.

Their next version even has a backup battery that will store the data on the RAM disk for up to a year.

Imagine having one of these in a newer system.
CrystalDiskMark pic from their web page
3.jpg

https://ddramdisk.store/

They're out of stock, anyway. Could be another vaporware.

Were they ever available, though?

I'm guessing they are focusing on getting the new battery backed version with RAM slots produced.

Hopefully, that one is a little cheaper.

It was made for Chia plotting primarily. Chia faded into obscurity, so that thing is ultimately vaporware.

Aw, too bad. 😞

Personally, I think that true RAM disks are principally superior to SSDs.
Even had an argument over this with a friend who's a fan of modern tech.

I guess you can't argue with these guys. 🤷‍♂️
Explaining that an old Dual-Ported RAM or SRAM has fundamental advantages when it comes to access times doesn't matter to them.
They will come up with lots of explanations why modern DDR5 RAM is faster than CPU etc. etc., so that the CPU can't keep up, anyway.
Or that SSDs are quicker than the chipset, anyway. Things like this.

It's hard to express that an Atari ST with TOS in EPROM reacts quicker than a modern Ryzen with 16 cores and an NVME SSD:
If you press a key on an Atari ST, the character is faster displayed on screen than on a modern high-end PC.

Anyway, to me, the low latency and the direct or close connection to the processor are more important to MB/s.
Especially if an OS with thousands of open files is running.
Each file operation is near instant on a RAM disk, but not an SSDs.
"Near", because the HDD driver and filesystem are still an overhead.

When I'm running a software RAM disk on a 286, writes and reads are near instant. Snap!
Not so much with SSDs. They do have a little lag, can "stutter" while thinking/while busy..
Akin to CF cards.

Jo22 wrote:

Personally, I think that true RAM disks are principally superior to SSDs.

Well, Intel Optane is still a thing.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-06-16, 11:17:

Jo22 wrote:

Personally, I think that true RAM disks are principally superior to SSDs.

Well, Intel Optane is still a thing.

Intel Optane is still just an nVME SSD with better 4k read response compared to regular nVME drives form what I can tell.

Nowhere near as fast as a RAM drive would be.

Also, there last News update was on May 11, 2022.

I'm gonna keep an eye on it and probably also ask them about it to see if it is still an ongoing project.

Edit: According to their blog, they are hoping for a middle of July release.

The good quality NVME drives already have DRAM cache on them.

And while RAM drives have their use cases, in most tests with regular people playing and loading games. Most people couldn't determine 2.5" SSD vs m.2 SSD vs NVME beyond the standard margin of error.

cyclone3d wrote on 2022-06-16, 13:53:

Intel Optane is still just an nVME SSD with better 4k read response compared to regular nVME drives form what I can tell. […]
Show full quote

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-06-16, 11:17:

Jo22 wrote:

Personally, I think that true RAM disks are principally superior to SSDs.

Well, Intel Optane is still a thing.

Intel Optane is still just an nVME SSD with better 4k read response compared to regular nVME drives form what I can tell.

Nowhere near as fast as a RAM drive would be.

Also, there last News update was on May 11, 2022.

I'm gonna keep an eye on it and probably also ask them about it to see if it is still an ongoing project.

Edit: According to their blog, they are hoping for a middle of July release.

Inb4 quad figure price tag, because collectors tax is a thing.

SScorpio wrote on 2022-06-16, 16:58:

The good quality NVME drives already have DRAM cache on them.

And while RAM drives have their use cases, in most tests with regular people playing and loading games. Most people couldn't determine 2.5" SSD vs m.2 SSD vs NVME beyond the standard margin of error.

Right, but there are newer multiple games I have played where the storage speed can make up to a 20-30 second difference in level loading times.

The people with the slower drives always get razzed on for having to be waited for.

RAM also doesn't wear or have the be wear leveled like SSDs.

The IOPS on these RAM drives are also going to be insane which is easily seen with the CrystalDiskMark bench throughput on the whole test.

cyclone3d wrote on 2022-06-16, 18:12:

Right, but there are newer multiple games I have played where the storage speed can make up to a 20-30 second difference in leve […]
Show full quote

Right, but there are newer multiple games I have played where the storage speed can make up to a 20-30 second difference in level loading times.

The people with the slower drives always get razzed on for having to be waited for.

RAM also doesn't wear or have the be wear leveled like SSDs.

The IOPS on these RAM drives are also going to be insane which is easily seen with the CrystalDiskMark bench throughput on the whole test.

Most games it's mainly HDD vs any type of solid state storage.

I would welcome games taking advantage of faster storage for instant loading. But so far too many games have bottlenecks else where. Look at GTA Online that was taking something like a minute to parse through a JSON file. A simple code change significantly sped up loading. Many games still take a long time to load even loading off drives that are hitting 4-7GB/s of loading.

Wouldn't a disk cache help in much the same way? If you are talking about loading times. Just max out your RAM or upgrade. You can also still create a RAM drive, and put in your own battery backup.

Imagine putting a page/swap file on this.

I imagine it would be a waste of time on modern system with 128+ Gb of RAM.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-06-16, 21:09:

I imagine it would be a waste of time on modern system with 128+ Gb of RAM.

Their 256Gb ramdisk is $90 cheaper than 4 sticks of the cheapest 32gb DDR4 sticks (128GB).

Error 0x7CF wrote:

Their 256Gb ramdisk is $90 cheaper than 4 sticks of the cheapest 32gb DDR4 sticks (128GB).

It's not. Because everything is out of stock and was for a long time now. Also it's a "shop" based on WordPress.

cyclone3d wrote:

Intel Optane is still just an nVME SSD

Also you can make Intel-based server rack, packed with Optane DIMMs for instant loading.

Error 0x7CF wrote on 2022-06-16, 20:40:

Imagine putting a page/swap file on this.

Allow me to introduce you to the Gigabyte iRam, it was the mid 2000's and we were all thinking the same thing.

I have one. it's pretty cool.

Re: Gigabyte i-RAM Mods