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Setting up a ram disk? For BF3

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Shadowlid

Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2009
I was wondering if anyone could help me figure out how to do this. I was thinking of picking up another 8gb of ram and setting up a ram disk for bf3.

That way i could run the game straight from the ram if this is possible?? I have no idea thats why im here lol.

But that would give me a total of 16gb. Would this be enough ram or would i need more??
 
Never heard of it...and now I have some reading to do.




EDIT: Huh...it's basically turning your RAM into a makeshift SSD...interesting. From what I read, yes that should be completely viable.
 
Why is my question? So you can see the pre match counter faster and wait longer than others? Not trying to be a butthead really, just saying/asking do the ends justify the means in this case? When you ahve to wait 30 seconds between levels, it doesnt matter if you get there in 3 seconds vs 10. Just something to think about... sorry I cannot help othewise.
 
my bf3 folder is 14.8gb so it'd leave you with 1.2gb free for windows + the game

Would be neat if you had 24gb though

Oh damn...it is that big isn't it. Thought it was only 8 lol.


He would have to replace his mobo to support that much RAM...not worth the faster load times imo, but if he really wants it, he should just get an SSD.
 
I just upgraded to 16GB and this has got me thinking about some silly fast disk space for who knows what. Anyone got some good info on setting a ramdisk up? I've seen external devices (used for PCMark uber-benchers) that you actually put ram into and that emulate that space into a HDD your mobo can use like a normal drive, but is there actually a way to set one up with regular hardware? I'd imagine it'd be a software thing.
 
There are a number of programs that allow you to set up a virtual HDD using your RAM... Or as we call it... They allow you to set up a RAM disk.

Some of the reasons for not doing this have already been stated. Your load times will be much better, but you'll still be there waiting for the 30 second "time out" between matches so there is no point.

And then there is the ONE reason why you should not do this...

RAM is volatile storage.

This means that the moment you shut your computer off; whatever you had stored on that RAM disk goes pooof. OK; you say.... I will just leave the computer on 24/7 and avoid my BF3 folder going pooof.... What if your PC crashes? Or you get a BSOD? Or the power goes out?


It's simply not worth the hassle/risk.
 
Got ya well i was wanting to load faster so i could spawn in the jets and choppers etc. But since the whole game would be on the ram already why would you have to use anymore ram to play the game?? Just wondering. Also i was thinking of a ssd but the ram only cost $35 shipped so that was the cheaper way out. And since im a super broke college student this was the best way to get better load times.
 
Sure it will get you in the game quicker, but then you will have to wait for it to start. I am one of the first to join every map, and then I have to wait ages for it to start and by that time almost everyone else is in game. I don't really think it would benefit you that much, but I think it would be cool to try it out anyway.
 
Got ya well i was wanting to load faster so i could spawn in the jets and choppers etc. But since the whole game would be on the ram already why would you have to use anymore ram to play the game?? Just wondering. Also i was thinking of a ssd but the ram only cost $35 shipped so that was the cheaper way out. And since im a super broke college student this was the best way to get better load times.

Although the game would be in "ram", it is not in ram to be processed. It's merely in a section of the ram that you have set aside to act as a logical virtual drive. The OS still needs to load the data from the "virtual drive" to the available ram to allow the processor to do its thing.

However, because the data is already in ram on a virtual drive, it does indeed get loaded much faster into the available ram. You can see in this picture just what kind of speeds can be achieved from a ramdisk.

picture.php


As has been pointed out though, BF3 is way too big for just a 16GiB motherboard. You would need at least 24GiB of ram (imo) to be able to have a ramdisk large enough for the game AND enough ram left over for the OS/running programs (including the game itself).

My personal experiences with running a ramdisk:

  1. Don't bother with a ramdisk if you are using a 32bit OS. Even with PAE mode and (some) ramdisk programs ability to access ram beyond the first 4GiB, its still a hassle, and has its limits.
  2. If your going to use that much ram in the first place, you really need a OS that can put it to use efficiently. If you're a Windows user, anything less then Windows 7 (even Vista) would not do a good job of managing your ram, nor of using it efficiently. (I have no experience with any other OS so cannot comment on others).
  3. As per the first 2 points, Windows 7 64bit would be your best bet to make best use of your ram, but keep in mind that Home Premium will only allow use of up to 16GiB of ram. Anymore then that, and you need to use Windows 7 Professional. (Stupid Microsoft :bang head )
  4. From my experience, it's best to just let Win7 manage the use of your ram (via Superfetch) instead of trying to make a huge ramdisk and loading a game onto it. I initially ran a 10GiB ramdisk, which left only 6GiB of available ram for the system (just like I had before) and didn't really notice much of any improvement on my day to day normal use of my system. However, once I reduced the ramdisk to just 6GiB, and left 10GiB of ram available for the system, I saw a major boost, even to my games. Windows 7 with Superfetch does a hell of a job making use of your ram and cacheing often accessed data, so everything (not just whats in the ramdisk) loads faster after Win7/Superfetch adjusts to your computer usage.
  5. A ramdisk is best used for folders/data which are read/written to often, AND are not that critcal. I'm currently using my 6GiB ramdisk as a temp/swap drive. I have a 1GiB swap file located on the ramdisk, as well as both the Windows temporary directories. Firefox's cache, my printer spool, and a couple of other programs temporary folder all goto the ramdisk too. If for whatever reason my computer crashes or fails to save the data from the ramdisk to my hard drive, its no big deal.

If after reading all that you still want to try a ramdisk, I'll put in my two cents on that as well and suggest QSoft Ramdisk. It's not crippled in any way, in most reviews its one of the faster, if not fastest ramdisk software, and it will allow a number of options to save the ramdisk to your hard drive. Keep in mind, that with a ramdisk your boot up time (from shutdown or reboot) will be longer, especially if you have to load a image to the ramdisk first. Same problem with shutdowns, so using your computers "Sleep" mode is preferred if you want instant on/off of your PC.
 
Good post - I have been looking into the idea of setting up a ram disk for awhile now as I have more ram than I know what to do with. Overall from everything I have been reading, it doesn't really seem like there is much gain in doing it, especially if OS & programs are already running from a fast SSD.
 
Why is my question? So you can see the pre match counter faster and wait longer than others? Not trying to be a butthead really, just saying/asking do the ends justify the means in this case? When you ahve to wait 30 seconds between levels, it doesnt matter if you get there in 3 seconds vs 10. Just something to think about... sorry I cannot help othewise.

He has a point, even with my Mechanical drive i'm guaranteed to watch 15 second count downs or more (mostly) every time because someone somewhere has a system that can barely run BF3 let alone load it in good time.
 
I am not sure it would make a real difference though. I'm running 12GB and when BF3 loads, its using about 4.5-5GB now. I guess having the maps in memory would be neat for no load times between map changes, but like it was mentioned before, you will not gain anything because of the break in between matches and the pre-match time.
 
Something I WOULD use a RAMDisk for, is to get my temp folders out of my SSD.
Unless you need the space, this isnt something I would bother doing... Doesnt the ramdisk data go away, like ram, when you power down... then it recreates itself upon boot?
 
I wouldnt worry at all about wear on a remotely modern SSD. Those worries have been non issues for quite some time now. In fact I started a thread on it in the Storage section that is a sticky thread. ;)

The problem with this method is that you will have to constantly be logging in to stuff as all your temp files are gone. I'll pass. Its a workaround for a non issue.
 
I wouldnt worry at all about wear on a remotely modern SSD. Those worries have been non issues for quite some time now. In fact I started a thread on it in the Storage section that is a sticky thread. ;)

The problem with this method is that you will have to constantly be logging in to stuff as all your temp files are gone. I'll pass. Its a workaround for a non issue.

The article where I read that must have been outdated then :)
And the only time you MIGHT lose anything is on a BSOD. But you can set RAMDisk up to make an image on HDD/SSD every x minutes.

The only thing I use it for, for the moment, is to put Process Explorer on, for super fast startup :D
 
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