Difference between revisions of "Glossary:RAM Disk"

Revision as of 04:04, 30 May 2016

A pair of RAM modules

A RAM disk is a virtual hard drive that is stored within your computers RAM. RAM is incredibly fast and is even faster than a SSD. It can be used to significantly speed up loading times of any game, but the contents of the RAM disk are lost upon a restart of the computer.

Considerations

Advantages of using a RAM disk for gaming

Substantially speeds up how fast a game can load.
Removes stuttering caused by a slow/fragmented hard drive while playing.
Put a part, or a whole game onto your RAM disk, depending on how much you have available.
Easily swap in and out different games by storing the RAM file on the hard drive.

Disadvantages of using a RAM disk for gaming

Contents of the RAM disk are lost upon a restart of the computer.
Complicated to set up if entire game does not fit into a RAM disk.
The game itself will still use RAM, just as if you are playing normally.
Setting the RAM disk too large can cause the system completely slow down.
Software is limited to 4 GB RAM disk size unless bought or you find an alternative.
May require extra hard-drive space to backup saved games depending on game and system configuration.
System start up and shutdown can be significantly prolonged when you have large RAM disk and automatic save and load disk image function activated.

Guide

Requirements

RAMdisk utility - supports up to 4 GB RAM disk size.
Softperfect RAM Disk - No RAM Disk size limit.
ImDisk - Also handles .iso mounting, unused RamDisk space doesn't detract from available RAM.
Spare RAM. If one's system is limited on RAM then this hack will not work.

Step 1 - How much spare RAM is there?

Find out how much RAM is free when you are playing a game. Open up your game and go into a level.
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del and select to open the task manager. Click the Performance tab on the task manager and look in the lower left where it says "Physical Memory (MB)" Under that it says "Available". This is how much ram you have free to use.
Take this number and reduce it by 200 MB, and by how much RAM the game uses. This figure is approximately how large one should let their RAM disk be. Any higher and your system will most likely slow to a crawl so much you have to reboot.

Increase available RAM by closing unnecessary applications or using a utility like Cleanmem.

Step 2 - What's the size of the game?

Find out the size of your game by checking the properties of the game folder.

Step 3 - Format the RAM

Start up the ramdisk software, check the 'FAT32 Partition' option.
If your game saves its saved games in the games folder itself, then click the 'Load and Save' tab, and check 'Save Disk Image on Shutdown' and 'Autosave' To avoid losing any save games.

Step 4 - Size

Game is smaller than RAM disk

Set Disk Size to how big the game is in MB + 100 MB and press 'Start Ramdisk'.
Copy the entire game folder to the RAM disk.

If the software states that there is not enough space, click 'Stop Ramdisk', add another 100mb to the disk size and try again.
If or performance crawls to a stop, use a smaller Ramdisk size or install more ram.

Once it is all copied, find the games main .exe file on your RAM disk, open it and start playing at increased performance and speed.

Game is larger than RAM disk

It is still possible to use this method to load some commonly used files in large games to increase loading speeds by using symbolic links.

Requirement:

Symbolic Link Creator utility.

Identify and copy commonly accessed game files

Choose large files rather than lots of small files. The most commonly accessed game files are often the largest, for example:

World of Warcraft uses MPQ files.
Counter-Strike Source uses .GCF files.

Set Disk Size to how big the large game files are in MB + 100MB and press 'Start Ramdisk'.

If the software state that there is not enough space, click 'Stop Ramdisk' and add another 100 MB to the disk size and try again.
If or performance crawls to a stop, use a smaller Ramdisk size or install more ram.

Rename the files to keep as a backup. For example, for World of Warcraft, world.MPQ, art.MPQ can be changed to world_BACKUP.MPQ and art_BACKUP.MPQ

Symlinking

Symbolic links allow Windows to access files on the RAM disk as if they had not been moved at all from the hard drive.

Open up the Symbolic Link Creator utility.
Copy folders by selecting 'Select the type of symlink that you want to create' > 'Folder symbolic link'.
Under Link Folder click the explore button, now explore to the path where the folder was. For example, C:\Games\World of Warcraft\.
In the "Now give a name to the link" type in the original name of the folder. In this example, it is \Interface\.
In the destination folder click explore, and navigate to where you copied the folder. In this example, it is I:\Interface\.
Click Create Link.
Repeat this process for all the folders you copied.
Then do the same process for all the files, change from "Folder symbolic link" to "File symbolic link".
Click explore and explore to where the file was, in this example, in C:\Games\World of Warcraft\Data.
In the box below it, type the name of the original file, in this example it was world.MPQ.
Click the explore button under destination file. Find world.MPQ on your RAM disk and select it.
Click create link.
Repeat this for all the files you copied. NOTE you don't need to do this for files INSIDE a folder you already linked.

Now whenever the game attempts to read data from the files/folders you linked, it will read them from the RAM disk instead by following the symbolic link shortcut. This will greatly improve the speed of your game. If there is no real increase then try using different files, or buy more ram to be able to transfer more data to the RAM disk.

Important footnotes

Data from RAM is instantly lost whenever you lose power, or shutdown. If the game saves its saved games in the games folder itself, then click the "Load and Save" tab, and check options 'Save Disk Image on Shutdown' and 'Autosave' to avoid losing any save games.
Do not delete the original game files from your hard-drive unless you have this autosave turned on, or you will lose your files.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[Category:Hack]]
+{{Image|Memory module DDRAM 20-03-2006.jpg|A pair of RAM modules}}
-= Information =
+A [[Wikipedia:Ramdisk|RAM disk]] is a virtual hard drive that is stored within your computers RAM. RAM is incredibly fast and is even faster than a [[Wikipedia:Solid-state drive|SSD]]. It can be used to significantly speed up loading times of any game, but the contents of the RAM disk are lost upon a restart of the computer.
+==Considerations==
+===Advantages of using a RAM disk for gaming===
+* Substantially speeds up how fast a game can load.
+* Removes stuttering caused by a slow/fragmented hard drive while playing.
+* Put a part, or a whole game onto your RAM disk, depending on how much you have available.
+* Easily swap in and out different games by storing the RAM file on the hard drive.
+===Disadvantages of using a RAM disk for gaming===
+* '''Contents of the RAM disk are lost upon a restart of the computer'''.
+* Complicated to set up if entire game does not fit into a RAM disk.
+* The game itself will still use RAM, just as if you are playing normally.
+* Setting the RAM disk too large can cause the system completely slow down.
+* Software is limited to 4 GB RAM disk size unless bought or you find an alternative.
+* May require extra hard-drive space to backup saved games depending on game and system configuration.
+* System start up and shutdown can be significantly prolonged when you have large RAM disk and automatic save and load disk image function activated.
+==Guide==
+===Requirements===
+* [http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk RAMdisk utility] - supports up to 4 GB RAM disk size.
+* [http://www.softperfect.com/products/ramdisk/ Softperfect RAM Disk] - No RAM Disk size limit.
+* [http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html/#ImDisk ImDisk] - Also handles .iso mounting, unused RamDisk space doesn't detract from available RAM.
+* Spare RAM. If one's system is limited on RAM then this hack will not work.
+===Step 1 - How much spare RAM is there?===
+# Find out how much RAM is free when you are playing a game. Open up your game and go into a level.
+# Press Ctrl+Alt+Del and select to open the task manager. Click the Performance tab on the task manager and look in the lower left where it says "Physical Memory (MB)" Under that it says "Available". This is how much ram you have free to use.
+# Take this number and reduce it by 200 MB, and by how much RAM the game uses. This figure is approximately how large one should let their RAM disk be. Any higher and your system will most likely slow to a crawl so much you have to reboot.
+* Increase available RAM by closing unnecessary applications or using a utility like [http://www.pcwintech.com/cleanmem Cleanmem].
+===Step 2 - What's the size of the game?===
-A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramdisk ramdisk] is a virtual harddrive that is stored within your computers ram. Ram is incredibly fast, even faster than a SSD, you can use this to significantly speed up loading times of any game, and increase smoothness.
+# Find out the size of your game by checking the properties of the game folder.
-[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi5ZqbvSsSQ Example]
+===Step 3 - Format the RAM===
-== Advantages of using a ramdisk for gaming ==
+# Start up the ramdisk software, check the 'FAT32 Partition' option.
-*Substantially speeds up how fast a game can load, sometimes even becoming instant.
+# If your game saves its saved games in the games folder itself, then click the 'Load and Save' tab, and check 'Save Disk Image on Shutdown' and 'Autosave' To avoid losing any save games.
-*Removes stuttering caused by a slow/fragmented hard drive while playing.
-*You can put a part, or a whole game onto your ramdisk, depending on how much you have available.
-*You can save this ramdisk as a single file on your real harddrive to load back later, to easily swap in and out different games.
-== Disadvantages of using a ramdisk for gaming ==
+===Step 4 - Size===
-*Complicated to set up if you can't fit the entire game into a ramdisk.
-*The ramdisks have to be formatted, that means you will need a little more space than is required for the game files themselves. IE to use 2gb of game data you may need 2.3GB of free ram for your ramdisk.
-*The game itself will still use ram, just as if you are playing normally.
-*Setting the ramdisk too large can cause the system to come to complete a crawl. You will need to experiment to see what is the largest ramdisk you can handle without locking up.
-*Software is limited to 4GB ramdisk size unless bought or you find an alternative.
-*May Require extra hard-drive space to backup saved games depending on your, and the games setup.
-== Requirements ==
+====Game is smaller than RAM disk====
-*[http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk Ramdisk Software]
-*[http://code.google.com/p/symlinker/downloads/list Symlink Creator Software]
-*Spare ram, if your computer is already maxing out on ram, you can't do this.
-= Setting up =
+# Set Disk Size to how big the game is in MB + 100 MB and press 'Start Ramdisk'.
-First thing is you will need to find out how much ram you have free when you are playing your game, open up your game and go into a level. Now press ctrl+alt+del and select to open the task manager. Click the Performance tab on the task manager and look in the lower left where it says "Physical Memory (MB)" Under that it says "Available". This is how much ram you have free to use, take this number and reduce it by 200mb, this is your rough estimate to how large you will ever want to let your ramdisk be, any higher and your system will most likely slow to a crawl so much you have to reboot.
+# Copy the entire game folder to the RAM disk.
-If this maximum size is over 4GB, to use more than 4GB you'll need to find an alternative ramdisk software, or purchase it.
+* If the software states that there is not enough space, click 'Stop Ramdisk', add another 100mb to the disk size and try again.
+* If or performance crawls to a stop, use a smaller Ramdisk size or install more ram.
-With your maximum allowed size in mind, find your games files on your system, an easy way to find where it is located is rightclick the games shortcut, click properties, and look at the target, that is where your game is installed.
+Once it is all copied, find the games main .exe file on your RAM disk, open it and start playing at increased performance and speed.
-For steam games they should be in the steam/steamapps folder somewhere.
-Browse to where your game is installed and find out how big the entire game is, you can do this by rightclicking the folder, then selecting properties.
-Start up the ramdisk software, check the "Fat32 Partition" option. If your game saves its saved games in the games folder itself, then click the "Load and Save" tab, and check "Save Disk Image on Shutdown" and "Autosave" To avoid losing any save games.
+====Game is larger than RAM disk====
-Now we have two routes to go from here, if your game size is smaller than your maximum ramdisk size, great! go straight on to the guide below. If not, then using a ramdisk is slightly more complicated setting up for that particular game.
+It is still possible to use this method to load some commonly used files in large games to increase loading speeds by using symbolic links.
-== Game is small enough to fit into ramdisk ==
+Requirement:
+* [https://amd989.github.io/Symlinker/ Symbolic Link Creator utility].
-Set the Disk Size to how big the game is in mb + add 100mb and hit "Start Ramdisk"
+=====Identify and copy commonly accessed game files=====
-Now copy the entire game folder to the ramdisk, if it pops up that there is not enough space, then click "Stop Ramdisk" and add another 100mb to the disk size and try again, until you find the right size that works.
-Once it is all copied, find the games main .exe file on your ramdisk, open it and start playing!
-== Game is too big to fit into ramdisk ==
+Choose large files rather than lots of small files. The most commonly accessed game files are often the largest, for example:
+* World of Warcraft uses MPQ files.
+* Counter-Strike Source uses .GCF files.
-Don't worry if you can't fit all of your game into ram, we can still make files go to ramdisk and load much faster still, it will still net you a big speed increase.
+# Set Disk Size to how big the large game files are in MB + 100MB and press 'Start Ramdisk'.
-This method is a definite must for use with MMO's, which are far too large to fit into a ramdisk anyway (usually).
+* If the software state that there is not enough space, click 'Stop Ramdisk' and add another 100 MB to the disk size and try again.
+* If or performance crawls to a stop, use a smaller Ramdisk size or install more ram.
-We first must find out what files we should actually put on the ramdisk, do you know what files are used all the time by the game? For example with WoW, it is the large MPQ files. Or a game like counter-strike source, it is probably some of the source or counter-strike .gcf files.
+Rename the files to keep as a backup. For example, for World of Warcraft, world.MPQ, art.MPQ can be changed to world_BACKUP.MPQ and art_BACKUP.MPQ
-If you have absolutely no clue what the game uses the most, then just guess it and ramdisk the largest folder or file/s that will fit onto your ramdisk. Choose the largest folder, or file/s you can that will fit into your maximum ramdisk size. Don't choose 500 tiny files as this will make the process long and boring, choose folders or files that are large and can only just fit onto your ramdisk, the less (and larger) the better.
-On the ramdisk program, set the Disk Size to the maximum size you got earlier and click "Start Ramdisk" If you suddenly feel your computer slow to a crawl, stop the ramdisk, lower the disk size a few hundred mbs, then start it again.
+====Symlinking====
-Copy all the files/folders you can that will fit into this ramdisk, again limit this to as little files/folders as possible, use the largest ones you can find. It may take a few tries to find what will actually fit.
-For this example i have copied World of Warcrafts following files to the ramdisk; The Interface folder, world.MPQ, art.MPQ. After copying them rename them to something different otherwise you will lose these files in the next step!. I have renamed them to Interface_BACKUP world_BACKUP.MPQ art_BACKUP.MPQ.
-Now we have to make a fancy type of shortcut to each of these called a Symbolic Link that windows can understand.
+Symbolic links allow Windows to access files on the RAM disk as if they had not been moved at all from the hard drive.
-Open up the symlink program and we now have to tell windows to load these folders/files now from the ramdisk, not the harddrive. Start with the folders, in the dropdown box for "Select the type of symlink that you want to create:" Make sure it is set to "Folder symbolic link".
+# Open up the Symbolic Link Creator utility.
-Under Link Folder click the explore button, now explore to the path where the folder was. For me it was in C:\MyGames\WoW.
+# Copy folders by selecting 'Select the type of symlink that you want to create' > 'Folder symbolic link'.
-In the "Now give a name to the link" type in the original name of the folder. In this example its Interface.
+# Under Link Folder click the explore button, now explore to the path where the folder was. For example, C:\Games\World of Warcraft\.
-Finally in Destination folder click explore, and navigate to where you copied the folder. In this example its I:\Interface.
+# In the "Now give a name to the link" type in the original name of the folder. In this example, it is \Interface\.
-Click Create Link.
+# In the destination folder click explore, and navigate to where you copied the folder. In this example, it is I:\Interface\.
-Repeat this process for all the folders you copied.
+# Click Create Link.
-Then do the same process for all the files, change from "Folder symbolic link" to "File symbolic link".
+# Repeat this process for all the folders you copied.
-Click explore and explore to where the file was, in this example its in C:\MyGames\WoW\Data.
+# Then do the same process for all the files, change from "Folder symbolic link" to "File symbolic link".
-In the box below it, type the name of the original file, in this example it was world.MPQ
+# Click explore and explore to where the file was, in this example, in C:\Games\World of Warcraft\Data.
-Click the explore button under destination file. Find world.MPQ on your ramdrive and select it.
+# In the box below it, type the name of the original file, in this example it was world.MPQ.
-Click create link.
+# Click the explore button under destination file. Find world.MPQ on your RAM disk and select it.
-Repeat this for all the files you copied. NOTE you don't need to do this for files INSIDE a folder you already linked.
+# Click create link.
+# Repeat this for all the files you copied. NOTE you don't need to do this for files INSIDE a folder you already linked.
-Success! Now whenever the game attempts to read data from the files/folders you linked, it will read them from the ramdisk instead by following the symbolic link shortcut. This will greatly improve the speed of your game, if you notice no real increase then try using different files, or buy more ram to be able to ramdisk more data.
+Now whenever the game attempts to read data from the files/folders you linked, it will read them from the RAM disk instead by following the symbolic link shortcut. This will greatly improve the speed of your game. If there is no real increase then try using different files, or buy more ram to be able to transfer more data to the RAM disk.
-For example if you copied a wows MPQ file that contains all TBC content, but you never ever visit there, you probably wont get much benefit, but if you are always in Kalimdor, and you ramdisk the MPQ containing Kalimdor, you will see a significant difference.
+==Important footnotes==
-= Important footnotes =
+* Data from RAM is instantly lost whenever you lose power, or shutdown. If the game saves its saved games in the games folder itself, then click the "Load and Save" tab, and check options 'Save Disk Image on Shutdown' and 'Autosave' to avoid losing any save games.
+* Do not delete the original game files from your hard-drive unless you have this autosave turned on, or you will lose your files.
-Data from ram is instantly lost whenever you lose power, or shutdown. If your game saves its saved games in the games folder itself, then click the "Load and Save" tab, and check "Save Disk Image on Shutdown" and "Autosave" To avoid losing any save games.
+[[Category:Guide]]
-Do not delete the original game files from your harddrive unless you have this autosave turned on, or you will lose your files!
+[[Category:Hack]]
+[[Category:Hardware]]