RAMDisk for Temp folder (stutter problems)

[Raf]

This is something that has solved my stutter problems.

It works only if you have plenty of RAM to spare.

For my case, i have 16GB of RAM and I'm sparing 1GB for this.

 

I've used a RAMDisk software to save my windows temp folder, imdisk in this case, http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html/#ImDisk but you can find others here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RAM_disk_software

It seems overall that DCS goes writing quite some temporary stuff there, along temporary track recordings and other files...

 

Here is how I use it:

- at startup I create the ramdisk, by putting a .bat file in my startup folder (in windows menu -> all programs)

- the batch has inside the instruction to create a physical ramdisk drive of 1GB for drive letter F (you can change these parameters) and format it automatically to ntfs:

 

imdisk -a -t file -m F: -o rw,hd,awe -s 1G -p "/fs:ntfs /q /y"

 

Then, I went in the environment variables of windows, and set all my temp dirs to "F:\"

 

BEWARE to set it to a correct path and remember to revert it back to the original if something doesn't work for you (SAVE IT BEFORE MODIFYING).

 

This is a way of doing it: http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_change_the_location_of_windows_temporary_files.html

 

Similarly on windows 7, right click computer (on start menu) -> properties -> advanced system settings -> environment variables

The variables are both system and user scoped:

- TEMP

- TMP

 

The content of the RAMDISK will be ALWAYS DELETED at reboot/shutdown!!!

For a temp folder, that's fine, but don't put other stuff in there, cause you're not gonna find it anymore!

 

For the record, I'm already using an SSD(Intel X25), so my HD is not poor performant. But still I needed this, so I believe there's something strange happening while DCS is running...

I'm curious to see if this can solve the problem for the other people that have it.

[xracer]

Thanks, great info!

 

I don't have enough memory yet for using it, but will buy soon. Also all these DCS temp files may fragment some disks. Did use RAM disks a little way back in time, but was a little messy to use. Will look at this one later on, Thanks!

[Milli]

Thanks Raf. I too will look into this.

 

Regards,

Milli

[SkateZilla]

if you use a application (ie I use AMD RAMDisk), it will copy/save/Sync your RamDisk to a Specific Folder, on Windows Shutdown, and when you boot up, automatically load it.

 

AMD's Version is just a re-badged version of the commercial "RAMDisk" software, customized for AMD/Gamers.

 

 

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/radeon-memory/Pages/ramdisk-consumer.aspx

(Unless you pay or own AMD RAM, you only get 4 GB)

 

http://www.radeonmemory.com/how_it_works.php

 

 

 

I had an 8GB RAMDisk, and it was significantly faster than a Traditional HDD, and even faster than a SSD.

When I Upgrade my home rig to 32 GB this fall, I'll up the RAMDisk to 16-24 GB. (System only uses like 2.4GB avg, and max was like 6gb, unless im video editing, then I can use all 16GB i have quickly.

 

But if im Video editing, I can save the RAMDisk and shut it down and recover the RAM.

 

 

Also, You can make an large enough RAMDisk, and Install DCSW to the RAMDISK, when you shutdown, back up the folder if the APP doesnt, and restore the folder back to the RAMDisk when you boot up again.

 

 

 

 

 

*Note, I said had only because in the summer time I dont have the time to play games as much, so my system is constantly being turned on / off to prevent overheating of components that are not water cooled.

 

in the winter i run 24/7.

Edited July 31, 2013 by SkateZilla

[Gloom Demon]

Does this tweak result in any FPS improvement?

[Lange_666]

Depends on what you mean by improvement:

Loading stutter may cause your FPS to drop briefly. With a RamDisk this can be brought back to a minimum. So your avg FPS, measured over time, can be a bit higher then normal (but only minor).

If you mean higher FPS like going from 40 to 50, the answer is no.

[Raf]

No, doesn't raise the FPS.

It just avoids DCS to pause in certain moments when it needs to write/read some temporary stuff quickly to disk.

 

This doesn't exclude it to pause it anyway though, don't know how it works lowlevel or if some other cause is summed to this, only developers do.

[LostOblivion]

I have problems with stuttering when I rotate the camera towards, say, an airfield with lots of units. Will putting tmp or even the DCS World folder into ramdisk help reduce the stuttering, or is my 1GB video memory the bottleneck here?

[Hamblue]

Skate

Make sure you're not running windows home edition when upping the ram past 16 gig. 16 is the limit. Pro and ultimate are higher

[zaelu]

I use 2 SSDs. One for Windows, one for games folders.

 

No stutters... ever... not even after 20 presses of F12.

 

People with SSDs (I see one in signatures here) don't need ramdisk etc. Maybe just RAM and good CPU/GPU.

[SkateZilla]

Skate

Make sure you're not running windows home edition when upping the ram past 16 gig. 16 is the limit. Pro and ultimate are higher

 

I Run Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit, with unreleased Applications from Microsoft and AMD.

 

Im Good.

[musicking]

HDD + Ramdisk (Primo Ramdisk 5.5) + Fancycache Volume Edition 0.8

 

System pagefile (1st pagefile) min-max 16MB or hdd cache size

Create Z drive (Direct I-O mode) 1100MB (OS 2nd pagefile min-max 1024-1024MB)

Create Y drive (Direct I-O mode) 600MB

Fancycache settings: (Game HDD)

Block size:4kb, Algorithm LFU-R, caching strategy: read-write, L1 cache: min. 512MB

Enable Defer Write, latency: 30s

Enable level 2 cache: L2 512MB, Algorithm: MBU, other drive: Y

 

Defer write incombatible apps (perfectdisk, nero), defer write off or use other similar apps (diskeeper, imgburn)

 

Sorry bad english.

Edited August 3, 2013 by musicking

[Raf]

I use 2 SSDs. One for Windows, one for games folders.

 

No stutters... ever... not even after 20 presses of F12.

 

People with SSDs (I see one in signatures here) don't need ramdisk etc. Maybe just RAM and good CPU/GPU.

 

Thing, is, i have an SSD.

[SkateZilla]

Ran a Quick HDD Bench on my Ramdisk.

 

Standard SSDs are around 300-400 MB/sec Read/Write.

 

My RamDisk gets over 6800MB/Sec read/write.

 

Also,

 

AMD Offers a Free 4 GB Solution, 6 GB if you're using AMD Ram, and Up to 64 GB.

 

Newer ASRock Mainboard Owners, have XFast RAM Utility for ASRock Boards

(I dont remember the limit)

Edited August 7, 2013 by SkateZilla

[Kondor99]

I have a laptop with a Plextor M5M SSD and 8gb RAM, and I've never had any stutters at all: 1920x1080, all settings on High except Shadows Medium, TSSAA on, Vsync on, Fullscreen on, Cockpit shadows on. CPU is an i7-4700mq and GPU is a GTX765m. I don't use MSAA, instead I use FXAA in the Nvidia control panel (my GPU has more shader power than memory bandwidth, so it works better).

 

I had this sort of stuttering on FC2 and on my previous machine (with much lower specs).

 

I've never seen any stuttering on my desktop, which is considerably more powerful. In both cases, DCS is installed on the SSD with a paging file on a separate HDD.

 

Perhaps the key is to have DCS on one drive, and your paging file on another. SSD's have serious problems with simultaneous read/writes. I'll move my pagefile over to the SSD and see if I can make it stutter.

 

Ran a Quick HDD Bench on my Ramdisk.

 

Standard SSDs are around 300-400 MB/sec Read/Write.

 

My RamDisk gets over 6800MB/Sec read/write.

 

Also,

 

AMD Offers a Free 4 GB Solution, 6 GB if you're using AMD Ram, and Up to 64 GB.

 

Newer ASRock Mainboard Owners, have XFast RAM Utility for ASRock Boards

(I dont remember the limit)

[Hekktor]

From a windows point of view I tend to follow this guys:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1193401/why-it-is-bad-to-store-the-page-file-on-a-ram-disk

 

Anything dcs is doing different on the windows memory system than other windows programs?

[Raf]

@Hekktor: I was talking about the TEMP folder, not the pagefile.

Putting the temporary files folder on RAM is also a best practice on linux. I suspect that since mouting a RAM disk on windows has never been so easily accessible (need 3rd party software), it never has been a convention.

[Hekktor]

Ok, that makes more sense, imho, tnx for clarification. I was confused by some postings regarding pagefile in ramdisk.