"Dimmdrive" to be released on Steam tomorrow

[MadSprite]

no, it stores stuff in RAM which is the second fastest memory in the system (CPU cache is fastest) but probably best to use it for reads only cause its volatile

Like modern RamDisk programs is should offer real-time writing to disk as well

[Octagoncow]

Awesome . I can't wait for this to be released. I won't use it since I only have 8GB of ram, but that doesn't mean I can't use it in the future once ram gets even larger and cheaper.

[Betabot]

This looks great, might grab it from the site now as it's only $29 compared to the $34 on release.

Even though these types of programs have been out for ages, this seems to be an easier approach to it.

Though the GUI could be improved upon. IMO anyways. I understand its just a startup.

[Deli]

16GB of RAM is more expensive than a 256GB SSD.

[Markova]

who has 15-20gb free memory to load games into it.

i have 16gb and thats a lot. i dont see anyone other then video editors having the ram that would be needed. 

same here. but there are some games that are very small for what they deliver. mgs V: ground zeroes is just 3GB.

[Thronar]

Wont you need to load the files back into the disk each startup?

 

also why not just use https://vikingvpn.com/blogs/off-topic/how-to-run-steam-games-on-ram-drive?

[Tarkhein]

what's the difference with this program and using RAPID mode on the Samsung ssd's?

RAPID uses up to 4GB RAM to speed up the SSDs I/O (assuming RAPID 2.0. If you're on RAPID 1.0, it's 1GB maximum). You use this software to manually choose how much RAM you want to dedicate to ramdisk and what games/other programs will specifically benefit from it.

 

This looks great, might grab it from the site now as it's only $29 compared to the $34 on release.

Even though these types of programs have been out for ages, this seems to be an easier approach to it.

Though the GUI could be improved upon. IMO anyways. I understand its just a startup.

The guy who made it says he'll most likely keep the lowered $29 price.

 

Wont you need to load the files back into the disk each startup?

 

also why not just use https://vikingvpn.com/blogs/off-topic/how-to-run-steam-games-on-ram-drive?

Yeah you'll need to load the files back. Also the reason why you would choose DimmDrive is so you don't have to manually move the files, it's scripted to do that for you. In combination with real time synchronisation, it's basically pay US$29 to make the process hassle free.

[Misanthrope]

Good trick, but I just don't see myself getting a bucketful of ram before getting something like an m.2 stick instead. But it's good to have the option for like people on workstations at work who want to fuck around for a bit with tons of unused ram

[MrTomnus]

I was using ramdisks for playing Minecraft. Even professional Minecraft servers are doing this. It's one of those games that benefits extremely from faster access times.

But I can't think of any other game where you actually need that kind of speeds.

 

I can see a few advantages. One of them being for games with very large texture files that need loading. If you have a GPU that doesn't have the memory to accommodate large textures, the program should eliminate framerate tanking, since before the system would have to grab textures from a comparatively sluggish HDD rather than RAM. So in a word it should allow you to enable ultra textures on ANY game, regardless of the limit the game recommends.

 

The speed is just good for loading times in general. It should take literally 2-3 seconds rather than 20-30 to load levels by using RAM to store the program.

[NamelessTed]

RAM disks have been around for a while and it seems like the major set back of it being simply too expensive still holds true, especially with SSDs these days. You can buy 32GB of RAM for about $275 + $30 for software leaving you at $305 total. There are a handful of SSDs in the 500GB range available around $300, that would seem like a much smarter investment in money for general use. Especially consider the fact that a lot of games coming out these days are bigger than the 32GB would allow you to load you will still not be able to load full games into your RAM. Furthermore, if you are really going after massive speed consider getting a PCI-Express SSD. They are more expensive than SATA SSDs but if you were considering paying $300 for 32GB of storage I don't think it would be much of a stretch to pay $200 for 128GB or $380 for $256.

 

Of course it would be interesting to see some benchmarks. Compare and SSD to PCI-E SSD to the Dimmdrive and see how much loading times actually increase.

[toggleguy]

It's difficult to realize how much 50gb really is. I was reminded just yesterday when I got COD Advanced Warfare as a gift. The thing was 6 discs of DVD's. I remember when CD's were enough to store a game

Yeah, it really is quite a large size!

[toggleguy]

Then you have a reason to get more RAM!

And a new motherboard and cpu to support that large amount of ram.

[toggleguy]

no, it stores stuff in RAM which is the second fastest memory in the system (CPU cache is fastest) but probably best to use it for reads only cause its volatile

I see.

[Opcode]

Exactly no benefit of this over a SSD. Unless you want to be in game on the next loaded map first yet still be limited by the servers response anyways.

[Billman87]

I would never pay for a ram drive and if your computer does not suck the gains are often marginal gains in most games.

 

I use IMDisk to create a ram drive for free, it can write to Physical memory for speed or write to an image file for persisantce, also a image file and be preloaded before use, or cached as it used.

 

Then use Symbolic links to point the to the ram drive from an existing location.

 

http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html/

 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa363878(v=vs.85).aspx

 

Personally I use raided HDD and am happy with the performance, however if your running steam games from a USB drive I can see the advantage for a ram drive otherwise this is a gimmick.

[BalloonZaptor]

Time to get tons of ram alongside my new ssd

[WereCat]

Looking at the Steam reviews... 

People dont recommend buying this on Steam as the Steam DRM makes a lot more difficulties to use this properly. Almost everyone suggest to get this program outside of Steam.

 

Steam review:

Buy this outside of Steam, not through Steam. 

 

If you run it with Steam, it always shows you as playing "Dimmdrive" while you're actually playing other games. 

 

I tried to send an invite to play Civ over Steam and it told him I was inviting him to play Dimmdrive. 

 

If you run it outside of Steam, it works with Steam but doesn't affect your Steam profile and play stats.

[Crazy Ginger]

Well, I think it is time for me to "download more ram" to try this out

[Testcatt]

And a new motherboard and cpu to support that large amount of ram.

Totally worth it?

[MEC-777]

SSDs are getting ever faster, but still not as fast as RAM. It would seem that the next big step in the evolution of PC hardware would be to have a large amount of RAM (120GB+) with your OS and main programs/apps, eliminating the need for a "separate" SSD apart from the motherboard. Cheap, large mass-storage HDDs will still be around for obvious reasons, but this "ramdisk" concept makes a lot of sense. Have your most used programs/apps on the ramdisk for instant load times and system response.

 

Sounds like a cool idea and gives incentive to buy more ram.

[Dabombinable]

SSDs are getting ever faster, but still not as fast as RAM. It would seem that the next big step in the evolution of PC hardware would be to have a large amount of RAM (120GB+) with your OS and main programs/apps, eliminating the need for a "separate" SSD apart from the motherboard. Cheap, large mass-storage HDDs will still be around for obvious reasons, but this "ramdisk" concept makes a lot of sense. Have your most used programs/apps on the ramdisk for instant load times and system response.

 

Sounds like a cool idea and gives incentive to buy more ram.

Run Raid 0 with PCIe SSDs, you'd start getting close to RAM speeds-not that you really that much speed currently.

[MrRavens]

Looking at the Steam reviews... 

People dont recommend buying this on Steam as the Steam DRM makes a lot more difficulties to use this properly. Almost everyone suggest to get this program outside of Steam.

 

Steam review:

 

Ya I seen the reviews as well. Not looking real good where that's concerned. 

[Maslofski]

Well, I do have 32gb of ram...

Question #2, do you have $34?

[IG-88]

Maybe @LinusTech or @Slick could possibly review this software and let us know if it is worth it.

[megadarkwood]

Question #2, do you have $34?

yes...