USB as Ram?

[AnnaTheKitty]

You know those prebuilt computers that won't let you upgrade your ram? I was just wondering, is it possible to plug something into the computer through USB that will add ram to the computer?
Like basically a flashdrive but except giving more storage it gives more ram? If that exist then please tell me how do I get it, if it doesn't exist, million dollar idea?

[Theguywhobea]

Bad idea, and Windows used to have something similar to that called ReadyBoost. USB anything is too slow to function as RAM though, there is a reason they put the RAM as close as possible to the CPU, it actually matters.

[themctipers]

using a regular usb for this is called 'readyboost'

 

the USB bus/interface has too much latency and overhead for RAM to work as RAM without it being stupidly slow

anyone with a slow prebuilt computer should just get a newer computer if the ram is limiting them..

[Shreyas1]

Well then you would have ran over usb which I think would be slower due to latency and bandwidth reasons 

 

 

[AnnaTheKitty]

2 hours ago, Shreyas1 said:

Well then you would have ran over usb which I think would be slower due to latency and bandwidth reasons 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Theguywhobea said:

Bad idea, and Windows used to have something similar to that called ReadyBoost. USB anything is too slow to function as RAM though, there is a reason they put the RAM as close as possible to the CPU, it actually matters.

Isn't ram still better than having no ram? Also what if you are just using the extra ram for like for example a server for a game(Like minecraft which uses a ton of ram), would it still work?

[Theguywhobea]

47 minutes ago, AnnaTheKitty said:

 

Isn't ram still better than having no ram? Also what if you are just using the extra ram for like for example a server for a game(Like minecraft which uses a ton of ram), would it still work?

No, and even if that were the case, you would still be far better off using an SSD, either over PCI-e or SATA 6 than USB. This is why they have paging files for when you run out of RAM (or swap in Linux). You take a massive performance hit but at least your program won't crash. If you tried to run something like a minecraft server on something like "virtual RAM" that was actually just a flash drive, you would have horrible horrible performance, and you'd likely notice an increase in performance by limiting that RAM usage for that program so that it was no longer hitting the paging file or swap.

[AnnaTheKitty]

32 minutes ago, Theguywhobea said:

No, and even if that were the case, you would still be far better off using an SSD, either over PCI-e or SATA 6 than USB. This is why they have paging files for when you run out of RAM (or swap in Linux). You take a massive performance hit but at least your program won't crash. If you tried to run something like a minecraft server on something like "virtual RAM" that was actually just a flash drive, you would have horrible horrible performance, and you'd likely notice an increase in performance by limiting that RAM usage for that program so that it was no longer hitting the paging file or swap.

Less ram/capping the ammount of ram for a server will just make the server barely playable, chunks would not load correctly, tons of lag will be there when a player is loading a new chunk, and maybe more. It doesn't seem to make sense how using a USB as RAM will just give the computer even worse performance than what it was originally.

[Theguywhobea]

1 minute ago, AnnaTheKitty said:

Less ram/capping the ammount of ram for a server will just make the server barely playable, chunks would not load correctly, tons of lag will be there when a player is loading a new chunk, and maybe more. It doesn't seem to make sense how using a USB as RAM will just give the computer even worse performance than what it was originally.

Storage that has to be access over USB is MULTITUDES of times slower than RAM. Something that could be accessed by RAM on the order of micro-seconds would take USB milliseconds to full seconds. RAM is also DIRECTLY connected to your CPU, which means the CPU can have full bare metal access essentially. USB is an external bus to the CPU so their are obfuscation levels between the device on your universal serial bus, and the CPU its self, all which create latency. Like I stated before, if it worked even slightly on USB devices, you'd see it done all over the place with SSD's and PCI-e devices, but we don't see those either. Even though PCI-e and SATA devices are often (mostly) several times faster than any USB device, even those would be too slow to be used and access like you would system memory.

[missed_sla]

DDR4 memory at 2133 MHz has 25.6 GB/sec of bandwidth available, and that's peasant tier memory like I run. 

 

The fastest USB spec available today, 3.2, has 2.5 GB/sec of bandwidth available. To approach the bandwidth available to a memory interface, you'd be looking at Infiniband connections, which in terms of cost are priced at "if you have to ask, you can't afford it and probably don't need it."

 

Honestly, if a computer is so cheap and slow that the memory is an issue, and it can't be upgraded, it's time to chuck it and buy something else. Or give Lubuntu a try.