We've heard mentions of AMD's downloadable RAMDisk software which will portion off a part of your system RAM to act as a cache drive to give you all the benefits of an SSD cache drive without the costs. There are three levels, two free levels which will give you 4GB if you do not have Radeon branded memory and 6GB if you do. For $18.99 you can get the Xtreme version which will allow you up to 64GB on any type of RAM and will get rid of the upgrade now pop up which you will see on the free versions. This software should work with any modern CPU from AMD or Intel which is a great move on AMDs part to help make this software popular. Hardware Canucks checked the boot time with a Super Anti-Spyware scan that is launched during boot which slowed the RAMDisk down a bit however the launch time of CS5 was significantly faster than even an SSD. Check it out here, or just download it from here.
"With memory prices on the decline and Intel's RST caching offering a great solution for budget conscious buyers, AMD is reviving the idea of memory-based application acceleration. Called Radeon RAMDisk, it promises to reduce load times to mere seconds on even the most basic of systems."
Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
- Samsung 840 Pro @ [H]ard|OCP
- Samsung 840 Pro SSD @ Guru3D
- OCZ Vector 128GB SSD @ Tweaktown
- OCZ Agility 4 – 256GB SSD @ Funky Kit
- Intel DC S3700 Data Center SSD @ SSD Review
- Crucial M4 256GB SATA III SSD Review @ PCSTATS
- Mushkin Atlas 480GB mSATA SSD @ Tweaktown
- Exploring the Relationship Between Spare Area and Performance Consistency in Modern SSDs @ AnandTech
- Kingston SSDNow V300 SSD @ SSD Review
- Plextor Updates The Firmware on M5 Pro @ AnandTech
- Sandisk Extreme SSD 120GB/240GB review: too little too late? @ Hardware.info
- WD Red 3TB NAS Hard Drive Review @ Legit Reviews
- Western Digital RE (WD4000FYYZ) 4 TB Hard Disk @ TechARP
- 25 3.5-inch hard disk round-up: battle of the terabytes @ Hardware.info
- Western Digital Black 4TB Hard Drive Review @ Hardware Canucks
- Silverstone FP37 SDXC USB 3.0 Card Reader @ Benchmark Reviews
- Synology DS713+ NAS and DX213 Expansion Unit @ Kitguru
- ioSafe Solo G3 Fireproof and Waterproof External Hard Drive @ Tweaktown
- Silicon Power Diamond Series D03 USB 3.0 Portable HDD Review @ Madshrimps
- Silicon Power Armor A80 1TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive Review @ NikKTech
- Hitachi Touro Desk Pro 4TB USB 3.0 External HDD Review @ Madshrimps
- ADATA DashDrive Elite HE720 2.5" 500GB External Hard Drive @ eTeknix
- Synology DS-413 review: versatile 4-bay NAS @ Hardware.info
- Patriot Gauntlet Node Portable Wireless 2.5″ HDD Enclosure @ Kitguru
This is just a rebadged copy
This is just a rebadged copy of the longstanding and popular Dataram RAMDisk driver, and it’s just a normal RAM disk, it doesn’t do any kind of caching. It just stores whatever you explicitly install there, just like any other drive; it doesn’t accelerate access to any content from any other drives you have. It’s a good place to put your temp file and web browser cache directories, or to install a few apps you use constantly for super-quick launch, but in no way does it give the benefits of an SSD for any other stuff you have.
I like running an instance of
I like running an instance of Chrome Portable (or Firefox Portable) out of the RAMdisk. I have a short stack of programs that I like to keep handy, all have portable versions, and all fit fine at the same time in the 4GB free disk.
So I can download more Ram
So I can download more Ram now? Awesome.
It is really sad that a
It is really sad that a company like AMD is promoting DataRAM’s program, a company that 99.9% of people never heard of, and they only managed to have a plus 2GB extra free version for the 0.1% of people with Radeon RAM. They should have push for at least an 8GB free version for anyone with AMD hardware, cpus, gpus, RAM, whatever.
For me AMD acted like a looser here, like they are the little insignificant company in this deal, and I am sure that Dataram’s people are drinking champagne for this free and international publicity they managed to score with 0 cost.
i think it is not a bad idea
i think it is not a bad idea for AMD to do software like this.
i just wish it could some how stay in the RAM and be bootable.
i guess PCI cards from OCZ is the way to go for that.
I like that they putting out such a product.
It did not take them long to do and no money to make such a thing.
Why not.
Gets them int he news and the product works well.
no complaints.
Does not take away from their focus on their chip making.
They are not the first RAM disk software but more competition is not bad and getting people exposed to such software just opens up the market.
This has been out for months
This has been out for months now…
Um, there are better free
Um, there are better free products, with no ram size limits.
http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.html/
Open source, works on Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 8. Also works on server versions. Regularly updated. Command line scriptable.
And FREE.