wow on RAMdrive

[Michellangelo]

Hello,
I have 24 GB of RAM, so I created 20 GB RAMdrive and played WOTLK content on my ultramega fast drive . But now i have problem, because CATA added another 6 GB of necessary data - 23,5 GB is too much for my RAMdrive.. Bcoz all MPQ files are basicly compressed, i can´t load it now from RAMdrive .
Someone told me, in DATA folder are some files with old world data - before CATA changes (old Kalimdor etc.) and they´re not necessary for Playing wow. Is it true?. Is any option how to reduce wow folder under 20 GB ?

[patrick51]

Originally Posted by Michellangelo Hello, I have 24 GB of RAM, so I created 20 GB RAMdrive and played WOTLK content on my ultramega fast drive . But now i have problem, because CATA added another 6 GB of necessary data - 23,5 GB is too much for my RAMdrive.. Bcoz all MPQ files are basicly compressed, i can´t load it now from RAMdrive . Someone told me, in DATA folder are some files with old world data - before CATA changes (old Kalimdor etc.) and they´re not necessary for Playing wow. Is it true?. Is any option how to reduce wow folder under 20 GB ?

One of the patchs removed all the old files, So all the data in your folder is current, You can delete some of it but it will just redown load it and when you fill up your ram drive the game will crash. So either play it on your HD or get a SSD

[Michellangelo]

I have SSD HDD, but this solution is slower than RAMdrive. Thats why i bought 24 GB RAM for RAMdrive.

[henrik_s]

Two SSDs in raid 0 might be a decent compromise.

[karmamuscle]

You could try an ioDrive if your wallet allows it.

[Michellangelo]

well, for 2 SSD is raid controller needed - raid controller + 1 more SSD HDD - and thats same solution like SSD for PCI-e. My SSD has read speed around 270 MB/s - in raid it will be around 500 MB/s...my RAM drive has 6GB/s. In many applications you can´t see difference, but you can see it in wow - loading scenes, porting to other locations, loading dungeons etc...+ i have already 24 GB of RAM, i don ´t wanna spent 600 euros for "nothing" :P

[acapela]

Originally Posted by henrik_s Two SSDs in raid 0 might be a decent compromise.

i can vouch for this. agreed, not as fast as a ram-drive. but way way faster than conventional magnetic storage. my whole system is significantly faster (starting up WoW, loading all my addons, and etc, is just one of the benefits). i don't start up WoW often enough to want to jump through additional hoops.

[jbashara]

Okay, most of you -- since you're even talking about running WoW on solid memory -- probably already know this, but just in case; no matter what the medium, heavy file fragmentation can also degrade performance. It's a lot more important on conventional hard drives; defragging your WoW folder/installation (and even placing it closer to the beginning of the disk) can improve I/O performance.

Some "game booster" apps will let you defrag single install folders, although a better solution (with more options and better methods) is the popular freeware program "MyDefrag." I'm not too familiar with defragging when it comes to SSD though; I hear there are right and wrong ways to do it.

[patrick51]

[quote=Michellangelo;225758]I have SSD HDD, but this solution is slower than RAMdrive. Thats why i bought 24 GB RAM for RAMdrive. [/Q

I hate to burst your bubble but once wow is loaded you cant tell the difrence between a ram drive and SSD. A SSD's read speed is up to 500 megs a second . A ram drive is not instantaious it has a maxium speed of about 1 gig a second.When you load a dungeon or a zone you are tranfering a very small amount of data between your hD and the computer between 100 and 200 megs of data. so a ssd would load it in 1/5ths of a second and a ramdrive 1/10th of a second, A human being can not tell the diffrence between 100 miliseconds and 200 miliseconds.

Sources Tweaks .com
http://tweaks.com/articles/42415/spe...h-a-ram-drive/

[ricks322]

I tested by removing "everything" that is not needed and the current Warcraft directory is 22 GB. Of course that means no addons, saved var, and such. If you use auction addon's, and others your saved var directory can get to 100 MB easily.

And with 4.0.6, and 4.1 comming soon the size will only increase.

But as pointed out earler, the major improvment with using RAM is an increase in loading the game from start. In game play you are not going to be able to notice any increase.

[Xinhuan]

Couldn't you compromise by copying 20 gb of WoW to your RAM (exclude some 2 gb file), and symlink the last 2 gb back to the actual SSD?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_link

[patrick51]

Originally Posted by ricks322 I tested by removing "everything" that is not needed and the current Warcraft directory is 22 GB. Of course that means no addons, saved var, and such. If you use auction addon's, and others your saved var directory can get to 100 MB easily. And with 4.0.6, and 4.1 comming soon the size will only increase. But as pointed out earler, the major improvment with using RAM is an increase in loading the game from start. In game play you are not going to be able to notice any increase.

And to use a ram disk you have to copy 20 + gigs of files to the ram disk so in the big picture your not saving your self any time at all.