Record Cross Fire with maximum performance - RAM Disk!
![[LobsterMts]](https://forum.z8games.com/uploads/customavatars/57/navatar_5413357.gif){kind=avatar}
Hey guys. Lobster here!
This guide will teach you how to use RAM Disk, a technology that involves using your memory as a logical drive (like a Hard Drive Disk) to achieve speeds up to 10-25 times faster than a SSD.
Let's head over to the theoretical part. You may skip this, as it's only an explanation on how recording works, and what could be done to reduce performance impacts.
I'd recommend reading over the First Steps section though, or else you may break something.
Recording games isn't an easy task on your PC.
Thing is, the higher the FPS you're recording at, the higher the performance impact.
What recording does is, take a "picture" of each frame being outputted.
Meaning, 60 Frames Per Second = 60 pictures being taken, every second.
Sounds hard, doesn't it?
It really does hard on your HD, as it has to write all those pictures at a successful rate. Imagine taking and saving 60 pictures every second!
That's where the RAM Disk comes in. Your average HD's write speed is 70 times slower than a RAM Disk!
Let's use a RAM Disk and make your recording software of choice be able to write frames faster, reducing performance impact.
Let's begin, shall we? First of all, we need to know if you're good to go with RAM Disk.
This will depend on the amount of RAM you have and duration of the videos you'll be recording (for filesize concerns).
Cross Fire uses an average of 1 GB in-game. I wish I could have involved more people in my average memory usage for Cross Fire project, but that will happen at a later date!
If you plan on recording for minutes, I recommend using over 1GB of RAM Disk.
Here's a quick 'recommended RAM Amount' for RAM Disk:
Reserved stands for your other programs + System Reserved Memory, accounting for system cache and so on
4GB or more (1 GB CF + 600-800mb Reserved = 2.2 GB+ left for RAM Disk)
Other settings:
(Not Recommended!)
|1GB (700-800mb + 200-300mb Reserved = You're just gonna kill everything.)
(What happens here is, your other processes start using less memory, until there's no more RAM available and your PC either hangs or Cross Fire closes without any warning.)
|2GB (1GB CF + 600-800 Reserved = 200-400 left for RAM Disk)
(Recommended)
|4GB (1 GB CF + 600-800mb Reserved = 2.2-2.4 GB left for RAM Disk)
|8GB or more (1 GB CF + 600-800mb Reserved = 6.2-6.4+ GB left for RAM Disk)
Well this is simple math.
Just beware! You'll only be able to record until the RAM Disk is full - after that, you can move the recording files to your HD.
Note! Your processor may be 'bottlenecking' (as in reducing your performance) far more than your HD. Make sure you have a PC that is 2007 and newer, minimum!
Met the requirements? Head over to the real deal:
Download a RAM Disk software of your choice (I recommend Dataram's RAMDisk)
(Dataram RAMDisk allows up to 4GB of RAM Disks.)
Install it. As long as you get the program up and running, the options you change around from default will not matter.
Let's get it running!
You'll see lots of options, but the only ones you want to change are the ones in Basic Settings.
Set the Disk Size to a good value - preferably the ones I've recommended in the First Steps section, be extra careful not to set a value that is next to your amount of RAM.
You should leave the partition format to FAT32 Partition - if you're gonna be techy about it, you can format the RAM Disk to whatever format you may wish later.
Leave the Boot Sector Settings to Windows boot sector, and click 'Start RAMDisk'.
If you have windows sounds enabled, you'll hear a ding, similar to the sound that is played when you plug in a pen drive or USB device.
Let's set your recording software up!
I'll use Fraps, as it's fairly common and simple.
Open up your recording software, and head over to the Recording settings, where you can change the Video Outpost folder.
In Fraps's case, Movies:
I'd ignore the other settings if I were you, those are up to you.
A dialog box opens up. Choose the RAM Disk partition!
You sure are clickly tonight.
... And that's it!
Go record around, see if they're being saved in the RAMDisk drive, enjoy your performance boosts.
Maybe this will make more people record, and make our community grow!
Be sure to send this to anyone having performance issues when recording.
A big thanks to everyone reading this.
Big thanks to Rory, for making me have an interest in recording softwares all out of a sudden.
This guide will teach you how to use RAM Disk, a technology that involves using your memory as a logical drive (like a Hard Drive Disk) to achieve speeds up to 10-25 times faster than a SSD.
Let's head over to the theoretical part. You may skip this, as it's only an explanation on how recording works, and what could be done to reduce performance impacts.
I'd recommend reading over the First Steps section though, or else you may break something.
Recording games isn't an easy task on your PC.
Thing is, the higher the FPS you're recording at, the higher the performance impact.
What recording does is, take a "picture" of each frame being outputted.
Meaning, 60 Frames Per Second = 60 pictures being taken, every second.
Sounds hard, doesn't it?
It really does hard on your HD, as it has to write all those pictures at a successful rate. Imagine taking and saving 60 pictures every second!
That's where the RAM Disk comes in. Your average HD's write speed is 70 times slower than a RAM Disk!
Let's use a RAM Disk and make your recording software of choice be able to write frames faster, reducing performance impact.
Let's begin, shall we? First of all, we need to know if you're good to go with RAM Disk.
This will depend on the amount of RAM you have and duration of the videos you'll be recording (for filesize concerns).
Cross Fire uses an average of 1 GB in-game. I wish I could have involved more people in my average memory usage for Cross Fire project, but that will happen at a later date!
If you plan on recording for minutes, I recommend using over 1GB of RAM Disk.
Here's a quick 'recommended RAM Amount' for RAM Disk:
Reserved stands for your other programs + System Reserved Memory, accounting for system cache and so on
4GB or more (1 GB CF + 600-800mb Reserved = 2.2 GB+ left for RAM Disk)
Other settings:
(Not Recommended!)
|1GB (700-800mb + 200-300mb Reserved = You're just gonna kill everything.)
(What happens here is, your other processes start using less memory, until there's no more RAM available and your PC either hangs or Cross Fire closes without any warning.)
|2GB (1GB CF + 600-800 Reserved = 200-400 left for RAM Disk)
(Recommended)
|4GB (1 GB CF + 600-800mb Reserved = 2.2-2.4 GB left for RAM Disk)
|8GB or more (1 GB CF + 600-800mb Reserved = 6.2-6.4+ GB left for RAM Disk)
Well this is simple math.
Just beware! You'll only be able to record until the RAM Disk is full - after that, you can move the recording files to your HD.
Note! Your processor may be 'bottlenecking' (as in reducing your performance) far more than your HD. Make sure you have a PC that is 2007 and newer, minimum!Met the requirements? Head over to the real deal:
Download a RAM Disk software of your choice (I recommend Dataram's RAMDisk)
(Dataram RAMDisk allows up to 4GB of RAM Disks.)
Install it. As long as you get the program up and running, the options you change around from default will not matter.
Let's get it running!
You'll see lots of options, but the only ones you want to change are the ones in Basic Settings.
Set the Disk Size to a good value - preferably the ones I've recommended in the First Steps section, be extra careful not to set a value that is next to your amount of RAM.
You should leave the partition format to FAT32 Partition - if you're gonna be techy about it, you can format the RAM Disk to whatever format you may wish later.
Leave the Boot Sector Settings to Windows boot sector, and click 'Start RAMDisk'.
If you have windows sounds enabled, you'll hear a ding, similar to the sound that is played when you plug in a pen drive or USB device.
Let's set your recording software up!
I'll use Fraps, as it's fairly common and simple.
Open up your recording software, and head over to the Recording settings, where you can change the Video Outpost folder.
In Fraps's case, Movies:
I'd ignore the other settings if I were you, those are up to you.
A dialog box opens up. Choose the RAM Disk partition!
You sure are clickly tonight.
... And that's it!
Go record around, see if they're being saved in the RAMDisk drive, enjoy your performance boosts.
Maybe this will make more people record, and make our community grow!
Be sure to send this to anyone having performance issues when recording.
A big thanks to everyone reading this.
Big thanks to Rory, for making me have an interest in recording softwares all out of a sudden.
Comments
-
Wow damn, this thing drastically slowed down my computet, I don't know how to fix it :S
Please help
stop RAMDisk, or try to reduce the RAM Disk size, start it, and then immediatly stop it.
all that RAMDisk does is allocate memory, it can't 'slow down' anything unless you have 1GB or less (which is why I put 'Not recommended') in there.
also check 'Processes' in the task manager (ctrl+shift+esc), see if anything is taking too much memory or CPU usage. -
[MOD]LobsterMts wrote: »stop RAMDisk, or try to reduce the RAM Disk size, start it, and then immediatly stop it.
all that RAMDisk does is allocate memory, it can't 'slow down' anything unless you have 1GB or less (which is why I put 'Not recommended') in there.
also check 'Processes' in the task manager (ctrl+shift+esc), see if anything is taking too much memory or CPU usage.
I tried to uninstall it, and it seems that it's uninstalled, but since it's very slow, I can't check the Control Panel.
I also can't access the Task Manager.
My only option seems to go in Safe mode and restart from there.
Hope it works.
Edit: im checking the RAM, it says im using 97%.
How to fix -
I tried to uninstall it, and it seems that it's uninstalled, but since it's very slow, I can't check the Control Panel.
I also can't access the Task Manager.
My only option seems to go in Safe mode and restart from there.
Hope it works.
just a question - do you happen to have any RAID drives? you probably don't but it's possible that it could have broke something.
give a virus scanner of your preference a spin. maybe malwarebytes antimalware, you can download it if you're in safe mode with network. -
[MOD]LobsterMts wrote: »just a question - do you happen to have any RAID drives? you probably don't but it's possible that it could have broke something.
give a virus scanner of your preference a spin. maybe malwarebytes antimalware, you can download it if you're in safe mode with network.
I don't know what that is so I guess no.
Also, as I said above, it says Im using 97% of my RAM, and I checked my Processes, nothing was there that ate that much RAM.
So whats the problem? -
I don't know what that is so I guess no.
Also, as I said above, it says Im using 97% of my RAM, and I checked my Processes, nothing was there that ate that much RAM.
So whats the problem?
sounds like you either put too much memory in use on RAMDisk, or a program/virus might have messed with the RAMDisk service and it's still active (despite being uninstalled).
do you have any sort of instant messaging we can use?
steam or perhaps even xfire, I plan on cleaning up this thread soon -
[MOD]LobsterMts wrote: »sounds like you either put too much memory in use on RAMDisk, or a program/virus might have messed with the RAMDisk service and it's still active (despite being uninstalled).
do you have any sort of instant messaging we can use?
steam or perhaps even xfire, I plan on cleaning up this thread soon
Xfire is pridefrag
edit: Thanks Lobster, after 5 hours, my issue is finally solved. I
U no **** -
Xfire is pridefrag
that's fixed - gonna clean the thread up a bit.
what happened here was, a very high amount of memory was allocated, and the uninstaller wasn't ran correctly - unusual but hey.
just to play it safe, set the RAM Disk value to what is recommended (as stated in the first steps section) -
[MOD]LobsterMts wrote: »that's fixed - gonna clean the thread up a bit.
what happened here was, a very high amount of memory was allocated, and the uninstaller wasn't ran correctly - unusual but hey.
just to play it safe, set the RAM Disk value to what is recommended (as stated in the first steps section)
Thanks aloooot, I <3333 you
Categories
- All Categories
- Z8Games
- 1 Z8 Forum Discussion & Suggestions
- 15 Z8Games Announcements
- Rules & Conduct
- 2.5K CrossFire
- 709 CrossFire Announcements
- 712 Previous Announcements
- 2 Previous Patch Notes
- 320 Community
- 12 Modes
- 392 Suggestions
- 16 Clan Discussion and Recruitment
- 74 CF Competitive Forum
- 1 CFCL
- 16 Looking for a Team?
- 522 CrossFire Support
- 7 Suggestion
- 15 CrossFire Guides
- 35 CrossFire Off Topic