Although at first the different components that are part of our Windows team seem to be independent, they are part of a whole. In fact, some depend on others in most cases and can help each other. For this, in addition to the operating system itself, we can use third-party solutions such as the program that we will talk about, GPU Ram Drive .
We tell you all this because sometimes we will need to increase the performance of our computer running on Windows a little. For this it is true that we have hardware elements such as the processor itself, the RAM , the graphics, the disk drives, etc. But there are certain occasions in which one of these components falls short, so we can make others of the same PC, help in a certain way.
To do this, the Redmond operating system itself puts at our disposal a series of functions implemented in Windows. Thus, at times and depending on the type of application we run, the system manages the available resources in the best way. This is something that is especially evident in equipment that is somewhat older or with somewhat fair internal specifications. An example is the behavior of Game Mode that Windows itself implements and that can help us so much when playing .
What is the use of using GPU RAM Drive in Windows
However, on certain occasions, for this type of distribution of resources within the same PC, we can also use third-party solutions. Thus, if necessary, we will be able to greatly optimize the overall operation of the equipment if necessary. For example, we can use the application that we are going to talk about in these same lines for all this. This is GPU Ram Drive, a simple software solution that can be very useful once we start it up and configure it.
To give us an idea of the solution we are going to focus on here, we will tell you what the Ram Drive GPU is really for. Say that this is an application that allocates a memory buffer from the GPU VRAM to use it as a virtual system disk. This is something that can be extremely useful on PCs with little main RAM that need a little more for certain programs.
Something that we must bear in mind when using this specific program is that the use of the GPU RAM is not as fast as the main memory. However, it is interesting to know that it is still faster than a normal hard disk, hence the buffer it creates. To do this we just have to download and run the program in the way that we will show you later and make some small configuration adjustments.
Parameters to get the most out of GPU Ram Drive
As we mentioned before, once the program interface appears on the screen, from there we will have everything necessary to create the buffer in the GPU memory . For this, the application itself puts at our disposal a series of values that we have to specify in order to get the most out of the process. It is worth mentioning that everything depends on the needs we have at a certain time.
Therefore, the first thing we do here is select the graph that we want to use for all this. And you have to take into account that many current computers have more than one graphics card installed. Also one may be more powerful and with more memory than the other, something that is automatically detected by the GPU Ram Drive. At this point, say that this is a selection that we can carry out from the Select Device field. Here a drop-down list opens with the graphics of the PC so that we can mark where we want to create the memory buffer.
But that is not all that we are going to have to specify here in the application we are talking about. And it is that in the same way we will have to assign a letter to the new virtual disk unit that we are preparing to create, in addition to the type of disk. We will also have to indicate if we want to use a volatile or fixed space. And of course, how could it be otherwise, we must also specify the amount of VRAM of the GPU that we want to use for the virtual disk drive.
Once we have configured the parameters to which we have referred in the program, then we only have to click on the Mount button. At that moment and after only a few seconds, if we use the Windows File Manager, we can already see that new virtual drive with the letter assigned previously. For example, in the case at hand here, unit R.
Once we no longer need this virtual unit based on the RAM of the computer’s GPU, we return to Windows Explorer and click on it with the right button. Then in the context menu we choose the option of Umount Imdisk Vistual Disk .
Alternatives to GPU Ram Drive
- ImDisk Toolkit: this is a proposal similar to the one we have reviewed in these lines that allows us both to create and mount virtual drives based on the PC’s RAM memory. As we can see, the main difference here is that it makes use of the main RAM, instead of the GPU memory to make the buffer unit . To download this program we can do it from this link .
- Radeon RamDisk: on the other hand, another similar software solution to create virtual drives, we find it with the so-called Radeon RamDisk. Here we find a good number of configurable parameters, and we can do with the program from here .
How to download GPU Ram Drive
This is a free and open source program that we have the possibility to use in 64 and 32 bit Windows . We find executables of both architectures in this link . This way we can carry out the virtual unit that we have told you about from the VRAM of the team’s GPU.
But for it to work, first of all we recommend installing this other free program. It is about ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver in order to create the mentioned drives. You can also download this from this link .
