Someone online has proven that it is possible to run a RAM Disk on an AMD Ryzen 3D V-Cache CPU. Even more impressive is the fact that the sequential read and write speeds that it can achieves effectively blows the speeds of PCIe 5.0 SSDs right out of the water.
For the uninitiated, a RAM Disk is a storage drive simulated in memory, a virtual disk, if you will. It works more or less in the same way in-memory databases work, used typically by large enterprises.
CrystalCacheMark pic.twitter.com/MSGyrGkXv8
— Nemez (@GPUsAreMagic) February 13, 2023
As for PCIe 5.0 SSDs, they’re already a thing, even if they aren’t being widely sold on the current market, and the storage medium is capable of reaching sequential read and write speeds upwards of 10GB/s. They’re just facing one problem: because of these blitzing speeds, these storage medium require better than average cooling solutions, meaning that manufacturers may have to ship them out with beefy heatsinks.
Getting back to 3D V-Cache, a screenshot was posted by Tom’s Hardware resident cooler master, Albert Thomas, of a Crystal Disk Mark (CDM) score of a RAM Disk achieving sequential read and write speeds of 182GB/s and 175GB/s, respectively. What is even more impressive is that the RAM Disk was made using an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D.
The method of creating a RAM Disk on a 3D V-Cache CPU was discovered by an Individual called Nemez, who posted said method of creation on the platform formerly called Twitter, X, back in February this year. In short, Thomas simply replicated the steps, managing to leverage around 508MB of the 96MB L3 Cache, which is three times more than what you’d find in the 5700X.
It’s a very cool experiment but the end of the day, it’s not a technical ability that one can leverage with 3D V-Cache, but isn’t practical due to the small cache size of the 5800X3D. That being said, there is potential in having the chiplet technology and RAM Disk, even if the latter has been rendered obsolete with the advent of the SSD.
(Source: Tom’s Hardware)
