What should be Optimal Settings for Gaming on this Specs?

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rockz3r
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What should be Optimal Settings for Gaming on this Specs?

Post by rockz3r »

Specs:
R5 1600 3.8ghz OC
Asus B350 F Strix
8GBX2 DDR4 3000Mhz Trident Z
KIngston A400 SATA 3 240GB SSD
Toshiba 7200RPM HDD
So , what should be the optimal settings for gaming mostly? Fast load times that is as fps gain cant be achieved through faster storage anyway , OS is in my other SSD partition. I went for the Accelerated read and write preset but disabled prefetch last cache and defer write data. Should I have gone for acclerated read only for fast loading? IF yes, what about the other settings?
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Jaga
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Re: What should be Optimal Settings for Gaming on this Specs?

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Leaving deferred writes off is probably best, since you didn't mention if you have a UPS on the machine. Most people don't. I'd enable prefetch last cache, otherwise you're starting all over every time you reboot.

You're going to have a harder time getting high hit rates with gaming on the cache, due to having a smaller amount of memory (8GB). The OS needs some to begin with, the game will need more (depending on the game - some can use all 8GB easily if they are larger). I'd start with a 2GB L1 read/write (deferred off), prefetch last cache on. Using read/write ensures that save games are written as fast as possible - if you're in a mostly MP gaming environment you can go pure read cache if you want. Then.. keep an eye on your memory use while running the game and see how much you have left over.

It may be beneficial to add another 8GB of RAM to the system depending on the game you're using. You'll be able to run it simultaneously with a decent sized L1 (4-8GB) which will give much better hit rates. For today's more hungry games, I typically build gaming rigs with 32GB or 64GB of RAM, purely so I can use Primocache and count on very high hit rates for whatever game is used.
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Re: What should be Optimal Settings for Gaming on this Specs?

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Jaga wrote: Sat Feb 02, 2019 7:21 pm Leaving deferred writes off is probably best, since you didn't mention if you have a UPS on the machine. Most people don't. I'd enable prefetch last cache, otherwise you're starting all over every time you reboot.

You're going to have a harder time getting high hit rates with gaming on the cache, due to having a smaller amount of memory (8GB). The OS needs some to begin with, the game will need more (depending on the game - some can use all 8GB easily if they are larger). I'd start with a 2GB L1 read/write (deferred off), prefetch last cache on. Using read/write ensures that save games are written as fast as possible - if you're in a mostly MP gaming environment you can go pure read cache if you want. Then.. keep an eye on your memory use while running the game and see how much you have left over.

It may be beneficial to add another 8GB of RAM to the system depending on the game you're using. You'll be able to run it simultaneously with a decent sized L1 (4-8GB) which will give much better hit rates. For today's more hungry games, I typically build gaming rigs with 32GB or 64GB of RAM, purely so I can use Primocache and count on very high hit rates for whatever game is used.
Its 16gb i meant 8x2 , as in 2 sticks of 8gb , and also running at dual channel, and , yes like 90% of the games i play are Multiplayer , so i should just use the Accelerate read preset? This is what i ended up with , i saw Accelerated R&W and Accelerated R only has the difference of Write deferred being enabled and disabled. Anyway , this is my current setting , seems fine? https://ibb.co/tCH3r38
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Re: What should be Optimal Settings for Gaming on this Specs?

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Ah, I may have missed the 'x2' part. That's good then, you can devote a full 6 or 8GB to Primocache, and yes - a Read only scenario would probably be best for MP games.

Be sure to tick (enable) Start at Windows Boot if you want the cache to populate itself quickly. I assume your games are stored on D:, which is what Primocache is caching. With 64GB of your SSD helping to cover D:, it should be quite responsive. Definitely raise your L1 size a little though - 4GB isn't really large enough to cache today's larger games and keep them in L1.

The two strategies (Read and Read+Write) are definitely different. With Read only, anything the drive is asked to provide has a chance of being cached. With Read+Write, it works the same on the read cycles, but will also try and cache things written to the drive if there's space in the cache. That could be config settings, profile settings, chunks in a MP game (like Minecraft), etc. I typically do a Read+Write, but you can play with it and see which is more beneficial to you.
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Re: What should be Optimal Settings for Gaming on this Specs?

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Jaga wrote: Sat Feb 02, 2019 11:29 pm Ah, I may have missed the 'x2' part. That's good then, you can devote a full 6 or 8GB to Primocache, and yes - a Read only scenario would probably be best for MP games.

Be sure to tick (enable) Start at Windows Boot if you want the cache to populate itself quickly. I assume your games are stored on D:, which is what Primocache is caching. With 64GB of your SSD helping to cover D:, it should be quite responsive. Definitely raise your L1 size a little though - 4GB isn't really large enough to cache today's larger games and keep them in L1.

The two strategies (Read and Read+Write) are definitely different. With Read only, anything the drive is asked to provide has a chance of being cached. With Read+Write, it works the same on the read cycles, but will also try and cache things written to the drive if there's space in the cache. That could be config settings, profile settings, chunks in a MP game (like Minecraft), etc. I typically do a Read+Write, but you can play with it and see which is more beneficial to you.
But thing is with windows , chrome and other stuff in background and 4gb in primo , i m barely left with like 8~ gb and most games can take 10~ gb easily , so i am a bit worried of adding more to L1 , what do ya say? Also , since I am just using my SSd 64gb L2 for caching the games , why do i need to use high amounts of ram as well? Like in the hypothetical situation where i use 0 L1 cache , will there me no improvement when compared to normal hdd ?
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Re: What should be Optimal Settings for Gaming on this Specs?

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If you're not going to use the L1 to cache games and just use the L2, then there's no point in installing them to the D drive - just install them to C and move them temporarily to D when you aren't playing them. If your goal however is to cache the games with the L1 on D for maximum speed, then you're going to need more than 4GB to get a good game-file-hit-rate, especially with the OS and other files taking up cache space and the size of the larger games. My fully modded Skyrim (as an example) takes up 36GB, which you couldn't possibly cache in 4GB. And that's an older game - many new ones like Far Cry 5 are 38GB or larger. If your hitrate on a HDD is too low, the game will still feel sluggish, and you may get loading hitching.

Usually when playing a game I only keep 1 browser tab open, since Chrome can really suck memory up. You might want to review things that use up memory and disable some of them to keep the footprint down. Things like the Windows prefetch can be completely disabled when using a cache, and there are plenty of services that can be disabled or set to manual - some guides on the Internet may help with that.

Try doing a little memory cleanup and using 5 or 6GB for the cache, see if it works for you.
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Re: What should be Optimal Settings for Gaming on this Specs?

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Jaga wrote: Sun Feb 03, 2019 5:14 am If you're not going to use the L1 to cache games and just use the L2, then there's no point in installing them to the D drive - just install them to C and move them temporarily to D when you aren't playing them.
So , caching my HDD with just L2 cache of SSD has no improvement when compared to normally running with a hdd wihtout primocache? Also , if i am gonna keep the games on my SSD ,although temporarily , what is the point of primocache ? A bit confused here.
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Re: What should be Optimal Settings for Gaming on this Specs?

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In your screenshot, you aren't caching the C: drive at all. Stuff on C: will run at standard SSD speeds. That's fine, but where are you installing your games to? Most people install them to C: and then put a decent size L1 on the C: drive to get it as fast as possible. Then they would put a decent size L2 on their HDD drive (D: in your case) to speed it up, but they wouldn't put a L1 and a L2 on the slower HDD when the L1 is better used on C:. If you have a ~30GB game on C: and can't give it more than a 4GB L1 cache task, then the net effect from the L1 is greatly diminished.

Here's what I'd do in your situation: make two cache tasks in Primocache, a L1 cache task for the C: drive, and a separate L2 cache task for the D: drive. Keep all your active programs on C: (OS, browser, etc). Install games you want to play directly to C:, but then when you aren't playing them and you think you may play them again... move their folder from C: to D: for long-term storage manually. That way you don't have to keep uninstalling/reinstalling them, you can just move their folder back to where it came from on C: when you want to play again.

You can still benefit from the separate L2 cache task being on the D: drive in that scenario, so you can put music, movies, documents, etc on D: and they'll probably be accessed faster. And the L1 cache task being on the C: drive means things over there will be faster than normal. It depends on how much RAM you give the L1 to use of course. 4GB will work, but if you see hit rates under 30% on a regular basis then it simply isn't enough memory for reliably caching a large game.

Hope that's easier to understand.
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Re: What should be Optimal Settings for Gaming on this Specs?

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Jaga wrote: Sun Feb 03, 2019 10:14 am In your screenshot, you aren't caching the C: drive at all. Stuff on C: will run at standard SSD speeds. That's fine, but where are you installing your games to? Most people install them to C: and then put a decent size L1 on the C: drive to get it as fast as possible. Then they would put a decent size L2 on their HDD drive (D: in your case) to speed it up, but they wouldn't put a L1 and a L2 on the slower HDD when the L1 is better used on C:. If you have a ~30GB game on C: and can't give it more than a 4GB L1 cache task, then the net effect from the L1 is greatly diminished.
I am keeping my games on D (HDD) C: is just for OS and Browser , etc , i m fine with the speed of C: , that is the ssd. Just wanted a bit faster game loads ,as my games are installed in D that is my hdd , tahts why using 64gb of SSD as cache for the HDD (D) . Thats supposed to increase loading time of games on D , yes? And in this case as i m not accelerating my SSD , using L1 on the hdd is meaningless or does it have a difference??
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Re: What should be Optimal Settings for Gaming on this Specs?

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Well, if you stick with 4GB for your L1 cache on D:, games that you regularly load will tend to speed up a -little- more because of that (the most often used parts of them will stay in L1, the rest in the L2). The large L2 will be your primary cache enhancer for things installed to D:. Try it as you have it with both caches on D: (L1 and L2), and see what your hit rate looks like after running a game a few times. Then run another game a few times, etc. Most of it will land in the L2, with a tiny bit staying in the L1.

In your case, I honestly think you can disable the L1 and leave all 16GB for the OS, browser, games, etc (and a tiny bit used by the L2 for overhead). You won't see that much of a difference just for the large game performance with a 4GB L1, and it will probably give more "headroom" for your games to run in RAM if you don't use a L1.
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