How is Primo Cache better than Superfetch?

[MaXimus]

Doesn't Superfetch take note of what programs you usually launch then caches them into RAM? so how is Primo Cache better?

please explain I am a n00bie to Primo Cache

[Violator]

Doesn't Superfetch take note of what programs you usually launch then caches them into RAM? so how is Primo Cache better?<br abp="671"><br abp="672">please explain I am a n00bie to Primo Cache

Superfetch operates on filelevel at your system partition, it preloads exe, sys, dll and a few other files, so it makes these files start up faster when you use them.

PrimoCache operates on blocklevel, so it might not cache the entire file, but the blocks that are used the most (note that this can be considerable slower than SMB 3.0)
The advantage of PrimoCache is that you can cache files and partitions that Superfetch doesn't touch and where the application that you want to cache for, has a bad caching mechanism or doesn't really cache anything at all.
If you have a program with 10GB of frequently used files and a 10GB PrimoCache on the drive/partition where the program and its files are stored, you will have the advantage of getting them cached and avoid disk I/O when they are read over and over again.
This could as example be 10GB of texture files for a game, something that Windows build in caching mechanism won't cache (and most games neither).

In addition PrimoCache also has a writecache, but that should only be used for a drive/partition that has no important data on it, if you don't have UPS or a controller with a battery.
Same goes for readcache on OS drivers/partitions, don't use PrimoCache with those unless you have UPS or a controller with a battery, some of these controllers even got memory for read/write caching.
If the system crashes while something is writing trough the writecache, everything that was about to be written to disk will be lost, which basically means there is a risk to loose a lot of files the larger the cache and amount of blocks cached is on the system.

[MaXimus]

thanks a lot for the detailed explanation.

Shall I disable Superfetch when I install Windows? wouldn't Superfetch conflict with PrimoCache and use RAM unncessarily?

Or shall I set it to BOOT only rather than ALL?

[Davey126]

I would not disable Superfetch or limit its scope. Windows is very good about releasing memory if needed elsewhere. While PromoCache may only cache a portion of a file based on recent activity Superfetch will typically bring the entire file into memory if there is space and it is within scope of files it targets. If your PrimoCache is configured for read/write a large write operation could flush recently read L1 data while the same file may survive in the Superfetch cache. Windows will increase/decrease the size of the Superfetch cache as needed while the L1 memory in PrimoCache is fixed at whatever size you specify.

Unused RAM serves no purpose. If it is not needed let it be used for cache ... even if somewhat redundant.

[MaXimus]

I would not disable Superfetch or limit its scope. Windows is very good about releasing memory if needed elsewhere. While PromoCache may only cache a portion of a file based on recent activity Superfetch will typically bring the entire file into memory if there is space and it is within scope of files it targets. If your PrimoCache is configured for read/write a large write operation could flush recently read L1 data while the same file may survive in the Superfetch cache. Windows will increase/decrease the size of the Superfetch cache as needed while the L1 memory in PrimoCache is fixed at whatever size you specify.

Unused RAM serves no purpose. If it is not needed let it be used for cache ... even if somewhat redundant.

thanks bro, so what size shall I set for primocache? my default is 15 GB since I have 32 GB of RAM but what do you think?

[Davey126]

I have no direct experience with multi-gig L1 caches nor information on your typical work loads. I would start out with something more modest (say 4GB) and monitor performance through the GUI. In particular Cache Hit Rate and Free Cache. Ideally you'd like to see a high hit rate without an excessive amount of free cache. At some point there will be diminishing returns. You may decide to use any 'surplus' memory for something else ... perhaps a ramdisk.

You'll also want to think about block size in relation to performance and overhead. Given the amount of memory available for L1 you can probably go with a higher block size (32KB or greater).

[Violator]

thanks a lot for the detailed explanation.

Shall I disable Superfetch when I install Windows? wouldn't Superfetch conflict with PrimoCache and use RAM unncessarily?

Or shall I set it to BOOT only rather than ALL?

No, leave SuperFetch enabled and do not cache the OS partition/disk with PrimoCache, Windows handles it's system drive fine on it's own.
If you got any particular files on your system partition/drive that you want to cache anyway it is better to move them to another drive/partition and create hardlinks or junctions at their old locations, then use PrimoCache up against the drive/partition where you moved the files to.
If you can't move them because you got no other drive/partition you are better suited by using a ramdisk and some smart scripts that load/unload data and save the last current state of cached data upon shutdown/restart.

Last method works pretty well, but it has it's limitation when you have really huge files or a lot of files where even 32GB RAM system RAM isn't enough, so needs a lot more calculation and strategy from yourself than using PrimoCache.
But once again, do not use PrimoCache up against your system drive/partition, it is kind of counterproductive up against what Windows caches, only reason I could see to use it here is because you want to use hidden ram.
For everything else it is much better to use additional partitions/drives, create junctions and/or hardlinks if needed or use a ramdrive.
I don't know how much the RAM drive created by Romex offers, I usually use a free open source version which can be fully automated by creating scripts.

[Davey126]

But once again, do not use PrimoCache up against your system drive/partition, it is kind of counterproductive up against what Windows caches, only reason I could see to use it here is because you want to use hidden ram.
For everything else it is much better to use additional partitions/drives, create junctions and/or hardlinks if needed or use a ramdrive.

While I agree with optimization through the use of additional drive/partitions I would not go so far as to discourage the use of PrimoCache on the system partition. With a small write delay the amount of data written can be reduced 15-15% as PrimoCache discards redundant writes (much of it Windows busy work). I have yet to experience a performance hit with PrimoCache running against the system partition and feel some operations are a tad faster even with a high-end SSD as the primary drive. Obviously your mileage may vary .

[MaXimus]

thanks a lot for the detailed explanation.

Shall I disable Superfetch when I install Windows? wouldn't Superfetch conflict with PrimoCache and use RAM unncessarily?

Or shall I set it to BOOT only rather than ALL?

No, leave SuperFetch enabled and do not cache the OS partition/disk with PrimoCache, Windows handles it's system drive fine on it's own.
If you got any particular files on your system partition/drive that you want to cache anyway it is better to move them to another drive/partition and create hardlinks or junctions at their old locations, then use PrimoCache up against the drive/partition where you moved the files to.
If you can't move them because you got no other drive/partition you are better suited by using a ramdisk and some smart scripts that load/unload data and save the last current state of cached data upon shutdown/restart.

Then why do I need to purchase Primocache at all if SUPER FETCH does a better job? I don't see the point?

I bought a license and haven't even activated it yet. I bought it in hate but now I am having double thoughts as I really fail to see how is Primocache better than SUPER FETCH or my SAMSUNG Evo`s RAPID mode which uses 1 GB.

Please explain as I now have buyer's remorse

[Davey126]

Then why do I need to purchase Primocache at all if SUPER FETCH does a better job? I don't see the point?

See my previous post for some potential benefits; whether they are depends on your perspective. While SuperFetch does do a good job you have more control over PrimoCache configuration if you wish to fine tune your system. Other potential benefits:
- PrimoCache can work against any disk; SuperFetch only operates against the system partition
- PrimoCache captures all disk operations (except the pagefile); SuperFetch only works against a small subset of system executables
- PrimoCache has more extensive options for cached writes; Windows write buffer is relatively small and flushed often
- PrimoCache supports L1 and L2 caches; SuperFetch only offers a L1 (ie: memory) cache. Note the Windows pagefile could be considered a L2 (ie: disk) cache of sorts
- SuperFetch cache will grow and shrink depending on system utilization. While normally this is a good thing it can, at times, shrink down to a non-beneficial size (rare but possible)

I am not trying to be a PrimoCache fanboy. It is not the right solution for everyone. If you do not have any mechanical drives in your system then PrimoCache will have little to no performance benefit. If you are not happy open a support case to explore the possibility of a refund.