How to make programs run faster on PCs with less RAM

Gadgets Now | Apr 25, 2017

Of all the hardware components that make up a PC (or a smartphone, or just about any modern smart gadget), one of the most important is RAM. Short for Random Access Memory, RAM is essentially a type of computer storage which has data read and write speeds that are orders of magnitude faster than that of other storage media such as SSDs and HDDs.

Therefore, RAM is critical to the 'speed' of a device. And this is why modern PCs (such as high-end gaming laptops and workstations) and smartphones (like the OnePlus 3T and Asus Zenfone AR) come with oodles of RAM.

But as important as RAM is to running a big game or a heavy-software application on a PC, you can't install more RAM than what's supported by your computer (or more specifically, its motherboard). For instance, if the motherboard of your laptop or desktop supports a maximum of 8GB RAM, you just can't have 16GB of RAM (unless of course, you go for a hardware upgrade). But what if you could make intensive programs and games run on your PC, even if it has less RAM?

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Turns out, it's possible. All you need is a RAM Drive creator software. In simple words, this software takes a certain chunk (user-configurable) of your computer's RAM and mounts it as a virtual hard drive (called RAM Disk or RAM Drive). This means that you can have a program running from the hard drive run as fast as if it were running from RAM.

Sounds interesting? Here's how to do it:

Note: There are numerous RAM Drive creator software available out there. For this tutorial, we've chosen Miray RAM Drive. That's because it's immensely simple to use and doesn't have any confusing settings and options. For this reason, even beginner-level users can take advantage of it.

How to make PC programs run faster with Miray RAM Drive?

Step 1: Download the free version of Miray RAM Drive from its homepage and install it. The software will also install a virtual RAM disk driver.

Step 2: Once installed, Miray RAM Drive runs in the system tray. Click its icon, and you'll see a slider that goes from minimum (20MB) to maximum (4125MB). You can use this slider to adjust the amount of RAM that the software will use as a virtual hard drive.

Step 3: After setting the limit, all you have to do is click the Green-coloured Power icon at the bottom and Miray RAM Drive will take it from there. The software will create a virtual RAM Drive, which will show up with your computer's other hard drive partitions.

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