What exactly does setting the VCACHE do?

[Damon]

I recently set my vcache to 16384 (minfilecache and maxfilecache). What does this help do exactly?
I noticed Giga takes a little longer to search for sounds.
Also, is 16384 the correct number?

Thanks:)

[composer22]

1) this setting is only good for win98, 95 not XP or 2000

2) It sets aside a buffer in memory for disk i/o. If a file is read or opened from disk, the OS will maintain this area as a place to look for file data, so it doesnt have to make the expensive and slow process of going out to disk to get information.

3) In a normal situation, such as a database, this would make perfect sense. However, giga and some DAw software have their own caching mechanism, so a) this wastes memory by double buffering the same information b) this can waste processing time.

So, given this, its best to let giga handle caching by giving it more memory to play with, and lowering teh system cache. Also, it will give giga more memory to load more sounds

16384 is about right. Various low settings have been tried but this setting has been proven to be the best case by most people. systems vary of course, so you can experiment a bit with the actual number...but its a good start. Some people set this to 2048, but performance may be worse all around...

Best by test as bobby fisher used to say

[Damon]

Thanks for the help composer22 images/icons/wink.gif

[LifeForceExplorer]

This is the one common optimization I havent tweaked yet - being still quite new to GSt, just a few months using a Win98se PC. Here\'s my question about VCache! When I go in there I find that I have NO VCache ENTRY at all! Nada. Blank. Should I just type it in? The optimization guides all suggest \"changing\" your VCache to such and such a pair of numbers. But if mine is blank and GSt seems to be running fine (no pops or clicks and good polyphony) I wonder what this means?

[composer22]

In a normal situation, this is what I would use as a rule to set it:

\"Put maximum and minumum into one quarter of your actual RAM (in bytes). That means, if you have 16 RAM, set both to 4096. If you have 32 RAM, change both to 8192.\"

However, since giga is giga, I would suggest you try the 16K setting above and keep it there.

below...This is a pretty good summary, however, since we dont use any other applications (only audio apps), setting the above makes more sense for our needs...

http://onlinehelp.bc.ca/tips.htm#vcache (\"http://onlinehelp.bc.ca/tips.htm#vcache\")

You can experiment w/o problems. Just keep it low. Also, if you have over 512mb, you need to have a setting else your system will go crazy...

[LifeForceExplorer]

Hmmm...okay. THANKS for this info composer.

[LifeForceExplorer]

Yes...and my hands would have an easier time of it on those double manuals when I try to play the Goldberg Variations too. Good suggestion, but personally I dont really care much for the harpsichord.

[composer22]

or you could build one of these and forget about cache problems

http://www.hubharp.com/ (\"http://www.hubharp.com/\")