Format for best performance: RAW or NTFS?

6 posts · Closed

Kevil Guest
8 Feb 2017

What format can you suggest for RAM Disk for maximum performance in Windows 10 64-bit? RAW or NTFS?

Andrew SoftPerfect
8 Feb 2017

RAW essentially means no file system. You will not be able to write anything to it until it's formatted (unless you have special software that works with unformatted volumes directly).

I'd say go for NTFS, or FAT32 if your files are under 4 GB.

Evgeniy Guest
19 Jan 2018

Here is a very good and detailed explanation of differences, advantages and disadvantages of NTFS, FAT16 and FAT32.

Andrew SoftPerfect
19 Jan 2018

That's pretty much correct. I just wanted to add that we've implemented exFAT support in the latest version, which basically brings the best of both worlds:

  • Better performance due to the lack of journalling and optimised file system organisation; and
  • Very high limits on the number of files and their size, more than sufficient for modern usage.
NiMiZ
9 Apr 2018

So you are saying that exFAT will work better (faster) than NTFS?
I'm also using it for internet (chrome / firefox) cache, saving once in 2 hours.

Andrew SoftPerfect
9 Apr 2018

Yes, generally exFAT performs about 10-20% better (faster) than NTFS on a RAM disk.

See the attached screenshot for a test output.

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