With AMD’s 3D V-Cache technology, the processor can access large cache pools for applications by stacking SRAM blocks on top of the CPU logic die, which houses the CPU cores. Nonetheless, it seems feasible to use this additional level 3 (L3) cache as a RAM disk, in which case the L3 SRAM functions like a storage device. It should be noted that no real-world application can achieve this in the same way as CrystalDiskMark; this can only be done by subjecting the L3 to the benchmark. The steps to duplicate this process are as follows, per X/Twitter user Nemez (@GPUsAreMagic): Obtain an AMD Ryzen CPU with 3D V-Cache, install OSFMount, format a RAM disk in FAT32, and run CrystalDiskMark with the parameters set to SEQ 256 KB, Queue Depth 1, Threads 16, and data fill to 0s rather than random.

What are the outcomes of this experiment? They do look pretty amazing, though, because L3 SRAM is small, fast, and CPU-accessible memory that can help load data locally before it moves to the system RAM. The reading and writing speeds of this RAM disk with AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D are more than 182 GB/s and more than 175 GB/s, respectively. We were able to observe RAM disk based on AMD Ryzen 7800X3D V-Cache in another test, shared by Albert Thomas (@ultrawide219). This RAM disk scores a little lower, with over 178 GB/s read and over 163 GB/s write speeds. Once more, Because CrystalDiskMark limited its test runs to small allocations ranging from 16 to 32 MiB, this is not yet applicable to real-world workloads.