6 man syzygy tablebase and ramdisk

Question

I have downloaded a copy of the 6 man Syzygy tablebase and configured it on my Fritz 15 GUI.

Due to obvious memory constraints, the full 6 man Syzygy tablebase cannot be loaded into memory (ie. ramdisk). Will I gain any benefit moving some of the 6 piece tablebase files onto a ramdisk, and if so, which piece combinations should I gain the most benefit from (ie. in terms of endgame positions). Has anyone done analysis in this area?

Currently I host my 6 piece Syzygy tablebase on my Synology NAS via iSCSI.

Answer 1

I have been doing this a lot recently. My iOS Syzygy 6-men apps require at least 2GB (possibly more) to run, which is not so easy for iPhones and iPads.

• You gain the most benefit if you follow https://shop.chessbase.com/en/products/endspiel_turbo_4. This is also how I distribute.
• Stockfish only memory map (mmap) your tablebase file when it is needed. So you might choose your files depend on what position you want.
• I can't comment on iSCSI, NAS etc.

Answer 2

During search engines access the *.rtbw files only. These are best placed on your fastest local drive (ca. 70 GB). Low latency is more important than bandwidth.

The *.rtbz files are not speed critical. They are needed at the root only, when playing out 6-man positions.

The caching is best left to your OS.