Understanding the Query Cache and the Innodb_buffer_pool???

[Shawn Taylor]

Here are my query cache status results.

Variable_name	        Value

Qcache_free_blocks	32154
Qcache_free_memory	77921040
Qcache_hits	        4464814
Qcache_inserts	        986270
Qcache_lowmem_prunes	10742
Qcache_not_cached	1288662
Qcache_queries_in_cache	104486
Qcache_total_blocks	245696

Given I have a 4/1 hit/insert ratio I am considering the benefits of disabling the Query Cache. Is that low or high? I do not use the 256 MB allocated to the Qcache now. What type of ratio do I want to see before I *know* that the benefit of enabling the Qcache outweighs the alternative?

It would be great if I had a way to see the actual results that are stored in memory. Is there functionality to extract either the query or the set that is stored in cache?

Lastly, if you have the query cache disabled, will results get returned to a query from the buffer_pool in the same or similar fashion? Or is the buffer only used by the engine for operations??

Thanks,

Shawn