ready boost evaluation

[Robert J. Lafayette]

Vista Home Premium with 2GB memory DDM installed.

Desktop computer, 320GB hdd. Brand new.

Added a 2gb pen drive in an extra USB 2.0 port on back of computer which
indicates when I look at drive (right click> properties> ready boost) that
ready boost is activated, cache set at 1810 mb, the maximum suggested by
ready boost.

Yet, in Vista welcome center, only 1.87 GB ram shows.

How can I evaluate Ready Boost pen drive's addition to computer performance?

Freeware???



Thanks in advance,
Robert

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Readyboost is going to 'add' any extra memory to your system statistics.
Vista uses readyboost as a kind of page file because the memory available on
the pen drive is faster than that of the hard drive. To be honest, with 2GB
of RAM already installed I doubt you will notice any increase in performance
of your machine. readyboost was actually designed for users with the minimum
amount of memory, i.e., 512MB to 1GB. I have 2GB RAM on my machine and have
never noticed any performance increase by using readyboost.

--
--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
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reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

 

[Robert J. Lafayette]

Thanks for your honest evaluation.
Do you suggest I then take out the pen drive and use it for other purposes?

R

 

[John Barnett MVP]

My honest opinion, Robert, is Yes take the pen drive out and use it for an
alternative purpose. You have more than enough system RAM available. As I
said I have 2GB RAM on my system and even when using Photoshop I am only
using 40 to 50% of my available RAM. Okay it is a Intel Core2 Duo processor
which helps with labour intensive applications. Had you have had less RAM
(say 512MB or 1GB) my answer would have been different, but as it is you
would do better without readyboost.

--
--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Vista Home Premium with 2GB memory DDM installed.

Desktop computer, 320GB hdd. Brand new.

Added a 2gb pen drive in an extra USB 2.0 port on back of computer which
indicates when I look at drive (right click> properties> ready boost) that
ready boost is activated, cache set at 1810 mb, the maximum suggested by
ready boost.

Yet, in Vista welcome center, only 1.87 GB ram shows.

That 1.87GB is apparently the amount of RAM you have, less the amount
that's used for on-motherboard video support. ReadyBoost does *not*
increase that number. It doesn't act as RAM, but serves as an
additional RAM *cache*. Read here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/readyboost.mspx
or http://tinyurl.com/257gf3

How can I evaluate Ready Boost pen drive's addition to computer performance?

With the 2GB of RAM you have, ReadyBoost is unlikely to make a
significant difference in performance to you. It mostly helps those
who have lesser amounts of RAM. I also have 2GB of RAM here, tried
ReadyBoost, decided that it did nothing for me, and stopped using it.

 

[Dwarf]

Hi Robert,

The only time where Ready Boost comes into its own is when you have a lot of
applications open at the same time and are making heavy use of the page file.
This is especially true if you are running Vista with the minimum recommended
amount of memory. The ready boost file is basically an encrypted version of
some of the most recent data in the page file with the advantage of being
accessible quicker than the same data on hard disk, especially for random
access. Sequential access to data is still from the hard drive as flash
devices do not perform as well with this type of access. Note that Ready
Boost does not replace the page file, rather it supplements it. It does not
add to system RAM in any way whatsoever, the only way to do that would be to
add physical RAM to your system. This is why your memory in the Welcome
Center is still shown as it is - the value here is the physical working RAM
in your system which is the total amount of RAM less certain system overheads
such as shared memory. The best way of improving system response is to make
sure that you have enough physical RAM in your machine - 2GB should be
sufficient for most users.
Dwarf

 

[Victek]

Vista Home Premium with 2GB memory DDM installed.

Desktop computer, 320GB hdd. Brand new.

Added a 2gb pen drive in an extra USB 2.0 port on back of computer which
indicates when I look at drive (right click> properties> ready boost) that
ready boost is activated, cache set at 1810 mb, the maximum suggested by
ready boost.

Yet, in Vista welcome center, only 1.87 GB ram shows.

How can I evaluate Ready Boost pen drive's addition to computer
performance?

In my experience ReadyBoost (RB) actually decreases performance initially
because every time the computer boots the ReadyBoost cache is rebuilt - a
great deal of data needs to be written to the pen drive and that takes CPU
cycles. After the initial performance hit I didn't notice any benefit on my
2 gig system using RB.

 

[Robert J. Lafayette]

Thanks, as I too have a dual core 2.1GHz AMD System.

I am amore than basic user with no need for hi power software.
Most powerful is probably WINDOWS and ancillary built in software and
WordPerfect x3.

Advice taken and done.

Thank you again,
Robert.

 

[Spirit]

Where ReadyBoost "might" give you some speed improvement is when you are
LEAST
likely to notice it. Lots of applications open, or a lot of repetitive disk
accessing.... another
factor that many forget is how fast a thumbdrive they have. My 2 gig system
using a very
fast thunmb drive does get a noticeable performance gain when using
ReadyBoost, especially
at times when I can use the extra power.

 

[John Barnett MVP]

You're Welcome

--
--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

 

[Steve Drake]

I have 4GB off RAM and ReadyBoost does improve my system.

This is due to my system being a laptop and the disk IO is not greate.

It speeds up my Virtual Server and speeds up build times of my .NET
projects.

Its about the response time of the memory stick vs response time of the
harddisk.

It will speed up disk IO to small files, but not DISK IO to large files as
the hard disk can stream faster.

Its not like a pagefile, a pagefile is an extension of RAM, readyboost is a
disk cache.

Steve

 

[AJR]

ReadyBoost is not an adjunct or addition to RAM.

ReadyBoost functions as an aid to "Superfetch" successor to XP's Prefetch -
involving the page file. It takes "time" to write/read to the HD/Page
file - ReadyBoost performance depends on the HD activity in that sequential
read/writes (Fastest activity) are directed to the HD/Page file - non
sequential activity is directed to the Readyboost device.

Data sent to the device is encrypted for security purposes. Device
acceptance as ReadyBoost device depends on device Read/Write specs AND HD
specs (primary regarding rotaional speed) which is why ReadyBoost is ideal
for laptops.

 

[ZebraCode]

john, you're right. one note though. an empirical one.
afaicu, readyboost is something between ram and harddisk swap.
if i open phostoshop, i dont only look at the ram it uses, but how much swap
as well. btw, photoshop is an odd sample, as you can set its memory usage
(swap/scratch disk, and how much ram it's allowed to use) from within the
program. if you set explorer to show hidden files, you'll see a photoshop
temp file *outside* pagefile.sys.
as for other programs, f.i., firefox has been running for hours now. it uses
155mb ram, but also 257mb swap.
windows mail is 38/79. excel 48/51. in task manager: process viewe : options

select columns. it can explain for some slow behaviors.

i use vb6 so i ususally have aero off and stay on basic, but if i remember
aero alone eats some 300mb.
i often happen to have ff, winmail, oe, office programs, and vb programs
open together. to say, 8 to 15 windows of hungry programs. a big part of
each of them is handled by swap.
and while ram is measured in nanosecond, swap is milliseconds, slower by
1,000 times. anything faster is welcome.
i added a 4gb pen to this 2c2 2gb system. after that, i hardly hear the
disks working.
i suppose vista is caching data on the pen. web pages say 'non relevant
data'. i wouldnt use a pen on a lan server or a critical pc, though.
a difference can be perceived in r(re)opening programs. with a $20 pen, most
programs reopen in a eyeblink.
just my two cents, hth, ZC