Windows 7 64-bit and Readyboost

[Wrestler10307]

Does anyone have an opinion on Readyboost using Windows 7 64-bit? I have 4gb of ram and I have been using an 8gb card formatted to ExFat dedicated to Readyboost but I'm not sure if it is really doing anything.

[Deleted]

It doesn't really do much at all normally; certainly not for your typical home user. Its simply another place to put the SWAP file for very tiny reads where flash drives are usually a little faster.

[Saithes]

It now only helps with netbooks for the most part.

[Dvorjak]

Is there a possible negative side-effect to using it? I remember reading a Gamespot review on readyboost for windows vista when it was first out. They actually has worse results when using readyboost if you had over 4gb of ram. Is this still true?

[Wrestler10307]

I have no idea. I'm going to switch from my micro sd class 6 8gb to a normal sd class 10 16gb to see if I notice anything different (as soon as I back up mu phone and the pictures on the 16gb.)

[vesseblah]

What ReadyBoost actually does is that it copies the most used programs into the memory card, and when you run those, they're executed from the flash ram instead of HDD.

Depending on the speed of the memory card you might for example see WoW's login screen pop up 3 seconds faster with ReadyBoost than without, but that's about all the difference it's going to make so it's quite hard to actually see it working unless you start timing the load times of slowest possible programs. Also it does not cache files above certain size, things like WoW's mpq files are never copied to the flash drive so increasing it's size won't do much. You'll get significantly better results with SSD at roughly the same $/gigabyte ratio as SD cards.

[dicertification]

Ready boost sees it's greatest advantage in the netbook/umpc segment. My samsung U1 only has 2gb ram and a slow hard drive running vista. Noticed a a pretty good difference on the samsung, so I tried it on my desktop, i7 920 with 6gb. there was no difference on the desktop

[vesseblah]

Ready boost sees it's greatest advantage in the netbook/umpc segment. My samsung U1 only has 2gb ram and a slow hard drive running vista. Noticed a a pretty good difference on the samsung, so I tried it on my desktop, i7 920 with 6gb. there was no difference on the desktop

Exactly. ReadyBoost helps in computer with very slow HDD and low RAM, but the benefit in regular desktop is pretty close to zero.

[Sensei_Sin]

If you have a weak/older processor and less than 2Gb of RAM then you'll probably gain something from ReadyBoost, otherwise you will hardly notice it.

Also remember that SD cards are some of the worse devices you can use because they are very very slow.

[vesseblah]

Also remember that SD cards are some of the worse devices you can use because they are very very slow.

Write speeds are often bad but it doesn't matter that much since the RB cache is filled on the background while you're using the computer. Read speed can be decent in a laptop if the SD card reader is wired directly into PCIe lane and not an USB thingy. Faster than the usual laptop 5200rpm HDDs at least.

[Sensei_Sin]

Write speeds are often bad but it doesn't matter that much since the RB cache is filled on the background while you're using the computer. Read speed can be decent in a laptop if the SD card reader is wired directly into PCIe lane and not an USB thingy. Faster than the usual laptop 5200rpm HDDs at least.

Very true, I totally stand corrected

[vesseblah]

Another thing you can try with very large SD cards is using those as an HDD replacement, and install programs into the card. WoW wont fit into 16GB card but 32GB should be enough, and you might see faster loading screens that way if the HDD is very slow.

[ispano]

You likely won't, even Class 10 SDHC cards aren't THAT fast. Also some, not many, but some programs refuse to install to an SD card. Since it's considered a removable drive. Even though it will install to a USB hard drive, go figure. The only benefit the SD cards have is access times really.

[Nightbliss]

I have to agree with most people here and from my personal experience that Ready Boost isn't worth it if you're running over or equal to 3/4GB of Ram and with a half decent Hard Drive.

I've had Ready Boost on a 4GB pen drive formated as exFAT aswell and it made a difference back when I ran on 2GB of Ram.
Overall system response and loads were snappier.