Games Readyboost and Superfetch

[cHodAX]

Was wondering if anyone else is using a usb memory stick together with Readyboost? Ordered a 16gb highspeed usb memory pen a few days ago and started using it last night, the 'Use with Readyboost' option appears so I thought what the hell and gave it full access to the memory pen. Initally nothing, noticed zero change at all so I went off and did some reading. It seems Readyboost takes a while to train itself on what files are the best for it to cache and it works in combination with Superfetch.

Anyway, after running a number of apps and games this morning a few reboots to enable it to cache the files that Windows 7 loads on bootup I have started to notice so big improvements. The most startling was Dark Age of Camelot, my load times for the game have more than halved, zone loads are generally around twice as fast if it is a zone I have visited before. Windows 7 startup times are a couple of seconds quicker, not as good as I had hoped but again after some reading it seems systems with 4gb or more memory don't really benefit too much from Readyboot/Superfetch on Windows boot times anyway. I am going to continue testing as am really intrigued to see how much a difference a £20ish memory stick and some caching software can make but so far I am mightly impressed.

For those who haven't got a clue what I am going on about go and google it, for those who tried Readyboost/Superfetch on Vista and thought it sucked then give it another go with Windows 7 because it has certainly been fixed since then. Sadly most of the online reviews are for the Vista version with older/slower memory sticks but I can tell you from my experience with Windows 7 and a 16gb Supertalent 150x speed pen it is working bloody well so far.

 

[cHodAX]

Windows 7 Readyboost Really Works Unlike With Windows Vista | Windows 7 News

http://www.connectedinternet.co.uk/2009/09/03/windows-7-readyboost-really-boosts/

 

[Bahumat]

I'd like to see what some of the techhie people say about this as I may give it a shot.

 

[Chronictank]

You need to make sure you get a good high performance (USB2.0) usb stick to really see a difference.

Superfetch i thought was pretty pointless even on 7 personally as the gains were quite minimal (especially if you are running a raptor/velociraptor already) but readyboost is pretty nifty if you are willing to give up a USB port

Recently i switched to a SSD, and omg now thats a difference
Worth the money? price/performance probably not really i spent £150 on a Intel 80Gb but if you are a enthusiast it is a nice toy to play with.
Takes about 15-30 seconds for Windows 7 to load to desktop and ready to use so i tend to leave my pc off nowadays
Dragon age zoning is almost instant, Mass Effect loading is just the time it takes to do the loading animation really.

 

[cHodAX]

Well the Supertalent pen I have is 150x read, you shouldn't be aiming lower than that. It is a good solution for those with laptops running at 5400rpm or people with bog standard 7200rpm drives in desktops that deliver piss poor seek/access times. 99% of gamers don't have Raptors or SSD.

I honestly didn't expect to notice a difference after reading about it on Vista but the Windows 7 version is definately fixed and it delivers alot of bang for very little buck.