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Community Newsletter: Q&A: What is Windows ReadyBoost and does it improve performance?
- 6/27/08 4:33 PM
Stay on topic, please (you remember, ReadyBoost)
by indy2001 - 6/21/08 12:22 AM In reply to: Vista by teapot44This was supposed to be about ReadyBoost, not Vista bashing. There are a sickening number of other sites where you can play that game. I still have a computer that runs XP, but it's time to move on. BTW, that other brand is Mac, not Mack (and I'm sick of hearing about it too).
For myself, I have found Vista to be just fine, and I'm running some pretty demanding software on it, including a major memory hog, MS Flight Simulator X. Before I added a 3rd GB of RAM, I used a 2 GB ReadyBoost drive while playing FSX and it made a noticeable difference. There were far fewer "stutters" and pauses while scenery was being loaded, which made for a much smoother-running game. I was also able to pause FSX, and then run one or two other programs simulaneously while using ReadyBoost.
Yes we remember but,
by PsychGen - 6/21/08 3:19 PM In reply to: Stay on topic, please (you remember, ReadyBoost) by indy2001We also remember the entire windows debacle from 3.1 to Vista. A constant barrage of updates, patches and things to, supposedly, make it work better. All we ever got were balkier machines. This may be what we are trying to tell you.
ReadyBoost may be a good thing for some, apparently though, not for everyone.
Ready boost uses flash rather than hard drive
by mdaneker - 5/24/08 7:42 AM In reply to: What is Windows ReadyBoost and does it improve performance? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The point of ready boost is that it uses your flash memory rather than writing to your hard drive, this saves battery power and increases speed to an extent.
Don't expect anything major when using. If anything, what I've noticed is not that the computer runs faster but that it lags less.
I don't use a thumbdrive, however, my HP DV9000 has a built in card reader, I use an Ultra SD 2gig card. It's great because it doesn't take up USB spaced, doesn't hang out the side to be busted off and never has to be removed (because I don't use the card reader for anything else!)
You need a fast flash card for Ready Boost. When you plug in the device the system will ask if you want to speed up your system using ready boost. If you do and your device is not fast enough, Vista will tell you.
I bought my Ultra SD card for $20. I paid $200 for my 4gig of ram, so you see the cost benefits. However MS suggest you use one to four times your ram size for Ready Boost. My ram is 4gigs, so my Ready Boost devices should be 4 - 16 gigs! See, Ready Boost works best on computers that are memory deficient. However, I know the computer uses it, even when my RAM uses is at 35% I'll see the light on my SD drive flashing like mad, telling me that it's using ready-boost memory.
If you can afford it I would loost at two things first, can you upgrade the RAM, and how fast is your HD? I upgraded from sluggish, factory 2gig ram to 5-5-5-15 4gig (2x2)ram. My system zoomed!It was expensive ram, but suddenly I could play games like Bioshock at full resolution without dropping frames, on my notebook!
The other thing is your HD speed. Many computers, to save money, come with HD that spin at 5400 rpm. Update to a 7200 rpm drive! If I really wanted to speed up my HP DV9000 it has two HD bays, I could put matched set of SATA 7200 HD's in it, and configure as a RAID array, then the two HD would run as one and double my read speed.
You can also go into you system settings and make sure you have at least 4gig of Virtual Memory allocated on your HD. Virtual memory allows you computer to use you HD like RAM. If you VM settings are low, the system keeps deleting and re-writing information, if it's high it can write a lot to the HD once and keep reading back from it until the space is full.
Using all these tools helps. Also, use "Start" "Run" to get a command prompt, type "msconfig" this brings up a menu of programs that start in the background and eat memory when you're computer is on. Some things, like WLAN or Anti-virus you want, others like "i-pod assistant" can get un-checked! You can also disable Vista's ultra-annoying UAC control (those damn, I need your permission to do anything pop-ups) here! Select carefully functions you don't want starting with windows (they'll still run if you start them manually) and re-boot.
Good luck.
Yes readyboost works, get 4 gigabytes
by midcow2 - 5/24/08 7:58 AM In reply to: What is Windows ReadyBoost and does it improve performance? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Readyboost really works! Get a 4 gigabyte size for the maximum benefit. It works by acting as a very high speed buffer. You didn,t mention whta you PC RAM memeory is, but if not at 2 gigabytes you should upgrade your memory size also.
Ready Boost so so
by Joliet Eddie - 5/24/08 9:05 AM In reply to: What is Windows ReadyBoost and does it improve performance? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The key to good Vista performance--performance with any Windows version--is adequate RAM (2 GB on my Vista machine seems to be fine. I have tried Ready Boost and it MIGHT have made a difference, but not enough to notice and so I stopped bothering. You can use a USB flash drive OR, if your machine has a memory card reader, you can use flash memory like SD cards as well.
The amount of extra ram that you can "add" this way is also limited to the total amount of RAM that Vista can use. So if you have only 1GB of RAM in your machine, you can use a 1 or 2 GB flash card or flash drive. Adding more won't do much and may actually slow things down. If you already have 2 GB of RAM, then you can add another 1 GB of Ready Boost.
It will be interesting to see what others say, but I have not seen any real "boost" with Ready Boost.
But to sum it up, the best way is to add RAM to your machine.
ready boost
by dursse3 - 6/20/08 8:04 PM In reply to: Ready Boost so so by Joliet EddieAdds 5% improvement with standard 2gb sd fhash dr. It's worth the $10 paid for the card.
readyboost
by kctobyjoe - 6/21/08 4:59 AM In reply to: Ready Boost so so by Joliet Eddiehave pny 4gb drive using for ready boost don't see an appreciable difference in boot times. mine takes a while regardless
dell e520 dual core 1.86 G 4 GB DDR ..2, SATA 750 GB hard drives using vista ultimate /xp media center edition vistaboot pro
2 dvd +/- R drives. One is LG Blu Ray/HD read also other is NEC optiarc SONY +/- drive as well.
Takes a long time booting regardless going thru boot screen before choices appear. Ran all avail tweaks to make things faster. This might be as good as it gets! buying quad 6600 processor in future as $ allows.
Slow running Vista on a laptop
by PETER H THOMAS - 5/24/08 10:25 AM In reply to: What is Windows ReadyBoost and does it improve performance? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I had exactly the same problem. Bought a new laptop via PC World equipped with Vista and 1 gig of RAM.Within one week I became convinced that Vista is the biggest "con" in the history of computing !!!
Vista is slower than XP Pro - Vista takes far more space on your hard drive - Vista is no more secure than XP - Vista just looks a little "prettier" to the eye.
As I run mostly Digital Photography software on my laptop and my desktop computers and know that such software is always very "RAM hungry" I put in another 1 Gig of RAM and stripped off the complete Vista package and replaced it with XP Pro. The answer - NO MORE PROBLEMS !!! the laptop zips along with Photoshop CS3, Elements 6 and Lightroom 1.3. Also, I no longer have any problems finding drivers for my various peripherals, in fact due to the advent of Vista I have been able to pick up some amazing bargains on the Internet e.g. a Polaroid Sprintscan 35mm film scanner for £15 and a Canon flatbed scanner for the same amount, just because the previous owners of the equipment had "up-graded" to Vista, only to find that Vista flatly refused to recognise the scanners, due to their age - on XP pro they both work perfectly !!!
Peter Thomas (pixelpete55@yahoo.co.uk)
Wrong, man
by dprozzo - 5/24/08 2:20 PM In reply to: Slow running Vista on a laptop by PETER H THOMASHad you upgraded to 2MB of RAM and KEPT Vista you likely would have found that Vista's speed and responsiveness had improved.
Why do you say Vista is no more secure than XP? How do you know?
Re: drivers. Yes, of course you have to make sure that when you change to a new OS that the mfgs of your old peripherals have released new drivers. Some do, some don't. If you upgraded to Vista and didn't check this out first, you didn't do enough research. The same applied when we changed from Win98 to Win XP. Nothing new.
Your experience DOES matter, but I think that you jumped to unfortunate conclusions. I upgraded my notebook from XP to Vista and, while it takes about 15 seconds longer to boot, once I'm in, Vista is smoother and more responsive that XP ever was - on the same hardware. Vista allows me to keep working in situations when I was watching an hourglass in XP.
Vista Apologista
by doctordawg - 6/21/08 9:41 PM In reply to: Wrong, man by dprozzoNo, Vista is no more secure than XP. The only difference is the blame. When you are hacked, well, you thought it was ok to agree to a clever pop-up that you thought was safe. Aw, you should have said no.
Upgrading ram on any OS to it's limits improves performance. So? Equivalent hardware yields superior performance on XP. Anything else is a salesman's lie.
Vista is just one step away from the ultimate safe OS. Rather than fix, they have blocked so many otherwise useful function in the name of "safety" that the next step to insure your security is to just flip the darn computer off.
There. Rest easy.
Interesting Post
by ellis feigenbaum - 6/20/08 6:53 PM In reply to: Slow running Vista on a laptop by PETER H THOMASTotally irellevant to the article however.
It isn't Vista - it's the pc user knowledge
by desirawson - 6/20/08 7:32 PM In reply to: Slow running Vista on a laptop by PETER H THOMASI get so tired of hearing how horrible Vista is when in reality if you KNOW how to use it, and to uninstall the uninstall Vista file, it runs absolutely wonderfully. Also, there isn't a scanner or periphial out there that hasn't put out an upgrade for vista users, the key to installing them is not to follow Windows prompts but to actually follow the installation instructions that the specific manufacturer for that product gives you to follow for an older scanner or anything else that needs an updated Vista driver.
Check out Tech Republic - they've got how to articles that take 10 minutes to really get to know Vista, the difference between Vista and XP, and the increased self maintenance/update capabilities that Vista has included. There are so many functions and capabilities that are included in Vista I'm amazed at the amount of people out there who don't take the time to learn the product they bought, so they are buying programs that are already included in Vista. As for memory, if you've got anything less than 1 GB you're not going to go anywhere fast in today's virtual world. 2 GB is plenty fast and as another user suggested, take all of the programs out of the start up menu that don't need to be started when you turn on your computer. I have 2 laptops and now that I've been using Vista for 1 1/2 years, I hate touching the XP laptop. Simple things like "explore" are so much more user friendly in Vista, and that's just one of the many functions that was improved. There are too many people in this world that cannot handle change - whether it's an improvement or not, just because they don't know how it works. Everything in XP is in Vista AND MUCH MORE!
You got that right.
by REMincks - 6/21/08 3:41 PM In reply to: It isn't Vista - it's the pc user knowledge by desirawsonMan...I really agree there, I too m sick of hearing how lame Vista is when in every case it's simply a matter of ther user not knowing what he/she is doing. If some of these people would just take the time to learn Vista better it would relieve a lot of needless complaining.
Yes...
by cherrycutiecool - 5/24/08 10:42 AM In reply to: What is Windows ReadyBoost and does it improve performance? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
When a prompt pops up when you plug in your drive, select the option that says Windows ReadyBoost. I tryed it, but my computer did not get much faster, and I think it is a good solution for those who cannot update their computer.
Would you let your car "go"?
by desirawson - 6/20/08 8:23 PM In reply to: Yes... by cherrycutiecoolIf you don't know how to maintain and cleanup your computer, you should pay someone to do it or take classes yourself, instead of adding more junk to it to "fix" it and make it faster.
What is going on with these computer novices is like you bought a brand new car but don't bother changing the oil, adding gasoline, water, etc.
If you maintain your computer and keep the drivers updated, check for updates, critical and optional (which wouldn't be showing if you didn't need them), and refrain from saving all your pictures on your hard drive (that's what flashdrives & SD card are for), you can keep your computer up and running for more than 6 years. I've got an XP I bought six years ago & it runs perfectly - I bought a new computer because my daughter was old enough to have her own, the new one has Vista - Vista is awesome because it does most of the updating and maintaining itself with a click of a mouse (look in system tools) - and both are still less than 30% used memory.
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