finally decided to use ready boost, feedback please?

[Perris Calderon]

Yea from beta2 they have added support for a small number of SD/CF cards on internal USB2 & PCIe buses.

do not know if this works but it seems peeps have success

1, Plug in the sd card.
2. Open the Readyboost tab on the device properties.
3. Select "Do not retest this device"
4. Unplug the device
5. Open regedit (start->run->regedit)
6. Expand - HKLM (Local Machine)\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\EMDgmt
7. Find your device.
8. Change Device Status to 2
9. Change ReadSpeedKBs to 1000
10. Change WriteSpeedKBs to 1000
11. Plug in the device.
12. Enable Readyboost!!!!

 

[Perris Calderon]

I'll tell everyone right now, it might be my imagination but on this 3 gig laptop I am seeing much better speed doing just about everything

kewl

 

[epk]

hehe.. nice to hear :]

 

[Perris Calderon]

hehe.. nice to hear :]

so, which is faster, sd card or thumb drive?

 

[bmclaughlin807]

so, which is faster, sd card or thumb drive?

depends on the card and reader... there's a LOT of variation.

 

[binoyxj]

Depends on the write and read speeds.

 

[Gigabot]

also, there are 32 gig flash and thumbdrives available and I want to know which is faster

perris, I found this:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2017844,00.asp

Microsoft's general recommendation for maximum benefit from ReadyBoost is to match the capacity of the flash device to the size of your system's main memory. So if you have 2GB of system RAM, use a 2GB USB key. Note that some benefit is gained from using any flash device, and the capacities supported for ReadyBoost range from 256MB to 4GB.

So having a flash drive with a capacity larger than 4GB won't help with ReadyBoost.

 

[binoyxj]

Hey perris this might be an answer to all your doubts.

FAQs
------


Q: What perf do you need on your device?

A: 2.5MB/sec throughput for 4K random reads and 1.75MB/sec throughput for 512K random writes

Q: My device says 12MB/sec (or 133x or something else) on the package but windows says that it isn't fast enough to use as a ReadyBoost device... why?

A: Two possible reasons:
The numbers measure sequential performance and we measure random. We've seen devices that have great sequential perf, but horrible random
The performance isn't consistantly fast across the entire device. Some devices have 128M of lightning fast flash and the rest of the device is really slow. This is fine for some applications but not ReadyBoost.


Q: What's the largest amount of flash that I can use for ReadyBoost?

A: You can use up to 4GB of flash for ReadyBoost (which turns out to be 8GB of cache w/ the compression)

Q: Why can't I use more than 4GB of flash?

A: The FAT32 filesystem limits our ReadyBoost.sfcache file to 4GB

Q: What's the smallest ReadyBoost cache that I can use

A: The smallest cache is 256MB (well, 250 after formatting). Post beta2, we may drop it another 10 MB or so.

Q: Ok... 256M-4GB is a pretty big range... any recommendations?

A: Yes. We recommend a 1:1 ratio of flash to system memory at the low end and as high as 2.5:1 flash to system memory. Higher than that and you won't see much benefit.

Q: Isn't this just putting the paging file onto a flash disk?

A: Not really - the file is still backed on disk. This is a cache - if the data is not found in the ReadyBoost cache, we fall back to the HDD.

Q: Aren't Hard Disks faster than flash? My HDD has 80MB/sec throughput.

A: Hard drives are great for large sequential I/O. For those situations, ReadyBoost gets out of the way. We concentrate on improving the performance of small, random I/Os, like paging to and from disk.

Q: What happens when you remove the drive?

A: When a surprise remove event occurs and we can't find the drive, we fall back to disk. Again, all pages on the device are backed by a page on disk. No exceptions. This isn't a separate page file store, but rather a cache to speed up access to frequently used data.

Q: Isn't user data on a removable device a security risk?

A: This was one of our first concerns and to mitigate this risk, we use AES-128 to encrypt everything that we write to the device.

Q: Won't this wear out the drive?

A: Nope. We're aware of the lifecycle issues with flash drives and are smart about how and when we do our writes to the device. Our research shows that we will get at least 10+ years out of flash devices that we support.

Q: Can use use multiple devices for EMDs?

A: Nope. We've limited Vista to one ReadyBoost per machine

Q: Why just one device?

A: Time and quality. Since this is the first revision of the feature, we decided to focus on making the single device exceptional, without the difficulties of managing multiple caches. We like the idea, though, and it's under consideration for future versions.

Q: Do you support SD/CF/memory stick/MMC/etc.?

A: Mostly. In beta2, we added support for a small number of SD/CF cards on internal USB2 & PCIe busses. RC1 has a much broader support range.

Q: Why don't you support SD on my USB2.0 external card reader?

A: We unfortunately don't support external card readers - there were some technical hurdles that we didn't have time to address. In general, if a card reader shows a drive without media in it (like a floppy drive or CD ROM does), we can't use it for ReadyBoost.

Q: Will it support all USB drives, regardless of how they are ID'd to the OS ("hard disk drive" or "Device with Removable Storage")?

A: We have no way to tell what is on the other end of a USB cable so we do some basic size checks (since no one has a 200GB flash device ;-) ) and then perform our speed tests. HDD will not, however, pass our speed tests, and there is no benefit to using a USB HDD for ReadyBoost.

Q: Can you use an mp3 player to speed up your system?

A: Not currently. MP3 players use the 'plays for sure' interfaces to expose themselves to Windows. We require that the device appear as a disk volume. These aren't currently compatible.

Q: How much of a speed increase are we talking about?

A: Well, that depends. On average, a RANDOM 4K read from flash is about 10x faster than from HDD. Now, how does that translate to end-user perf? Under memory pressure and heavy disk activity, the system is much more responsive; on a 4GB machine with few applications running, the ReadyBoost effect is much less noticable.

Q: I can't get my device to work with ReadyBoost... can I lower the perf requirements?

A: Unfortunately, no. We've set the perf requirements to the lowest possible throughput that still makes your system faster. If we lowered the perf requirements, then there wouldn't be a noticeable benefit to using ReadyBoost. Remember, we're not adding memory, we're improving disk access.

Q: Which manufacturers support ReadyBoost?

A: Well, I hope that all of them do, eventually. Right now, we're working with manufacturers to create a program that will allow them to identify ReadyBoost capable devices on their packaging.

Source:http://blogs.msdn.com/tomarcher/archive/2006/06/02/readyboost-q-a.aspx

 

[bmclaughlin807]

I think we'll see a lot more on this front in the near future... USB 3 is coming out w/ 10x the speed of USB 2...

of course... then there's the SATA front... a SATA connected SSD should have at least 3x the throughput of a USB 2 thumb drive... making the prefetch on the hard drive faster than the USB, thus negating the ReadyBoost altogether.

Oh... and as for Card readers not being supported... I haven't seen an internal reader in a laptop yet that wasn't supported... though some memory cards are not fast enough to be supported even if the reader is.

Of the 4 different (1-2 gig) cards I tested only 1 wasn't fast enough to use for ReadyBoost.

 

[Perris Calderon]

so this ready boost thingy is definately a noticeable improvement everywhere, I especially notice it loading java virtual machines, they are are not buggy anymore and damn near as stable as when microsoft used to make one for xp

also a big surprise, I guess there is now more ram available for internet cache because my ie pages are loading all the images in a flash and all I am doing is waiting for new content to download

I think hardware manufacturers would be wise to put a 4 gig flash drive on the board just for this purpose, really nice

now if I can get a flash card to work and it's just as fast I would like to eliminate the protrusion from my box so I don't have to remove it everytime I stick it in the case

as far as not needing more then four gigs, not for ready boost but I can still use the rest of the drive for other info so I want as big a drive as possible

also, I think there might even be a benefit if the flash drive is not as fast as the hardrive, dual writes will prevent bottle necking and cue for hardrive writes, that's gonna prevent some hickups right there

this is good stuff

 

[LordOfLA]

onboard flash is not needed when using 64bit and >4gb ram

 

[Perris Calderon]

If you have broadband you should probably disable that anyway.

I have broadband, 20 mgs now in house and 2600kps on my phone and I have to tell you, temp internet files definately speed up my box

onboard flash is not needed when using 64bit and >4gb ram

I am wondering if 64 bit even has ready boost written in, could you tell me?

if it is available, no matter how much memory you have, putting the pagefile on a seperate fast drive is gonna speed paging, and there will be paging even in 64 bit, it is still a virtual memory machine

which leads me to my next thought;

if it is not a system critical box putting the pagefile manually on the flash drive is probably faster for that file then putting it on ready boost

ready boost writes to both the flash drive and the hardrive for backup purposes, if you don't need the backup you can prevent some hickups of your hardrive if you just put the file on the flash

obviously the other ready boost features will not function if you do it that way unless you partition your flash drive

interesting stuff, I wonder if ms benchmarked ready boost without the redundant hardrive writing they have written into their ready boost feature

I would like to see them make that backup write a user preferance

 

[bmclaughlin]

I am wondering if 64 bit even has ready boost written in, could you tell me?

Yes, ReadyBoost is available in Vista 64bit. (I'm currently running it)

 

[Perris Calderon]

onboard flash is not needed when using 64bit and >4gb ram

an interesting assumption, I would have thought otherwise so I did a little research;

64-Bit Vista ReadyBoost and Paging

Summary
Benchmark tests were run to measure the impact of ReadyBoost with heavy paging using a 4 GB flash drive. The system used was a Core 2 Duo with 4 GB RAM and 64-Bit Vista. An earlier flash drive marginally failed on the Vista writing speed performance test. The new one just passed, yet other benchmarks showed that writing speeds were significantly faster than the first drive. It is not clear why Vista shows such low speeds.

Booting time to the opening display was no different with and without ReadyBoost but following disk activity was 1 to 2 minutes less than disk/flash drive usage with ReadyBoost.

With heavy paging, ReadyBoost improved performance significantly, reducing program running time by up to three times, with data transfer rates faster than had normal disk input/output programming functions been used to avoid paging.

ReadyBoost improved application loading times somewhat, and this was consistent over three sets of tests. The most noticeable improvement was on system responsiveness following heavy paging, where reactivating an application via Restore was up to eight times faster.

as I assumed, having the pagefile on a seperate drive is going to help all paging, doing this with ready boost is probably not as fast as doing it as a seperate file but there is still going to be a gain no matter how much memory you have on board

 

[epk]

to answer ur past question, perris (i missed it the first time, sorry)

SD cards are usually slower than USB thumb drives.
one of the fastest SD cards to be known to work with ReadyBoost was Corsair’s 40x 1GB which features a random read speed of about 4.17MB/s, while a Corsair’s TurboFlash 1GB thumb drive reads at 7.92MB/s

 

[LordOfLA]

well a few things here:

1. I have vista 64 with 6GB ram and a 1GB readyboost flash drive.
2. Readyboost does not put your pagefile on the flash disk at all, ever.
3. REadyboost depends on the flash memory you use having a faster 4kb read/write speed then your hard disk

turning on readyboost makes no difference to the performance of my machine.

I fail to see how having a cache of internet files speeds you machine up I would sooner not have a cache of stale files on my disk, I would sooner get the current file from the source.

to answer ur past question, perris (i missed it the first time, sorry)

SD cards are usually slower than USB thumb drives.
one of the fastest SD cards to be known to work with ReadyBoost was Corsair’s 40x 1GB which features a random read speed of about 4.17MB/s, while a Corsair’s TurboFlash 1GB thumb drive reads at 7.92MB/s

Its not sustained random read/write readyboost measures. its 4kb burst read/write.

 

[Perris Calderon]

well a few things here:


2. Readyboost does not put your pagefile on the flash disk at all, ever.

it certainly looks like that's what it does, while there might still be paging from the hardrive small reads and writes are going to the readyboost;

Hard disks are faster for large sequential reads; flash disks are quicker for small, random reads.

Q: Isn't this just putting the paging file onto a flash disk?

A: Not really - the file is still backed on disk. This is a cache - if the data is not found in the ReadyBoost cache, we fall back to the HDD.

it backs the hardrive pagefile onto the flash drive

turning on readyboost makes no difference to the performance of my machine.

do me a favor, launch an internet explorer window, hit the minimize button, leave it minimized for two days, then re-launch that widow without readyboost

do the same thing with ready boost, I am pretty certain you will see a great improvement no matter how much memory you have

the fact is, so long as there are pages released from memory readyboost will speed that process

I fail to see how having a cache of internet files speeds you machine up

surprised you don't see it, pictures and gifs don't have to be downloaded they are in cache

I would sooner not have a cache of stale files on my disk, I would sooner get the current file from the source.

I don't have stale files in my cache, I set the file small enough so it keeps current for the sites I visit

 

[LordOfLA]

readyboost doesn't put a pagefile on the flash memory it puts a cache there since flash has faster 4kb burst read/write performance. If it was going to put my pagefile there I'd need 16GB flash.

I've recently started turning all my machines off when not in use since receiving a huge electricity bill. I don't think I'll see any benefit from these situations.

Readyboost will only speed up singular page swaps. If windows has to page vast quantities of ram for any reason, your hard disks higher sustained random read/write speed is faster then flash can sustain. These are the kinds of things my machine is exposed to during my active use.

 

[Perris Calderon]

readyboost doesn't put a pagefile on the flash memory it puts a cache there since flash has faster 4kb burst read/write performance. If it was going to put my pagefile there I'd need 16GB flash.

you're using semantics, it definately puts "a" pagefile on the drive, you are right it does not put "the" pagefile on the flash, "the" pagefile from your hardrive remains intact and active, all pages continue to be written as a data security measure in case the flash drive gets disconected, the memory manager decides where it retrieves the page using it's algorythems to decide which will be faster, seek time is the key by the way not transfer time, seek time dominates tranfer time when talking about performane

if the page is in your pagefile but not on the drive then it obviously gets it from your pagefile, if the page is on both it gets the page from the flash drive if the memory manager thinks that will be the best method to repopulate that page, there IS a pagefile on the readydrive it's just not THE pagefile

I've recently started turning all my machines off when not in use since receiving a huge electricity bill. I don't think I'll see any benefit from these situations.

use hybernate or standby, both of these solutions cost less then turning your box off since waking up the box takes less electricity then a full reboot

Readyboost will only speed up singular page swaps. If windows has to page vast quantities of ram for any reason, your hard disks higher sustained random read/write speed is faster then flash can sustain. These are the kinds of things my machine is exposed to during my active use.

this is correct, the memory manager is able to figure out which is fastest to retrieve the page, with ready boost you should see an improvement in almost every page, pages are pretty small pieces of data they are not entire working sets or even entire instructions

 

[Gigabot]

perris, since you're trying to speed up Vista how about Disabling the Aero Glass? I think the effects look cool but disabling it really speeds up your computer. Here's how you can disable it, right-click Personalize on your desktop, click "Windows Color and Appearance", and uncheck the "Enable transparency" box. Along with ReadyBoost I think this will make your computer run much faster!