Is it beneficial to use multiple ReadyBoost flash drives?

red454 said:

Interesting - how do you generate that report? I got into the resource monitor, but I am lost after that...

You must open the Performance Monitor via Administrative Tools. Click on the green "+" at the top. The "Add Counters" window will open. Click on "Ready Boost Cache" & hit the "add" button.

Click on Action>New>Data Collector Set, name it, select where you want to save the data. It will now appear in the tree on the right under Data Collector Sets>User Defined. Right click on the DCS you just created & click "start".

BTW - You can change the way the data is displayed from the drop down menu from the "change graph" icon at the top.

whs said:

Yeah, but a RAM disk is something completely different than a slow stick. And you only have to look into Resource Monitor > Memory tab > the graph on the bottom right to see that there are very few hard page faults (with 3GB of RAM or more). But yes, some programs generate faults even if there is plenty of available RAM. But for those rare occasions it is not necessary to install Ready Boost - especially not with a stick. It will only produce additional overhead.

Good point - some flash memory is slow.

While reading more about how Win 7 caches memory, my first post may not be entirely accurate.

The real question is - Is the ram that Win 7 caches used for the same purpose as the Ready Boost cache? - Or is Ready Boost created for other specific caching functions?

Does anyone have a solid answer? Brink.....?

If there is no distinction between the way the Win7 cache & RB cache are used, then using a Ramdisk for Ready Boost truly is redundant!

All I know is that RB is being used, despite the fact that I have 4.2GB of my memory cached.

TBoyd said:

red454 said:

Interesting - how do you generate that report? I got into the resource monitor, but I am lost after that...

You must open the Performance Monitor via Administrative Tools. Click on the green "+" at the top. The "Add Counters" window will open. Click on "Ready Boost Cache" & hit the "add" button.

Click on Action>New>Data Collector Set, name it, select where you want to save the data. It will now appear in the tree on the right under Data Collector Sets>User Defined. Right click on the DCS you just created & click "start".

BTW - You can change the way the data is displayed from the drop down menu from the "change graph" icon at the top.

Great - thanks. Never fooled with that function before.

Thanks, cluberti. I guess I'll conclude my experiment & eliminate my ramdisk!

I will soon have 16GB of ram & am still thinking of uses for a Ramdisk sized to suit whatever will benefit performance.

From what I've learned so far, a Ramdisk could be beneficial used as a scratch disc for Photoshop & other programs that provide options for designating a location to place certain files tha the program utilizes as swap or some form of cache.

I also realize that - when using a ramdisk for such programs - that the ramdisk image must be saved & reloaded on shutdown & startup. I have good battery backup, so data loss from a sudden power loss would not be an issue.

Any other ideas for Ramdisk use?

yowanvista said:

No, ReadyBoost is only effective on systems with around 1GB of RAM or less, don't use it as a replacement for RAM.

This thread may be old, but it has some VERY invalid information

I have a Windows 8.1 x64 system with 16GB ram... I get GREAT speed boosts from Readyboost USB 3.0 thumb drives... The KEY is USB 3.0 USB 2.0 RB drives were simply too slow to provide benefits

1) All my drives are HD or HDDSD, but no SDDs.. a USB 3.0 RB unit 32GB in size (formatted NTFS to go around the 4GB limit), GREATLY helps because data can be read/written FASTER to it vs my HDDs - EVEN my RAID 0 and Raid 5 arrays

2) Everyone assumes if you have 4,8,16,32GB of ram, you have TONS of ram just sitting around caching data... true for many people... NOT true for me. I have 16GB and I often have 12-14GB in use... so YES.. having 2 32GB usb3 RB drives hold 64GB of cached data with GREATLY boosts my performance

3) Even if I never used more than 8GB and had 8GB left over for cache.. that's still ONLY 8GB cached... I now can have 64GB ADDITIONAL cached. It's not as fast as RAM.... but faster than the HD.

So no matter how you slice it, unless you are running pure SSDs, RB drives WILL help you, no matter what configuration as long as they are USB 3