Solved Superfetch on or off?

[shaneblack]

Sorry I did realize that. I think updates are important and should not be skipped, I only wanted to point out that every update does something, they make changes to the system. So I urge users to read up on them and known about what they do because If your not having a problem with something like USB support for example, and an update says it will fix USB ports not working correctly then why install that update when everything is already working correctly ? I am not saying to skip them but to be very careful and know what they are doing. I would not take updates lightly, they are powerful system changes that should be applied with care.

 

[Layback Bear]

just turned it back on and the ram is ticking around 85% with photoshop and bitorrent open also firefox, it seems to have settled , not sure what is making it slow when it is ,will keep an eye on things.
i do have 104 processes running have stopped a few things like yahoo messenger and win live messenger,

How can one wonder what is happing. I don't get it. Why is everybody puzzled.

 

[cuttingedgetech]

I know this is a very old thread, but I think it is good to have to correct answer. I didn't read the entire thread so forgive me if someone already posted this information. The reason superfetch was having such a great impact on the user's computer was because superfetch uses a lot of memory to load executables into memory with executable privilege in order to gather information from the executables. Superfetch loads applications into memory instead of reading them from the disk. If the application has been accessed often then Superfetch will add it to the prefetch to speed the computer up. The key here is that Superfetch actually opens many applications at the same time into memory, and sometimes executables that are not even installed on your system. I have a lot of installers on an external hard drive, and Superfetch actually loads them into memory. I don't know if this is a bug. I will need to check with Microsoft to see if this is intended behavior. This link may give you an ideal of how much memory Superfetch may use. It gives a decent description of the what Superfetch does, but it could have been better. What is Windows SuperFetch

 

[tailspin20]

I was just given a new system by our IT department. My old system worked great: fast and running just the way I like it. But we were bought by a larger company and are being moved onto their domain. So, new laptop. The new system had 4 times the amount of ram and a much bigger hard disk. My old system actually had an SSD.

As soon as I started using the system, it crawled. CPU ran about 20%, memory about 10%. Yet, apps loaded very slow and when I typed in any application including Outlook, any Office product, even Firefox, I would be typing 4 or 5 words ahead of what it showed. You could watch websites be painted on the screen. I updated the BIOS and all drivers. Then I turned services off and on one at a time to see what the issue was. When I got to SuperFetch, as soon as I turned it off, the system became very, very fast. Apps popped up almost instantly, websites were quick. And typing was appearing instantaneously.

Maybe things would get better over time when SuperFetch learned but it's been a week since I received the machine and this is the first time it's actually useable.

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
System Manufacturer Dell Inc.
System Model Precision M4800
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4810MQ CPU @ 2.80GHz, 2801 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. A14, 5/19/2015
SMBIOS Version 2.7
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 32.0 GB
Total Physical Memory 31.9 GB
Available Physical Memory 20.3 GB
Total Virtual Memory 63.9 GB
Available Virtual Memory 51.8 GB
Page File Space 31.9 GB

Some of the physical memory is being used as a RamDisk. I did that today and loaded some applications there. They are now even faster than ever. Opening an app is almost instantaneous.

 

[Callender]

Ditto on that. For me - my system is much faster when using a RAMdisk with superfetch disabled. A real noticeable difference in performance. Like you said - programs launch almost instantly and so do any large files like databases or videos.

 

[GokAy]

SuperFetch is disabled here as per SSD optimizations, however I don't have much knowledge about a RAMdisk. I have 16Gb RAM, 4 GB is used by the OS, I may have 2 Virtual Machines running with 4GB each. That leaves me with 4GB. Considering my usual daily usage is pretty much browsing, would I see any improvements using a RAMdisk and what should I run from it?

 

[DeaconFrost]

I'm not sure why anyone would resurrect a 3 year old thread to discuss SuperFetch. Are that many people using systems with 1 GB or less in them? It's been pretty well decided that once you go over 1 GB, SuperFetch isn't going to help you out at all. Considering what baseline system are these days, SuperFetch is a thing of the past.

 

[Callender]

Using a RAMdisk

SuperFetch is disabled here as per SSD optimizations, however I don't have much knowledge about a RAMdisk. I have 16Gb RAM, 4 GB is used by the OS, I may have 2 Virtual Machines running with 4GB each. That leaves me with 4GB. Considering my usual daily usage is pretty much browsing, would I see any improvements using a RAMdisk and what should I run from it?

Well mostly experienced members here stay away from RAMdisks. My drive is SATA rather than SSD so I'm not the best person to ask. All I can quote is the following reasons to use a RAMdisk:

Higher PC performance. Provided you have got a sufficient amount of RAM, using a fast in-memory disk for temporary data will boost the computer performance.
Reduced file system fragmentation. The file system on your hard disks will be far less fragmented as the temporary files will never be written to the hard disk.
Reduced wear-and-tear of the physical disk. Because the temporarily files are not written to the hard disk, there will be fewer read/write cycles, which is especially important for prolonging the life of Solid State Drives (SSD) often installed in laptops.
Less junk on the hard disk. Many software applications create temporary files that remain undeleted although no longer needed. The contents of RAM disks is cleared every time the computer is restarted or switched off, so the unneeded files won’t clutter your HDD.
Less noise and heat from the hard disk because the system will use the hard disk less intensively.

However setting up a rAMdisk isn't particularly easy. My first attempt left me with a non-booting machine.

What would you put on it?

Mostly temp files. Why? They don't get written to disk and read/ write speeds are signifigantly faster (anywhere up to 50 times faster)

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Although I do also run a few portable apps directly from the RAMdisk too.

Some user swear that moving browser caches to RAMdisk speeds up browsing but I don't make use of this.

The big question is whether to make the RAMdisk persitent (save data on shutdown and reload it on next boot) or to clear it's contents on shutdown. Basically if you use a RAMdisk for privacy reasons you'd set it to clear on shutdown. Personally I use a persistent RAMdisk.

The other big question is how much RAM do you need to allocate to it?

Here's my read/ write speeds on my windows partition:

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Here's read/ write speeds on the RAMdisk:



So basically if I'm viewing a folder full of High Res images they will load extremely fast or if I want to scroll video from a point near the beginning to a point near the end there's no lag and scrolling is almost instant.

If your machine performs well anyway it's probably pointless but for me there's no way I'm ditching my RAMdisk.

 

[GokAy]

Thanks for the detailed reply. Much appreciated. I have also seen this tutorial - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/312031-ram-disk-install-browser-cache-file-storage.html

 

[Callender]

Browser cache move to RAMdisk

I've seen that tutorial and others but for me it's pointless as my main browser already caches files to RAM only so no need to move the cache from HD to RAMdisk!

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[blackant1968]

ikeep it on

it maintains System performance when hard disk is being used by system process it will lag a lot it helps me when it is on

 

[whs]

This seems to be a very popular topic surviving the ages. It should go into the history books - LOL.

But seriously: Superfetch can only help. I cannot see where fetching programs from RAM can be beat.

 

[ThrashZone]

Binned
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/70822-ssd-tweaks-optimizations-windows-7-a.html

 

[Callender]

Well since I use a RAMdisk that does essentially the same as Superfetch - I disable it!

Upside: Everything loads very fast.

Downside: Much longer boot and shutdown times.

 

[whs]

Can't win'm all.

 

[ThrashZone]

Might be the price you pay for 4gb's of ram :/
8gb's seems like no difference at all might even be a little faster ?