Readyboost questions

This is an archive of the mabination.com forums which were active from 2010 to 2018. You can not register, post or otherwise interact with the site other than browsing the content for historical purposes. The content is provided as-is, from the moment of the last backup taken of the database in 2019. Image and video embeds are disabled on purpose and represented textually since most of those links are dead.

To view other archive projects go to https://archives.mabination.com

Intex wrote on 2010-08-24 01:38

I found an unused 2GB Memory Stick in my house, so I stuck it in my 512MB Vista Basic.

I keep reading that Readyboost is very effective for low memory computers (like mine).
I already notice much less lag when I open my folders or start small programs.
Does anyone know if my 512MB + 2GB USB boost can at least run 1.5GB RAM (min req) games.

I'm really tired of my computer rejecting me from playing all the latest PC games :|
Hiccup wrote on 2010-08-24 02:21

Never know without trying
IceBlade wrote on 2010-08-24 06:36

No it wouldn't work. Even if you just look at the max read speed of USB 2.0 (60 MB/s) you can see that it wouldn't be effective to be used as ram. But you really should be look at it's speed in practice which around 10-20 MB/s. So no it wouldn't make a good alternative for ram :/ Or even be use full as page memory. Since even IDE hard-drives have 100 MB/s transfer rates with the new SATA drives going up to 3GB/s.
Samuelster wrote on 2010-08-24 09:39

I thought readyboost was used for power saving on laptops >:
Osayidan wrote on 2010-08-24 23:48

with USB 2.0 readyboost is totally useless. SATA and even IDE is faster than USB 2.0. Just configure your page file properly. Osayidan.net: Optimizing the Page File

When USB 3.0 is standard, and you get a new computer that has USB 3.0 on the motherboard, ready boost will be a fairly decent solution (we won't even really need hard drives anymore).
Halfslashed wrote on 2010-08-25 20:46

There has been some confusion about readyboost, so I decided to research it.

First of all, I can tell you right now that readyboost doesn't affect your memory in any way, it simply acts as a method of increasing the cache of hard drives.
All hard drives have a cache that is 64MB or lower. Obviously, the bigger the cache, the faster you can load commonly used programs/files. Readyboost uses a USB drive as a way to increase the size of your cache dramatically. Say you have a 4GB flash drive and a hard drive with a 32MB cache. If you were to fill the hard drive with the readyboost cache, you would be able to load up to 4GB of files with improved speeds.

I personally decided to try readyboost and I actually noticed a significant difference in speed increase. A defragmented laptop hard drive running at 5400 rpm with an 8MB cache and a 2GB USB 2.0 flash drive. I tested the speed of shadow mission load times for the speed difference.

Without readyboost, I was taking 1 minute just to load the mission.

With readyboost, I was taking around 10 seconds.

Readyboost will only help you if your hard drive is slow, but if you want a memory increase, it'd be best to use the page file optimization guide by Osay. (Keep in mind that it is only virtual memory)

Quote from IceBlade;135737:
No it wouldn't work. Even if you just look at the max read speed of USB 2.0 (60 MB/s) you can see that it wouldn't be effective to be used as ram. But you really should be look at it's speed in practice which around 10-20 MB/s. So no it wouldn't make a good alternative for ram :/ Or even be use full as page memory. Since even IDE hard-drives have 100 MB/s transfer rates with the new SATA drives going up to 3GB/s.

Incorrect, the current standard for SATA drives (SATA II) is 3Gb/s, the latest SATA drives have 6GB/s transfer rates.

Quote from Osayidan;136156:
with USB 2.0 readyboost is totally useless. SATA and even IDE is faster than USB 2.0. Just configure your page file properly. Osayidan.net: Optimizing the Page File

When USB 3.0 is standard, and you get a new computer that has USB 3.0 on the motherboard, ready boost will be a fairly decent solution (we won't even really need hard drives anymore).

USB 3.0 is the standard for custom systems and we won't ever need hard drives soon. Solid state disk prices are going down and capacities are increasing.
Byte wrote on 2010-08-26 13:06

Quote from Halfslashed;136875:
There has been some confusion about readyboost, so I decided to research it.

First of all, I can tell you right now that readyboost doesn't affect your memory in any way, it simply acts as a method of increasing the cache of hard drives.
All hard drives have a cache that is 64MB or lower. Obviously, the bigger the cache, the faster you can load commonly used programs/files. Readyboost uses a USB drive as a way to increase the size of your cache dramatically. Say you have a 4GB flash drive and a hard drive with a 32MB cache. If you were to fill the hard drive with the readyboost cache, you would be able to load up to 4GB of files with improved speeds.

I personally decided to try readyboost and I actually noticed a significant difference in speed increase. A defragmented laptop hard drive running at 5400 rpm with an 8MB cache and a 2GB USB 2.0 flash drive. I tested the speed of shadow mission load times for the speed difference.

Without readyboost, I was taking 1 minute just to load the mission.

With readyboost, I was taking around 10 seconds.

Readyboost will only help you if your hard drive is slow, but if you want a memory increase, it'd be best to use the page file optimization guide by Osay. (Keep in mind that it is only virtual memory)

Incorrect, the current standard for SATA drives (SATA II) is 3Gb/s, the latest SATA drives have 6GB/s transfer rates.

USB 3.0 is the standard for custom systems and we won't ever need hard drives soon. Solid state disk prices are going down and capacities are increasing.

Pretty sure I have a hard-drive with 3.24MB Max around here. :)