Will ReadyBoost help me?

[zqmaa]

I currently have 12gb of physical RAM on my computer. I have a 16gb SD card that I am able to use for more RAM, but ready boost only allows me to use 4gb at a time. I have my reasons for the high amount of RAM, so please do not say that I already have enough and this is a waste, unless it will 100% have no effect. So basically, I will running several programs, and for the amount I am wanting to run, I will need 14gb extra, so not including the 2gb I already lose from windows. I am not very familiar with ReadyBoost, so I am wondering if this will also help systems like mine in this kind of scenario. If this is hard to follow, i'm sorry, please ask any questions you need. Thanks!

 

[babachicken]

Readyboost does little to no help in a computer with more than about 2 gigs of ram...

 

[zqmaa]

Readyboost does little to no help in a computer with more than about 2 gigs of ram...

The thing is, I will have that entire 12gb filled up. If it is all filled up, then would it help me?

 

[babachicken]

not really.

Readyboost does not make "RAM"

is a weird combination of volatile memory, and disk memory

it does not act as a substitute for system memory

 

[zqmaa]

not really.

Readyboost does not make "RAM"

is a weird combination of volatile memory, and disk memory

it does not act as a substitute for system memory

In that case, from what you said, how would it help people with 1gb of ram? I must be missing a key point somewhere... I am not looking to see a performance increase, simply the ability to run more programs, as long as my CPU can handle it.

 

[babachicken]

because systems with 1gb of ram are not so capable of even running simple tasks as opening folders, opening software without freeze ups.
readyboost helps alleviate this slowness


with 12 gb that is more than enough to do such things

 

[zqmaa]

because systems with 1gb of ram are not so capable of even running simple tasks as opening folders, opening software without freeze ups.
readyboost helps alleviate this slowness


with 12 gb that is more than enough to do such things

So it only makes a difference once literally all the memory is already being used? (Because 1gb is easier to fill than 12gb)

 

[babachicken]

because systems with 1gb of ram are not so capable of even running simple tasks as opening folders, opening software without freeze ups.
readyboost helps alleviate this slowness


with 12 gb that is more than enough to do such things

So it only makes a difference once literally all the memory is already being used? (Because 1gb is easier to fill than 12gb)

well not really.

ReadyBoost is created from a flash storage device (USB drive, SD card ect...)

flash storage is somewhere in between Ram and Disk storage.

the flash storage in the (USB drive, SD card ect...) is allocated for a different use than just storing data.

RAM is volatile meaning all data is lost from it once the system is turned off
Disk storage is non volatile meaning data is stored even after the system is off.
Flash storage is a middle ground. It is non volatile but has aspects of RAM.

its basically a way to make the HDD faster, or the RAM.

quickening time to open and close, running programs smoother ect....

on computers with a plentiful amount of RAM. ready boost doesnt help.

 

[Joe Yahchouchi]

I think it would help. It would also help if you have several hard disks and not just one. By help I do not mean replace ram I also do not mean it's almost the same, lets be clear, ram is like 100 times faster. But if you are going to call on 28 GB of data when you only have 12 GB of ram, they will help.

What will happen is that your memory will be filled, and then your system will resort to swapping, using page files on disks (and readyboost on usb if plugged) disks and usbs are very slow (they shift data at the rate of ... 4 MB/s? not counting sequential read writes) if you will have 14 GB of swap data(which is enormous) you would want to have that amount distributed over several physical media, so you can trade MB as concurently as possible(1 disk+2 usb you might do 12 MB/s on average swapping) There is a good reason why readyboost does not support more than 4 GB, writing 4 GB on a USB is already a long process, and reading it from the USB takes also like an hour(usb transfer is again on average like 4 MB/s, so if you want to write 4 GB of data on the usb, we're talking about 3 hours), one usb is not meant to receive and send large amounts of data quickly. Try using like 5 USBs in parallel, load will be more distributed and you'll get more juice of the process.

I would be curious to know what you did and what happened

 

[zqmaa]

I think it would help. It would also help if you have several hard disks and not just one. By help I do not mean replace ram I also do not mean it's almost the same, lets be clear, ram is like 100 times faster. But if you are going to call on 28 GB of data when you only have 12 GB of ram, they will help.

What will happen is that your memory will be filled, and then your system will resort to swapping, using page files on disks (and readyboost on usb if plugged) disks and usbs are very slow (they shift data at the rate of ... 4 MB/s? not counting sequential read writes) if you will have 14 GB of swap data(which is enormous) you would want to have that amount distributed over several physical media, so you can trade MB as concurently as possible(1 disk+2 usb you might do 12 MB/s on average swapping) There is a good reason why readyboost does not support more than 4 GB, writing 4 GB on a USB is already a long process, and reading it from the USB takes also like an hour(usb transfer is again on average like 4 MB/s, so if you want to write 4 GB of data on the usb, we're talking about 3 hours), one usb is not meant to receive and send large amounts of data quickly. Try using like 5 USBs in parallel, load will be more distributed and you'll get more juice of the process.

I would be curious to know what you did and what happened

I actually reformatted my drive, and now I am using 14gb extra. I have not pushed it to its limit yet, but when I do, I will let you know. I would select your answer as the solution, but only 30 minutes after posting it auto-selected one. Whatever lol, thanks for your response.

 

[harishkumar09]

Kindly do not listen to that idiot babachicken who says ReadyBoost will not benefit more than 1 GB RAM. Plus he does not understand English and could not understand the sentence "all the 12 GB is filled up".

I am a heavy user with 6 GB of RAM and have at least 50-100 browser tabs, 10 Word docs, 20 PDF files open at any given time and keep switching between 2 user accounts.

Under the above circumstance, the computer turned sluggish and an image took 120 seconds to be loaded and viewed. And took ages to switch between two user accounts.

I then added ReadyBoost and allocated 8 GB of storage on my 32 GB pendrive. Now the image loaded in less than 1 second and switching between user accounts was seamless.

ReadyBoost will benefit those who frequently open and close documents, and load and unload programs, as opposed to doing only processing.

People who say if you have more than 1 GB of RAM , you don't need ReadyBoost are those who think internet is just checking emails and nothing more than that. They have not heard of multi-tab browsing and you should not read their posts.

I can vouch for the amazing efficiency of ReadyBoost. I have gained 1000x increase in speeds.

If your online lifestyle is like mine, you will enjoy at least 100x speed boost.