ReadyBoost: Compatible vs Enhanced
Just a quick post to clear up any confusion on the ReadyBoost compatibility list. It turns out that devices which don’t quite meet the Vista storage spec may still show up as ‘compatible’ in Windows Vista (and in this list).
Dave Pryce emailed to point out that the minimum spec for ReadyBoost is 2.5MB/s read & 1.75 MB/s write, while Microsoft’s ReadyBoost usage guidelines say that for a device to be listed as Enhanced for ReadyBoost it must do around double that - 5MB/s read & 3MB/s write (based on 4k random reads and 512k random writes).
You probably already know that not all Flash devices are created equal, but it’s interesting to also note that devices that don’t quite meet the spec are still deemed compatible in Vista. My recommendation is to look for read/write rates wherever they’re quoted in the ReadyBoost chart - a faster device should result in a more noticeable performance gain.
All the hype about Readyboost has created a lot of confusion… from my experiences testing 8 different USB flashdrives (1Gb - 2Gb) has revealed that many are classified as “not fast enough”. I formatted the drives to NFTS and re-inserted and voila! 6 of the drives were deemed “fast enough”! As for real world performance enhancements the jury is still out. I am running an Intel board dual core 2.66 Ghz with 2Gb DDR RAM. When I was beta testing Vista I found that under Build 5744 (64bit)the system seemed faster, however under Vista 6000 premium (32bit)I am unconvinced as to the extra performance. I will be testing a 4Gb USB flash drive later this week and will run it “as is” and with disk compression turned on. I hope to see a difference as I do graphically intense work and want to see the power turned up! And a final note, if you expect to see an increase in your “Performance Index” due to a Flash drive, don’t hold your bretah… I tested and tested and re-tested with all the various flash drives and no matter of the size etc. the performance index registered nary a hint of an increased score. Maybe if the Service Pack #1 (when released) allows for multiple Flash drives we see more gain for the effort… here’s hopin’!
Comment by John Keylor — February 22, 2007 @ 8:31 am
You may want to watch this video to understand how Vista actually uses your flash drive. There is a lot of deep information about memory management and disk access as well.
http://channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?postid=242429
At very least, if the data is in your flash drive but the hard disk head is far from the data, even if your flash drive is slower in throughput than your HD, it can start return data immediatly, without having to wait for the seek so the end result may be a little bit more responsiveness.
Comment by Marcelo — March 2, 2007 @ 2:14 pm
What is the best readyboost drive out? Will readydisk kill the need for readyboost? Will my Sony camera memery work?
Comment by John — May 9, 2007 @ 2:24 am
Hi John.
As far as the best drive goes, I don’t have first hand experience of it, but I’ve heard good things about the Apacer Handy Steno range. The drive I use myself (Kingston Data Traveler Elite) is pretty good, but I don’t have any others to compare it to.
Your Sony Camera memory (presumably Memory Stick Pro Duo or similar) might work, especially if it’s the High Speed version. However, there appears to be a lot of fake Sony sticks out there, and those don’t seem to be fast enough.
Let us know how you get on.
Grant.
Comment by grant — May 9, 2007 @ 2:40 pm
ReadyBoost is a really cool feature in Vista that’s worth making the most of. If a suitable FLASH memory device is found, Vista will use it to for paging instead of the hard disk. However, finding the right device isn’t quite the walk in the park it should be. One annoying thing I wasn’t aware of is that FLASH makers in some cases only use a small amount of fast
memory in the device, and then fill up the rest with slower stuff. Explains why some of the larger ones I’ve seen are so cheap I guess.
Comment by plastik — February 7, 2008 @ 10:40 am
You may want to watch this video to understand how Vista actually uses your flash drive. There is a lot of deep information about memory management and disk access as well.
Comment by otogaz — March 30, 2008 @ 4:42 pm