Is it true that Vista has a option to use flash drives as RAM?

Hey all, Heard someone talk about Vista has a option now to use flash drives or so as RAM for your PC. Was wondering if thats true and how that works?

I have a Dell E1505 Laptop.

 

Yes it is true. It is called Readyboost (search for it lots of info). The flash is used for quick access cache.

 

I don't think it's exactly like RAM though, right? I mean, if you have a machine with 1GB of RAM and stick a 1GB flash drive in it, it's not like you now have a machine with 2GB of RAM. It doesn't use it for all system memory, etc.

 

No not like RAM. Just quick access to pre loaded files. It does make things quicker especially if you have a fast USB stick. RAM is always better but a USB stick is cheaper.

 

"No not like RAM. Just quick access to pre loaded files."
That is one of the major functions of RAM. Both RAM and Vista's ReadyBoost serve as short-term memory caches for quick retrieval by the CPU. Vista, however, probably doesn't store processes on a USB stick as removing the hardware could prove fatal for the OS.

 

I think it only stores files that are also stored on harddisk (so it can access them faster). No temp files like in the ram or virtual memory. I dont think it is used by the CPU directly. It is loaded from the flash into the ram and then used by the CPU. More like a cache between hard disk and RAM. The computer doesnt crash when you pull the USB off.

 

Readyboost is more akin to Pagefile than RAM. You use flash drives are faster substitute for HDs, not RAM. Also, f you have enough RAM (2GB), adding flash disks won't make a difference.

 

can Readyboost help in games like bf2,fear or pray if so by how much

 

It will only help loading times. ReadyBoost is a way to speed up your hard drive. Flash memory is much slower than RAM, but much faster than a hard drive.

 

Now the explination about that readyboost is like a "pagefile" makes more sense. I would just turn off my pagefile in virtual memory and go readyboost, which would be ideal.

But yea lets talk graphic programs and games, performance increase is like?

 

no way. flash is even slower than hdd. have u actually tried using your sd reader in your lappy?

 

Flash is not just SD cards, Squallff8aus. And random-access times on flash are much faster than hard drives. There's no seek time on flash. It's when you try moving large amounts of data that flash starts taking a back seat to hard drives. So that's why they use smaller flash drives to cache data that needs quick access, but it's not large files. It's a really good idea... those engineers have already thought of anything you could come up with to counter it

 

Depends on the laptop. I HAVE noticed however how some internal readers ARE slow. Then again, I can say the same for some USB SD card readers...

Depends on the setup and the card.

There is something tho that works QUITE fast... Its the RapidGX series from Sandisk. Using a 2 GB Memory Duo and well... it does what it claims, Faster PC -> Memory card transfers in files... Went much quicker then the normal Duo...

Its odd tho.. some readers need drivers.. and I feel somehow that those drivers are the cause of the slowdown in some SD readers.. since some of my readers go faster then a USB hookup reader... but others go slower.. its odd.

 

edit (made a mistake):
actually readyboost is not-really caching (although it is caching the page file....), its just when the OS paging to disk (writing to the page file) it also writes to the readyboost device some of the times as well.

"I should be clear that while flash drives do contain memory, Windows ReadyBoost isn’t really using that memory to increase the main system RAM in your computer. Instead, ReadyBoost uses the flash drive to store information that is being used by the memory manager. If you are running a lot of applications on a system that has limited memory, Windows ReadyBoost will use the flash drive to create a copy of virtual memory that is not quite as fast as RAM, but a whole lot faster than going to the hard disk. What is very cool here is that there is nothing stored on this flash disk that isn’t also on the hard disk, so if you remove the flash drive, the memory manager sees the change and automatically goes to the hard disk. While the performance gain from ReadyBoost is gone, you don’t lose any data and there is no interruption. And because the Windows Readyboost cache on the flash drive is encrypted using AES-128, you don’t need to worry about exposing sensitive data if the flash drive is stolen or lost. Also, the memory manager compresses the pages before writing them into the cache on the flash disk, which means you’ll get more mileage from each MB."

from http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2006/11/20/windows-readyboost.aspx

the more ram you have the less likely the OS will need to page to disk, and so the less likely the OS will use readyboost. the article implies that the OS pages to disk and to the readyboost device at the same time (some of the times). So u're much better off getting more ram than a flash stick provided that the ram stick doesn't not cost alot more than the flash stick.

with more ram, vista will prefetch data (caching ) as well as preventing the system from paging to disk more often. So you get to kill 2 birds with 1 stone with more ram. With Readyboost, it DOES NOT prevents the OS from paging to disk but will also page to a flash memory stick. But of course, accessing the RAM directly is still alot (100 times) faster than paging to the flash memory stick.