How to tell if Readyboost is working?

[KYLECODY]

Have my laptop memory maxed at 4 gb and thought Id get a usb plugin/flash for another 16 gb. Where can I go to see how much of the memory is being utilized? I have Vista, Thx.

 

[Carnivore]

Figure out how to load your "resource monitor"

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/performance.aspx

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20070307/readyboost-works/


For us lowly XP users I found this, but have not tried it yet:

deleted link because reviews and testing by D3P says it is junk...

 

[Randall Garrett]

Kylecody,

FWIW, in my experience ReadyBoost is only noticeable from the "seat of your pants" perspective when you are running Vista and minimal base memory - i.e less than 2 GB. So, if you have your machine running with 4 GB, I doubt you see any real performance gain by using ReadyBoost. Also, almost any card you get will have much slower performance than the on-board RAM - either the actual memory on the card is slower, or the "bus" (interface to/from the card) is slower, or (most likely) - both. Finally, from all I have read, we won't see any appreciable usefulness from ReadyBoost (or related variants) until a later Vista patch and new hardware is released supporting same. Anyway, unless you need a card for other purposes, my advice is to save your money if you are just getting the card to increase overall performance of your laptop.

Hope this helps!

-Randall Garrett-
..Apex Software..

/end/