Is Windows’ ReadyBoost worthwhile in Win10?

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LANGALIST By Fred Langa ReadyBoost is a storage technology that can enhance PC performance by using USB flash drives for fast caching. Debuting in Vis
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abbodi86, Microfix, GreatAndPowerfulTech, woody

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I always found ReadyBoost to slow down the system it was tested on, not enhance performance, regardless of which “approved” USB drive was used. It was a nice theoretical concept ten years ago. There must be some use cases where it actually did work as intended.

GreatAndPowerfulTech

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Microfix

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I opted for a Sandisk Readycache (SSD cache system) for our existing Windows 7 OS primary HDD, as the USB tranfer rate wasn’t quick enough (USB2 on my laptop or desktop back then) I actually see no point whatsoever in using Readyboost in W10 as the cost of SSD’s and SSHD’s has come down considerably. Having typed that, USB specifications have got quicker as have their respective USB3,x flashdrives.

My question would be, have MS improved Readyboost for performance during this progression of USB speed and OS? Personally, I’d rather bite the bullet and purchase solid state storage for the primary OS drive.

Most W10 new PC’s/ Laptops now come with an SSD and /or secondary HDD and some come with SSHD as standard with the high end being NVMe primary OS storage with optional HDD secondary storage.

Flashdrives don’t last long either which is another negative to readyboost.

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I’ve used ReadyBoost in the past to enhance PCs with limited RAM and they always seemed to make the computer run a little better (smoother and faster).

The most successful use was for our Windows (7) Media Center computer, which had just 4GB of RAM at a time when memory was fairly expensive. I plugged in a speedy 8GB Compact Flash card (the sort that’s used in photography) and the difference in processing commands and playing video was immediate and dramatic.

Eventually, RAM prices came down and I put in an additional 12GB of memory, but ReadyBoost did serve its purpose.

 

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ReadyBoost was useful back in the Vista days when the OS was too bloated for the hardware at the time – you had PCs and laptops with 1GB of RAM (sometimes 512MB!) and they were horribly slow. It’s not really that useful nowadays and Windows won’t let you enable it on SSDs as the flash drive would be slower than the SSD.

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I used to have a Windows Vista PC that struggled to survive with just 2 GB of RAM. Plugging in a flash drive and enabling ReadyBoost on it had a negligible impact on performance. I’ve never used ReadyBoost since. My next computers had 4 and 12 GB of RAM respectively, which was enough for Windows 7 and Windows 10 respectively, and for my work during those times.

Flash drives are better off being used to store files for short periods of time, or for quickly transferring files.

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