Do you enable Superfetch with your SSD? (poll)

[Obsoleet]

Just curious, I've seen some people leave it enabled and some turn it off. I just let the Intel SSD Toolbox disable it as it requests on my systems but I don't see a problem with leaving it enabled.

 

[code65536]

I don't use it even on HDD-based systems.

It's not some magical elixir that makes your system run faster. All that it does it shift the time costs of slow HDD access so that they are incurred at a presumably more convenient time. The downside being that if it guesses wrong, it might incur HDD access at a bad time or HDD access for data that you never needed.

Keep in mind that Windows already uses free memory for caching, loooooong before Superfetch was even a twinkle in MSFT's eye. Access a large file, and unless there is memory pressure, that large file will remain resident for future accesses. Run a program, and unless evicted by memory pressure, the program's binaries and other static data will remain resident so that subsequent launches of that process will be fast. All that Superfetch does is that it tries to cache things before you access them.

In all, I found Superfetch to be pretty much pointless. It can be useful for certain usage patterns, but for me, it is a wash. So I have it disabled everywhere, regardless of whether the system has a SSD or not.

 

[razel]

You may want to enable it for HDD only systems. You'll be losing Win7's fantastic behavioral caching. With RAM being cheaper than a nice dinner with the prettier half these days you'll want to utilize that free RAM as much as possible.

It is true that RAM is faster than SSD. Apparently Intel did the research and found it best to disable Superfetch when you have an SSD. I tried to figure out if there was any financial motive as to why they would make such a recommendation. I have stock in Intel and companies want your money. I couldn't figure it out so there ought to be some truth to it.

I myself find it borderline even for SSDs and if the benefit is borderline, I'd rather free up the RAM then... and that's coming from me... a BIG cheerleader of Win7's behavioral caching.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

There is no reason to muck with this stuff manually. Windows 7 knows what to do with an SSD. Some SSDs aren't good enough for Windows to automatically disable Superfetch, so it doesn't. If you're one of those anal people who refuses to install from scratch on your nice new SSD and your existing image doesn't reconfigure itself for your SSD then run WPI again. If Windows determines it doesn't need Superfetch it'll turn it off.

There is *no* downside to leaving Superfetch on, other than slightly higher power draw from your RAM (which is the same as no downside).

 

[Obsoleet]

I'm a huge fan of Superfetch as well. I noticed a huge difference back in the stone ages of HDDs when Vista had it. I typically open the same apps all the time and I noticed even in a game like Might and Magic Dark Messiah, the levels were loading faster than on XP after 2 or 3 of the level loading (saved games in my case).

I've enabled Superfetch on my SSDs just because my post got me curious.. I can't see the harm in doing so as 7 releases Superfetched cache immediately if needed. That and while I remember the PC grinding away on the HDD upon startup during my Vista Superfetch days (which I was thankful for because the difference was huge), Superfetching is unnoticeable on a SSD and done in a fraction of the time.

 

[F1shF4t]

RAM read speed 14000MB/s, SSD read speed 240 - 500 MB/s.
So thats a yes I turn it back on.

 

[DirkGently1]

RAM read speed 14000MB/s, SSD read speed 240 - 500 MB/s.
So thats a yes I turn it back on.

To what benefit? Everything launches instantly on my SSD. Is there something faster than 'instant' that i'm not aware of?

 

[F1shF4t]

To what benefit? Everything launches instantly on my SSD. Is there something faster than 'instant' that i'm not aware of?

RAM is there and a lot faster why not use it? What benefit do you get from turning it off?

Does superfetch cache from other drives in the system? If it does it would be useful to leave it on if you have apps or games installed on secondary HDDs.

 

[groberts101]

ram is faster than SSD.

SSD is not instant.. it's nearly instant. Ram is truly instant.

Added leverage from the use of ram caching is worth whatever gains I can get regardless if it's perceivable or not IMO. Every little bit helps in a cumulative manner to give the final impression that things just flow better. And that's good enough reason for me.

My feeling is that things are constantly evolving and what used to be rec'd across the board is slowly changing over time. We used to say that SSD has virtually no latency and tiny changes were imperceptible. Now SSD controller mfgrs are moving towards ultra-low latencies as the current trend. I personally see small and perceivable gains between various controllers and will take everything I can get in that department.

Ram caching isn't much different in that regard and helps that much more to get to that "fast as you push the button experience".

 

[BFG10K]

To what benefit? Everything launches instantly on my SSD. Is there something faster than 'instant' that i'm not aware of?

Take out all of the RAM from your computer and install the smallest stick possible. There should be no difference because the SSD is "instant", right?

 

[Coup27]

Turned off.

 

[Makaveli]

The intel SSD optimizer recommends turning it off so it is.

 

[DirkGently1]

Take out all of the RAM from your computer and install the smallest stick possible. There should be no difference because the SSD is "instant", right?

I think you are very confused about how Superfetch works! It sounds like you think that caching files is somehow a demanding, computational task that RAM would excel at. It's not.

Superfetch is simply caching files that are needed at Application launch to speed up the process. If those files were located on a HDD, the inherently slow seek and access times of a spinner would be a hindrance to that launch. An SSD doesn't suffer from that problem. Seek and Access times on Solid-State are practically zero.

To you or i the distinction between super/super/super fast and super/super/super/really bloody fast, is unnoticeable during application launch. Instant is instant.

 

[Kristijonas]

RAM catching is good for SSDs health. Or so I've heard. Speed is not that of an issue.

 

[DirkGently1]

RAM catching is good for SSDs health. Or so I've heard. Speed is not that of an issue.

FUD. It was the common belief when SSD's first came to market that NAND would 'wear out' after five years of light use. This has been proven to not be the case. In fact, those in the industry were already stating that it wouldn't be the case, that in fact the controllers would be more likely to be an issue as time went on.

Funny enough, the first time i heard that it was from an OCZ employee. A prophetic statement considering!

If you are using an SSD and want a tangible speed increase, from clicking on the shortcut, to the application opening on your desktop... go to Advanced Performance options and turn off animations like Slide/Fade windows into view. You'll certainly notice a snappier response from that than using Superfetch!

 

[frostedflakes]

Remember that Superfetch also optimizes boot time, caching commonly used files to RAM isn't its only function.

With a modern SSD and Win 7, all you really need to do is make sure AHCI is enabled in the BIOS. Win 7 should set up everything else for you (enable TRIM, disable defrag, etc.), no need for any further tweaking IMO. Most of the information in those SSD tweaking guides was from the JMF602 days when SSD controllers were much less sophisticated.

 

[Sunburn74]

RAM catching is good for SSDs health. Or so I've heard. Speed is not that of an issue.

Look up xtreme forums ssd endurance testing. It may enlighten you on just how much you can abuse your SSD.

 

[Shmee]

might as well, got 24 GB ram lol.

 

[taltamir]

Disabling superfetch degrades performance, it degrades performance a lot more on a HDD then on an SSD but it degrades performance on both. Intel's insistance that you disable it is amoral sabotage to make their own product look better in comparison.

They used to also insist you disable defrag on your HDD if you had an SSD in the system (even though windows excludes the SSD from the defrag) but they have been called out on it enough that newer versions of their SSD toolbox don't do that anymore.