Does ReadyBoost Really Boost System Performance For Windows Vista or Windows 7?

I have discussed many times before about how a computer ‘feels’ and how this ‘feel’ determines, at least for me, how a computer is performing. During the past 20 years or so, I have read a multitude of reviews, bench marking tests, comparisons between operating systems, charts, graphs and other statistical information that is complied to convince us of some fact. Usually this fact is to confirm that CPU z is faster than CPU x because one is faster than the other by some obscure number scaling. Or that one video card will produce more flops, flips or flaps or some other geek term that never has meant that much to me personally.

For the past year I have taken advantage of what Microsoft calls ‘readyboost’, starting with Windows Vista. ReadyBoost is described by Microsoft as:

With Windows ReadyBoost, you can use non-volatile flash memory, such as that on a universal serial bus (USB) flash drive, to improve performance without having to add additional memory “under the hood.”

The flash memory device serves as an additional memory cache — that is, memory that the computer can access much more quickly than it can access data on the hard drive. Windows ReadyBoost relies on the intelligent memory management of Windows SuperFetch and can significantly improve system responsiveness.

The limits of using ReadyBoost is that Windows allocates about 4GB of any flash memory, no matter what size you use. What I have been using are flash memory cards, since both of my Toshiba laptops have media card readers. I set up ReadyBoost using the 4GB limit and forget about it. The feel of the system does appear to me to actually increase performance.

So yesterday I noticed something strange on my system. My laptop seemed to be responding slowly while burning a .iso file to DVD. While doing the burn, I was also writing a blog article and checking emails via two separate email programs. I noticed that the sidebar gadget I use to monitor CPU and memory use was showing a 72% memory usage. Strange stuff!

At first I didn’t know what was going on. But after some checking I noticed that my flash disk had popped out, which must of happened when I moved my laptop from my desk to my work table. After popping the disk back in and rebooting all was well.

But here is my question to you. Do you use ReadyBoost?  If so, have you noticed a performance increase?

Let us know and share your experience with us.

Comments welcome.

Microsoft site describing readyboost