• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

SSDs and Superfetch

fuzzybabybunny

fuzzybabybunny

Moderator<br>Digital & Video Cameras
Moderator
It seems like a ton of people are disabling SF when using SSDs. Is there a reason for this, and should SF really be disabled? I personally love SF on a rotary drive.

I've read some reasons to disable SF with an SSD, but this one is the only one that's struck me:

I've read that part of superfetch's (and prefetch's) function is to optimise boot times, it attempts to do this by arranging files used at bootup into a defragmented sequential read (fastest for HDD) which conflicts with the random scattering used on SSD's.
Click to expand...

Obviously defragging of any sort doesn't jive well with SSDs, so this is reasonable.
 
I've had better results overall with Superfetch on. The caveat would be that with my Titan I get a small amount of stutter for the first few minutes after boot-up while my RAM gets populated. After that, the system seems much less stutter-prone than with Superfetch disabled(which seems reasonable as any reads from cache are freeing up the SSD to service writes).

I would recommend keeping it enabled if:
- You also have mechanical drives in the system still.
- You don't reboot your PC all that often.

The suggestion to disable it makes the most sense for laptops, as they will likely get rebooted more often and will usually only have the SSD as the sole storage volume.
 
Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
It seems like a ton of people are disabling SF when using SSDs. Is there a reason for this, and should SF really be disabled? I personally love SF on a rotary drive.

I've read some reasons to disable SF with an SSD, but this one is the only one that's struck me:

I've read that part of superfetch's (and prefetch's) function is to optimise boot times, it attempts to do this by arranging files used at bootup into a defragmented sequential read (fastest for HDD) which conflicts with the random scattering used on SSD's.
Click to expand...

Obviously defragging of any sort doesn't jive well with SSDs, so this is reasonable.
Click to expand...

I think that explanation you quoted applies only to prefetch.

With my Intel I originally had superfetch turned on. I just recently turned it off and notice no difference at all. I've kept prefetch off the whole time.
 
Originally posted by: TimBob
Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
It seems like a ton of people are disabling SF when using SSDs. Is there a reason for this, and should SF really be disabled? I personally love SF on a rotary drive.

I've read some reasons to disable SF with an SSD, but this one is the only one that's struck me:

I've read that part of superfetch's (and prefetch's) function is to optimise boot times, it attempts to do this by arranging files used at bootup into a defragmented sequential read (fastest for HDD) which conflicts with the random scattering used on SSD's.
Click to expand...

Obviously defragging of any sort doesn't jive well with SSDs, so this is reasonable.
Click to expand...

I think that explanation you quoted applies only to prefetch.

With my Intel I originally had superfetch turned on. I just recently turned it off and notice no difference at all. I've kept prefetch off the whole time.
Click to expand...

So Superfetch is in Vista while Prefetch is only in XP, correct?
 
Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Originally posted by: TimBob
Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
It seems like a ton of people are disabling SF when using SSDs. Is there a reason for this, and should SF really be disabled? I personally love SF on a rotary drive.

I've read some reasons to disable SF with an SSD, but this one is the only one that's struck me:

I've read that part of superfetch's (and prefetch's) function is to optimise boot times, it attempts to do this by arranging files used at bootup into a defragmented sequential read (fastest for HDD) which conflicts with the random scattering used on SSD's.
Click to expand...

Obviously defragging of any sort doesn't jive well with SSDs, so this is reasonable.
Click to expand...

I think that explanation you quoted applies only to prefetch.

With my Intel I originally had superfetch turned on. I just recently turned it off and notice no difference at all. I've kept prefetch off the whole time.
Click to expand...

So Superfetch is in Vista while Prefetch is only in XP, correct?
Click to expand...

They are both in Vista. I'm not 100% sure, but here's what I think they do:
Prefetch - optomize boot times in the manner from your quote.
Superfetch - basically, loads frequenetly used apps in memory so they start up faster.

With the read speed and access time of SSDs, there really is no benefit of using either. Although, memory is still faster so Superfetch can't hurt. But, I don't notice a difference.
 
Originally posted by: TimBob
Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Originally posted by: TimBob
Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
It seems like a ton of people are disabling SF when using SSDs. Is there a reason for this, and should SF really be disabled? I personally love SF on a rotary drive.

I've read some reasons to disable SF with an SSD, but this one is the only one that's struck me:

I've read that part of superfetch's (and prefetch's) function is to optimise boot times, it attempts to do this by arranging files used at bootup into a defragmented sequential read (fastest for HDD) which conflicts with the random scattering used on SSD's.
Click to expand...

Obviously defragging of any sort doesn't jive well with SSDs, so this is reasonable.
Click to expand...

I think that explanation you quoted applies only to prefetch.

With my Intel I originally had superfetch turned on. I just recently turned it off and notice no difference at all. I've kept prefetch off the whole time.
Click to expand...

So Superfetch is in Vista while Prefetch is only in XP, correct?
Click to expand...

They are both in Vista. I'm not 100% sure, but here's what I think they do:
Prefetch - optomize boot times in the manner from your quote.
Superfetch - basically, loads frequenetly used apps in memory so they start up faster.

With the read speed and access time of SSDs, there really is no benefit of using either. Although, memory is still faster so Superfetch can't hurt. But, I don't notice a difference.
Click to expand...

Ahhhhhh.... so when running an SSD in Vista, basically:

1. disable defragging
2. disable prefetch (because it defrags)
3. enable superfetch
 
It seems like with the intel SSD you can leave superfetch on, but with any other brand you should turn it off due to stuttering.
 
Originally posted by: SickBeast
It seems like with the intel SSD you can leave superfetch on, but with any other brand you should turn it off due to stuttering.
Click to expand...

Ugggg.... if I have to do that with these Runcore drives I'm getting I'm going to be returning them. Right now Superfetch works amazingly well for me in Windows 7. I'm on a crappy 1.8" rotary drive doing around 20MB/s (less than external USB!) and Superfetch means Photoshop CS4 loads up in less than 6 seconds! Lightroom 2 in 8 seconds. Dammit dammit dammit dammit.
 
Prefetch - optomize boot times in the manner from your quote.
Click to expand...
In Vista this function is a subcomponent of ReadyBoost, called ReadyBoot. Windows Vista's ReadyBoost services (emdmgmt, I think) seems to be absent in Windows 7 so it might be stuffed into Superfetch but I've never seen word of that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top