With my 6GB of RAM and SuperFetch On, I can set up my flight at the Plan A Flight screen wait a bit of time and in the background FSX will totally load. Then when I click on Fly Now I am immediatly in my plane at my departure point. If I don't wait long enough, then FSX is already at some % of loading.

With my 6GB of RAM and SuperFetch On, I can set up my flight at the Plan A Flight screen wait a bit of time and in the background FSX will totally load. Then when I click on Fly Now I am immediatly in my plane at my departure point. If I don't wait long enough, then FSX is already at some % of loading.

What is superfetch?

What is superfetch?

Same to me.

At current prices you could get 8GB, but are you saying that you have the page file in a RAM disk with 4GB of RAM installed?

No, I just want to say that I won´t use the page file when I have 8 GB installed to take a bit of strain off my HDD.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Get-maximum-performance-from-Windows-Vista-from-Windows-Vista-Inside-Out

I like mine the shorter loading times were worth the money... It's definitely a premium toy though. For value, heck no not worth it lol...

Same to me.No, I just want to say that I won´t use the page file when I have 8 GB installed to take a bit of strain off my HDD.

You should have a page file, and it should be in the HDD, not forced into RAM.Superfetch vs SSD is one thing, but to diagnose your performance issues you'll need to provide more details on how you're running your system, do some tests, check RAM usage...

Superfetch vs SSD is one thing, but to diagnose your performance issues you'll need to provide more details on how you're running your system, do some tests, check RAM usage...

Is Superfetch allwas enabled or has it to be enabled seperatly? Edit: it seems that Superfetch for boot and programms is allready active.For the RAM usage: I do currentky nothing more than surfing the net with IE (I know you don´t like it.) and have arround 48% RAM usage, in FSX it´s arround 77 - 85% with FSX using about 1,6 - 1,8 GB.How I run my system: It´s used for everything, not exceptionally FSX but made with FSX in mind: Defragmenting after every serious installation and checking the RAM. I´ve got in mind that I buy 8 BG of Mushkin Enachnched blackline RAM, the same I use but only 8 GB instead of 4.btw. for an SSD I thought of some 60 GB ones for arround €. They seem to be affordable.

I even sold mine last year because it was taking up space and only saving me seconds in a day. If someone wants to give me one, I'll use it! But my last SSD purchase had me suffering more from buyer's remorse than any other hardware. Ever.

May I just ask what SSD you had?My experience with SSD is that once you had a system with one you really notice the difference when you have to use a system without one... I would never want to go back. Neither would my retired parents.The benefit is in the snappyness of the OS. You can start using the computer the second you see the desktop. Even a slow CPUs all of a sudden feel so quick in the OS.But don't expect any better FPS...

ZachI still think that superfetch is a black art. On one hand for business use it is excellent but for games it can slow them down as it does use some RAM resources, but whether that's enough to affect FSX performance is a moot point. On the other hand disabling Superfetch can result in the cpu not being able to utilise the physical and virtual (PF) RAM fully. Some gurus recommend disabling it but I wouldn't due to aforementioned. I run it with both 4 and 8 GB RAM installed on Win 7 systems with FSX on both and I haven't noticed any performance issues, and even under load the available physical memory on the 4GB machine is still around 1.5GB. Windows 7 does an excellent job on managing memory and superfetch is part of that process, I feel that its benefits outweigh any disadvantages. I'm sure that 8GB RAM upwards will help minimise ant effects on FSX but Windows and SF are smart enough to utilise whatever physical RAM that you have onboard. Mark Russinovich of sysinternals has run win 7 64-bit with SF and sveral programs and did not report ant issues with the physical RAM or PF.BTW Superfetch does not affect the VAS which is one of the most important factors in running FSX.RegardsPeterH

May I just ask what SSD you had?My experience with SSD is that once you had a system with one you really notice the difference when you have to use a system without one... I would never want to go back. Neither would my retired parents.The benefit is in the snappyness of the OS. You can start using the computer the second you see the desktop. Even a slow CPUs all of a sudden feel so quick in the OS.But don't expect any better FPS...

Intel 510 Series 120GB.That's the point, it only saved me seconds in a day. Lol. I sold it to a friend that wanted an SSD. I gave him a deal, he gave me what I would expect. It was a win/win.

As always, thanks Peter.

Edited February 8, 201214 yr by ZachLW

Is Superfetch allwas enabled or has it to be enabled seperatly? Edit: it seems that Superfetch for boot and programms is allready active.For the RAM usage: I do currentky nothing more than surfing the net with IE (I know you don´t like it.) and have arround 48% RAM usage, in FSX it´s arround 77 - 85% with FSX using about 1,6 - 1,8 GB.How I run my system: It´s used for everything, not exceptionally FSX but made with FSX in mind: Defragmenting after every serious installation and checking the RAM. I´ve got in mind that I buy 8 BG of Mushkin Enachnched blackline RAM, the same I use but only 8 GB instead of 4.btw. for an SSD I thought of some 60 GB ones for arround €. They seem to be affordable.

Did you check both the registry and the Superfetch service to make sure it's enabled?

May I just ask what SSD you had?My experience with SSD is that once you had a system with one you really notice the difference when you have to use a system without one... I would never want to go back. Neither would my retired parents.The benefit is in the snappyness of the OS. You can start using the computer the second you see the desktop. Even a slow CPUs all of a sudden feel so quick in the OS.But don't expect any better FPS...

It takes longer to load with a HDD, but once it's all in RAM there's little benefit from faster storage. Superfetch caches those system files in the background with a higher priority than the regular cache, so they are rarely dropped from memory, unless you run some very memory intensive app, and even then, when it frees up the RAM, Superfetch will repopulate the cache before you know it:

Priority 7 come from a static set (pre-trained at Microsoft)Pre-populated at each bootIncludes pages related to user input that requires fast responsiveness (right-click, desktop properties, control panel, start menu, etc.)

I'll see if I can make a little demonstration of Superfetch with RAMMap

ZachI still think that superfetch is a black art. On one hand for business use it is excellent but for games it can slow them down as it does use some RAM resources, but whether that's enough to affect FSX performance is a moot point. On the other hand disabling Superfetch can result in the cpu not being able to utilise the physical and virtual (PF) RAM fully. Some gurus recommend disabling it but I wouldn't due to aforementioned. I run it with both 4 and 8 GB RAM installed on Win 7 systems with FSX on both and I haven't noticed any performance issues, and even under load the available physical memory on the 4GB machine is still around 1.5GB. Windows 7 does an excellent job on managing memory and superfetch is part of that process, I feel that its benefits outweigh any disadvantages. I'm sure that 8GB RAM upwards will help minimise ant effects on FSX but Windows and SF are smart enough to utilise whatever physical RAM that you have onboard. Mark Russinovich of sysinternals has run win 7 64-bit with SF and sveral programs and did not report ant issues with the physical RAM or PF.BTW Superfetch does not affect the VAS which is one of the most important factors in running FSX.RegardsPeterH

completely agree. Man those videos of MR were so great, I just ordered Windows Internals 5th edition (& 6th edition will follow) Thanks again Peter :)

ZachYes those videos are great - I've tried to contact MR but he's so busy you never seem to get an answer. I wanted to ask him about 'file system memory cache' in Win 7 as it is not enabled by default. This supposedly increases the number of read write functions and should in theory help with FSX performance, but I wanted to ask his opinion so that I knew it wasn't a "snake oil" tweak and to ask why it is not enabled in win 7. There may well be a good reason so I'll hold off using it until I hear from him, and again you do need enough physical RAM for this to work.. (I should have said in my post that MR's tests were with Win 7 64-bit with only 2GB RAM!!)RegardsPeterH

I run a solid state for my OS. 6 months ago I would have said it wasn't worth it from a pure performance(FPS) standpoint, but with hard drive prices going through the roof, I have changed my tune! I will be changing my FSX installation over to the SSD when prices come down a bit more.Will it help FPS? No. Will the OS respond better? Yes. Will FSX load faster? Sure. I would also highly suggest getting more RAM if you can. You would be amazed how much paging to disk the OS does with even 4 gigs. I would order two 4 gig DIMMS or two 8 gig dimms.

Edited February 8, 201214 yr by AlphaInfinity

I don't think SSD is worth the money.I had one, tested it versus my "old" 150GB Vrap, and the *only* thing it did faster was the first boot up of FSX. All consequent boot ups were the *same* speed.Talking about Superfetch.It really works, at least here. First booting of FSX after boot is relatively slow, yes. But do I really care about that? Ever other time of FSX bootup is almost NO HDD activity, FSX boots in 47seconds, which is FAST for my configuration (FSX has about 200GB, 270 lines of scenery and quite a few aircraft installed, incl. PMDG stuff etc). And yes, FSX scenery is right now split, which I would like to unite again.Now, I have a choice: Samsung 830 256GB SSD 320€ (which is probably get filled very soon) OR WD6000HLHX 600GB for 175€. To me, honestly, no brainer.Windows is gonna wander onto the "slower" 150GB Vrap and voila.Tell you the truth - I don't need anything else from speed in my Windows also. It's snappy, fast and everything open inside of reasonable time.

And with a SSD cache on the VRAP FSX would load in 10 sec.!I understand your arguments, but I disagree...You can choose several other SSD´s than the specific Samsung you mention, better and cheaper too."Only its abilities with very small file sizes and some slight lack of absolute speed at the top end stop it from receiving our Gold Award"http://www.overclock..._256gb_review/7FSX consists mainly of small file reads AFAIK...BTW: Where can you get a WD6000HLHX 600GB for 175 EURO?Look here:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136555299.99 USD!

Edited February 19, 201214 yr by Tor