Superfetch off but windows still caching in RAM

snadge

snadge

snadge

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I have Superfetch off in windows yet it still seems to be caching into RAM... anyone know why this might be? I know there are options/switches in the registry that control this but I thought if the service was disabled it should not do it at all? - if I recall I used an SSD optimize program that set windows to cache programs only, but like I say its strange that its still doing so with Superfetch disabled...??

thanks

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Why do you want to disable caching? Cached memory doesn't mean it's unavailable, it just means it's just got data already in it that may need to be held in RAM in future instead of just sitting there with zeros.

Having free RAM equals having wasted ram.

Even with an SSD, RAM is simply on another level when it comes to direct memory bandwidth.
 
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as you can see its not disabled....im just curious as to why its running at all when Superfetch service is off, I thought this controlled it.

Ive also read that Superfetch can reduce the life expectancy of your SSD
 
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spoffle said:
Why would you want to turn it off though? THat's the more important issue.
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the question I asked was "why is caching still been performed when the superfetch service is disabled" - can anyone answer this?

I did not want answers as to why it should be left on, i know why it should be left on, I just found it like that before when looking through the services list, as I said Ive read that Superfetch can reduce the life expectancy of your SSD, I cant see how this is true if its reading from the SSD to load into memory, anyway, like I say, I just found it like this and thought it was odd as to why the service was disabled but windows was still caching into RAM so wondered if anyone could explain why...as I cant
 
spoffle said:
I WILL NOT ANSWER QUESTIONS BUT I WILL DEMAND ANSWERS FOR MY OWN QUESTIONS! LORD SNADGE HAS SPOKEN.
Click to expand...

I said:

as you can see its not disabled....Im just curious as to why its running at all when Superfetch service is off, I thought this controlled it.

Ive also read that Superfetch can reduce the life expectancy of your SSD
Click to expand...

you said:

Why would you want to turn it off though? THat's the more important issue.
Click to expand...

you go on about how it should not be off anyway... ive already been told that and knew that anyway, Iam just wanting to know why its running if the service isnt?

oh and i answered your question in my post!
 
I'm joking. Superfetch isn't really something to turn off, so I would imagine that despite having the option to turn it off, it doesn't do anything.
 
snadge said:
the question I asked was "why is caching still been performed when the superfetch service is disabled" - can anyone answer this?
Click to expand...

Maybe because the cache reading in task manager is not affected by superfetch?

Caching is an integral part of Windows. Superfetch is merely the extension which enables Windows to actively monitor your usage patterns to fetch data in a more super way.
 
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Obvious answer is obvious... it isn't SuperFetch but Windows memory management that is caching data into standby. It's completely normal behaviour.

SuperFetch should be disabled automatically for SSDs.
 
snadge said:
as you can see its not disabled....im just curious as to why its running at all when Superfetch service is off, I thought this controlled it.

Ive also read that Superfetch can reduce the life expectancy of your SSD
Click to expand...
here we go lol the life expectancy of your SSD
maybe it does a little but even so mine says at my current level(which is still 100% after 2 years) mine has a life expectancy till jan 2022
I don't think I will be still using it in 8 years time
 
The 'Cached' value in task manager is the sum of what is known as the standby and modified page lists. Pages of memory on the modified page list need to be written to disk before they can be given to another process, and therefore, do not contribute to 'Available' memory. Pages on the standby page list on the other hand can immediately be given to another process because that code or data is already located on disk somewhere and can simply be read back into memory if necessary.

While the 'Cached' value is the sum of both of those lists mentioned above, the vast majority of that memory will most likely be on the standby page list. In fact, in your case, because the 'Cached' and the 'Available' value are so similar, and the fact that the 'Free' value is a mere 31MB, it's reasonable to conclude most of what has been cached is on the standby page list. This is a very good thing.

Before Windows Vista, Windows was much more reactive in terms of managing physical memory, and the standby list would generally be populated in a reactive manner. When pages are dropped from a process working set because they are not being accessed actively, those pages will be moved to the standby page list, assuming it already resides on disk somewhere. If a page is dropped from a working set and hasn't been written to disk, it will be moved to the modified page list. If the original process doesn't reference the page, it will eventually be written to disk and then subsequently moved to the standby page list. Also, when a process exits, pages containing code, such as exe's and dll's, will be placed on the standby page list.

Disabling Superfetch will have no impact on the above. Superfetch is a feature which enables the system to act in a much more intelligent way and allows data and code to be pro-actively put into memory. If there are pages of memory on the standby page list which are ejected because of some other process, Superfetch can bring most if not all of it back into memory from disk before you may even need it again. Disabling the Superfetch service will just make the system a lot less efficient.
 
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