Everybody knows Vista demands more of hardware than previous versions of Windows. (It's been the case with each Windows update). Computer memory has gotten cheaper and more accessible, and that's often a key ingredient for smoothly running a new operating system. For more about Vista's hardware requirements, see our tests from PCWorld Labs.
However, Microsoft has implemented in Vista several memory enhancement options. Besides providing means to manage memory more effectively for optimum performance, the operating system can draw on other hardware resources--notably external and portable storage, to speed up operations. That's the crux of the hardware helpers ReadyBoost, ReadyDrive, and SuperFetch.
This built-in performance analyzer is found in the Control Panel under Performance Information and Tools. Your Windows Experience Index is the lowest of five scores assigned to your system's CPU, memory, basic graphics capability, 3D graphics power, and hard disk speed.
Microsoft hopes that the Windows Experience Index will replace the lengthier enumeration of system requirements found on software boxes. Instead of reading that a game requires at least 1GB of RAM, a Pixel Shader 2.0 graphics board, and a 2-GHz CPU, for example, you'd see that a game requires a WEI score of, say, 3.2 or better.
Instead of shelling out for extra RAM, you may be able to give your Vista machine a bit of a boost by using a USB thumb drive. A Windows feature called ReadyBoost lets your PC use free memory on a USB flash drive to augment RAM. You'll need, at a minimum, a drive that has 256MB of free space and can read data at 2.5 megabits per second and write data at 1.5 mbps; to qualify for a Windows Vista logo, the drive must have 500MB of space and read/write speeds of 5 mbps/3 mbps.
You'll soon start to see flash memory boosting speed in other ways, too, thanks to the ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive technologies built into Vista.
SuperFetch, a new memory manager for Windows, uses available memory to proactively cache data that you're likely to need. Eventually, it learns which applications and data you (and any other users who log in to your machine) habitually use and when you use them, and it does so on a per-user basis. ReadyBoost makes more memory available to SuperFetch by creating new memory pages on USB flash drives and using the flash memory in hybrid hard disks.
ReadyDrive uses the Non-Volatile RAM cache on a hybrid drive to store critical data during state transitions such as when booting your PC or resuming from standby. Before shutting down, Vista transfers the critical data your PC will use for booting or resuming into that NVRAM cache. As a result, the PC doesn't have to wait for a hard disk to spin up before it can start loading data.
Samsung and Seagate have developed hybrid hard drives containing up to 256MB of built-in flash memory. You'll be seeing more of those hybrids from notebook vendors, who are shipping their newest models with Vista preloaded.
Edited by Peggy Watt, PC World
