Services/SuperFetch & Gaming Performance Issues in Vista?

[RainofTerra]

Hey,
I have a Core 2 Duo E6750 with 2GB RAM, a 8800GT and a Seagate 320gb 7200.10 SATA hard drive running Vista with all Windows Update installed and the latest NVidia Drivers.

Around the same time every night (Just after Midnight) I'm noticing my frame rate in World of Warcraft drop significantly, from 60fps to 30 with spikes down to 15 or absolute pauses. I noticed my hard drive getting accessed heavily at the same time so when I looked in Process Monitor (SysInternals) I saw PID 1060 accessing many. many files. This PID includes the following services:

Windows Audio Endpoint Builder
ReadyBoost
HID Access
Network Connections
Program compatibility Assistant Service
SuperFetch
Table PC Input Service
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Desktop Window Manager Session Manager
Diagnostic System Host
Portable Device Enumerator Service
Windows Driver Foundation User Mod Driver Framework

At first glance I'm leaning towards SuperFetch, especially since the last files accessed by the process before it stopped access the drive so consistently were PNF files. Is this some sort of scheduled thing SuperFetch does and if so, can I reschedule it or set an exclude Window?

 

[Finn]

Hey,
I have a Core 2 Duo E6750 with 2GB RAM, a 8800GT and a Seagate 320gb 7200.10 SATA hard drive running Vista with all Windows Update installed and the latest NVidia Drivers.

Around the same time every night (Just after Midnight) I'm noticing my frame rate in World of Warcraft drop significantly, from 60fps to 30 with spikes down to 15 or absolute pauses. I noticed my hard drive getting accessed heavily at the same time so when I looked in Process Monitor (SysInternals) I saw PID 1060 accessing many. many files. This PID includes the following services:

Windows Audio Endpoint Builder
ReadyBoost
HID Access
Network Connections
Program compatibility Assistant Service
SuperFetch
Table PC Input Service
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Desktop Window Manager Session Manager
Diagnostic System Host
Portable Device Enumerator Service
Windows Driver Foundation User Mod Driver Framework

At first glance I'm leaning towards SuperFetch, especially since the last files accessed by the process before it stopped access the drive so consistently were PNF files. Is this some sort of scheduled thing SuperFetch does and if so, can I reschedule it or set an exclude Window?

Superfetch is a useless gimmick that's best turned off. I turned it and several other 'improvements' such as Aero off from my Vista box and it runs much better now. Game load times were not negatively affected at all and the HD won't trash for several minutes after bootup anymore.

I could not see any real benefit from superfetch since I rarely use same applications continuously so SF never had the chance to cache everything I need anyway. Everything runs much smoother now with it disabled, no more mid-game freezing and hd loading etc. Well, those other services and visuals I disabled might also benefit.

I run the vista in a [email protected] 2gig HD2900 box for trials and trying to familiariaze the os (oh the pain). After I get sufficiently adapted to it I will remove it. Don't like it.

 

[Lucio]

Well, Superfetch should calm down in the next week or so (depending on how much data you have crammed onto your HDD).

 

[Finn]

Well, Superfetch should calm down in the next week or so (depending on how much data you have crammed onto your HDD).

It will never calm down if the user uses his computer. It will always be an unnecessary process in the background, hindering normal computer use.

Of course he could (and should) disable it to get rid of the problem just as should be done with all indexing services and the sorts. They're utter stupidities which eat your resources 7 days a week in order to make 1 search once a week approximately a second or two faster.