Windows 10: SuperFetch & Standby Memory Not Working Properly?

So there's a task called Superfetch in Windows that's supposedly should improve performance because it preloads applications in RAM. I read an article that games installed on a PC with 4GB or less memory may suffer from this due to its excessive load in/out behavior. My issue seems to stem from this service causing stuttering and overall bad performance in games, however I have 16GB of RAM... I can confirm this by either disabling the service or emptying my standby memory to free using empty standby list command. It looks like the task of fetching data from standby memory is more demanding than it should be for some reason. This can take a while depending on the game and how much free RAM I have, but usually the performance is good until Windows starts this bull.

I found the culprit in Windows 10, or more specifically the Creators Update - as Windows 7 and regular 10 didn't show the same symptom, even with SuperFetch running. I tried to reinstall the OS, do a complete rundown of clean drivers etc and the issue was still there. So, is this service broken in the Creators Update or what? I don't get it. Oh, and I have also tried diferent memory sticks, aswell as both dual and quad channels. More RAM will only postpone the issue.

:)

 

Superfetch

My Windows 10 PC began running very slow. In task manager I find that Superfetch is using a great deal of my memory. Is Superfetch necessary?

 

Superfetch For Gamers

TLR Microsoft stop making secretary OS's and make Gaming OS's. Start with tweaking Superfetch to be more gamer friendly.

Superfetch is an odd program. It both does what it is suppose to do and is a big fat inconvenience to those on a slower low end computer. While it is doing it's thing it is a big memory hog. If I play a game like, let's pick popular Overwatch, at 7pm
every day then superfetch gets it nice and ready to launch at that time for me. But what if I get a day off and play at 7am instead? Why can't I tell Superfetch just keep Overwatch ready all times and don't try to figure out what time I'm going to use it.

Can't Microsoft offer gamers a gamers' version of Superfetch? So it wont be zipping up my unused apps at the same time I want to play my massive memory hogging game? So it will not be repeatedly unzipping my most used game? I mean, why can't I tell superfetch
to leave all Windows apps zipped up even if I use them. Cause I don't care if Outlook or Alarms&Clock or Weather opens up fast. But I care if Overwatch loads up fast! Why can't I tell Superfetch to keep Paint.net and Overwatch at the ready at all time?

And could MS give Superfetch an auto abort command when I load a massive memory using game? So it will not be running at the same time I am trying to play a memory hog of a game?

Do Microsoft Devs even play hard core games and understand what we want our PC's to do? Like, NOT LAG DURING GAME PLAY because superfetch is farting around with some win app in the background we so do not care about.

 

I only use SSDs. All of them are SATA though and not NVMe.

 

I tried it both ways using SF and Not and I do not see any difference. I use a Samsung 850 Pro 256 GB SSD.

 

The standby memory needs to be full first, that's when SuperFetch struggles for me. Dunno why*Sleepy

 

I have to do some tests too, but it seems Superfetch works properly for me. If you have SSDs you can try disabling Superfetch. You will probably don't lose that much.

 

Seems that these threads are related to what I have:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/t...eators-update/
Windows 10 Creator Update leads to frame rate stuttering and slow - Microsoft Community

All came out post Creators Update (coincident?). And one thread have over 600.000 views and almost 200 comments *Shock And Microsoft did actually confirm an issue with stuttering on the Creators Update Windows 10: Microsoft promises to fix an ongoing game-stuttering problem | PCWorld and mentioned that a few fixes was on the way for the Fall CU, but that didn't work for me apparently since I'm already on that update. They also forgot to mention what these "fixes" did. I'm surprised that SuperFetch and the standby memory hasn't been mentioned more as I suspect this is the reason why users are having these performance problems to begin with. I'm no PC engineer so I don't really know for certain though. It's not unplayable, and some games doesn't show the symptom at all, but it's noticable enough for me, which may also be another factor why this isn't more widespread?

 

You don't really need superfetch if you are using an SSD.

 

A moot point. The service is on by default and is only recommended to be disabled for troubleshooting. The point is that it should work just fine when it's enabled on my system, so I would like to know why it doesn't. Clearly something is not right with how data is being fetched from memory. Again, only on the creators update do I see this. I may try the latest insider builds, or wait for more updates I guess, unless someone have any ideas?

 

Partially WRONG. I have noticed slowdowns even on SSD if Superfetch is disabled. And don't talk about disabling Superfetch for mechanical hard disks. I did a test yesterday (HD) and I noticed a huge performance decrease. I was monitoring memory using Resource Monitor and, after a while, the memory map was quite similar between both setups (Superfetch ON and OFF).

Also, Superfetch doesn't damage SSDs as many people wants you to believe. So, unless is working bad for you, I strongly advice leaving it ON all the time.

For OP: Do you have W10 up to date? Could it be some driver having issues? Chipset drivers up to date?

 

Well I did a clean install of it, and I recently went to the board manfuacturer and grabbed all available drivers for it (same for BIOS). If it is a driver causing this odd thing where do I even start? Some drivers are dated from 2016, but I can't exactly go and find the latest and greatest for every single one of them because some are not even compatible, like the latest Intel IDE/ATA/ATAPi drivers are not compatible for my x99 board. Also, doesn't chipset drivers only add an entry? Does it really need to be constantly updated? Those I have are also from 2016, same as Intel ME.

I dunno, I doubt a driver is causing this to be honest. What driver is interfering with SuperFetch anyway? And shouldn't Windows find it and update it for me if it actually caused problems specifically for the creators update? I'm thinking of trying out the insider builds, but I'm hesitant. Might aswell wait for the official release of the next update, whenever that happens, April, May maybe? I mean as I wrote before, it's not unplayable, and some games doesn't have this issue. Mostly games that requires high memory streaming are having this issue because it struggles to fetch data optimally from standby. Once it's free it's smooth sailing.

 

Just a small update on this. It is a Windows bug. I called Microsoft and got hold to a higher tier engineer working for tech support and he told me it's indeed an issue with how the os retrieves data on certain hardware configurations from standby memory. At least they acknowledge it, but he couldn't say anything about a fix or how long I need to wait for a new update... He only mentioned that I can use the feedback app and give sys info. Yup... I need to wait until April - May then for a new feature update in hopes that it resolves itself. If it doesn't then I need to live with turning off SuperFetch and clear my standby memory once in a while, or revert my os.