SQL: statistics only database & partitions

Will a statistics only database help me determine per开发者_如何学编程formance of queries when dealing with partitions and indexes?

It takes forever to create partitions on database full of data so I created a stats only version. Am I wasting my time?

---

No, they really only help with execution plans. You wont be able to get actual logical/physical reads, just how the execution plan is going to work with indexes and your tables, statistics, etc.