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Optimal Page File Setting


Nerwin

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The only reason for setting an "expando" page file size (i.e., where minimum and maximum are not the same) would be if you feel you really, really need the disk space and you don't want to do without the preallocated space.  Windows will thus allocate *just* enough for your maximum needs over time.  That whole idea implies disk storage has been underprovisioned to start with - that's never good.  I suggest ALWAYS overprovisioning your system disk space if you'd like to use your computer for a long time without problems.  Whatever disk you think you'll need, double it at least.

 

-Noel

Edited by NoelC
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It's been proven many times that a small minimum large maximum page file fragments the hard drive more, a static sized drive is the optimal choice as it doesn't fragment the drive.

 

Perhaps I'm missing something, but not only does fragmentation not matter with SSDs, with HDDs every file operation will cause fragmentation over a short period of time.  This is why you should have a task run once a week to defrag your HDD, much the same as you would set *nix cron jobs on a zpool to scrub the pool, run smartctl on your disks, etc.  It's common maintenance for your HDD, much the same as oil and brake changes are for your car.

 

The page file is used by Windows to hold temporary data which is swapped in and out of physical memory in order to provide a larger virtual memory set.  This may help you understand what it is and why it's needed.

 

 

The only reason for setting an "expando" page file size (i.e., where minimum and maximum are not the same) would be if you feel you really, really need the disk space and you don't want to do without the preallocated space.  Windows will thus allocate *just* enough for your maximum needs over time.  That whole idea implies disk storage has been underprovisioned to start with - that's never good.  I suggest ALWAYS overprovisioning your system disk space if you'd like to use your computer for a long time without problems.  Whatever disk you think you'll need, double it at least.

 

-Noel

 

See last sentence above.  You appear to have an factually inaccurate understanding of what virtual memory is for and why it's needed.

As far as over-provisioning goes, while you can physically set this on SSDs (it's a requirement for the health of the drive), on HDDs it's common knowledge to not fill the drive beyond 90% capacity. I'm not aware of anything that allows you to physically set over provisioning on an HDD, however I'd be interested to learn of a way if you're aware of any that exist.

 

I've always kept mine at two gigs for the past decade. Even when doing crazy stuff like running two VMware installs, SharePoint designer, a video, Web browsing and word I've never had a issue.

What issue are you implying you would or would not have? You also appear to have an factually inaccurate understanding of what virtual memory is for and why it's needed.

Edited by jmonroe0914
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Sometime ago i did none pagefile, and then after a long time ofc

my PC crashed due encoding videos

 

So now i set for minimum 200-400mb to size of my ram

 

Mostly cos high ram size its wont use it, but expend more 200mb on ssd to be sure nothing can happened

its great deal for me

Edited by aviv00
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Do you actually belive the crap you spout?

The people here, including me have well over thirty years of knowledge and practice. I started during the commodore 64 age. I have used and studied every version of windows released and some not released extensively. Telling someone they actually need sixteen gigs of page file is just pure BS.

I agree that a tiny page file can be needed on rare occasion but any more if you have enough ran to actually need a 64 bit OS you're rarely going to touch any page file at all

Edited by Kelsenellenelvian
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Do you actually belive the crap you spout?

The people here, including me have well over thirty years of knowledge and practice. I started during the commodore 64 age. I have used and studied every version of windows released and some not released extensively. Telling someone they actually need sixteen gigs of ram is just pure BS.

I agree that a tiny page file can be needed on rare occasion but any more if you have enough ran to actually need a 64 bit OS you're rarely going to touch any page file at all

Perhaps you meant to type pagefile and not RAM, as you can't seriously believe someone wouldn't need more than 16GB, or have a use for more than 16GB.

Simply because someone is knowledgeable in their field of study does not mean they know everything, or do not have inaccurate understandings of different things. To believe otherwise is to be a fool.

Edited by jmonroe0914
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Letting windows waste upto sixteen gigs is bs. We've seen many times windows fill a page file and keep it full because it had always had issues cleaning it. That's a waste of space and resource.

Have you come across this issue on Windows 10? You still appear to have a massive misunderstanding as to what the pagefile is and why it's needed. I really would encourage you to read the technet blog I linked to.
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Letting windows waste upto sixteen gigs is bs. We've seen many times windows fill a page file and keep it full because it had always had issues cleaning it. That's a waste of space and resource.

Have you come across this issue on Windows 10? You still appear to have a massive misunderstanding as to what the pagefile is and why it's needed. I really would encourage you to read the technet blog I linked to.
How about you find and read the in depth studies and practical tests several of us did here a decade ago regarding page files and the actual uses of then by the system? A page file (no matter how the system uses it) is hardly needed at all anymore with the amounts of ram a system comes with now a days.

You have read allot but have you actually had any real practice? There have been systems run by senior members of this forum without page files for years. Get that? YEARS the page file is for the most part out dated and not needed.

In essence a page file is only needed if the ram fills up. Some programs still use it to lessen the burden on the system but that's all

Edited by Kelsenellenelvian
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Letting windows waste upto sixteen gigs is bs. We've seen many times windows fill a page file and keep it full because it had always had issues cleaning it. That's a waste of space and resource.

Have you come across this issue on Windows 10? You still appear to have a massive misunderstanding as to what the pagefile is and why it's needed. I really would encourage you to read the technet blog I linked to.

While I study ten I refuse to use it. I won't give up my pc freedom and let MS rape my pc whenever they want. Plus I like a pc where I can actually work not just pretend to do serious computing

Edited by Kelsenellenelvian
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Do you actually belive the crap you spout?

The people here, including me have well over thirty years of knowledge and practice. I started during the commodore 64 age. I have used and studied every version of windows released and some not released extensively. Telling someone they actually need sixteen gigs of page file is just pure BS.

I agree that a tiny page file can be needed on rare occasion but any more if you have enough ran to actually need a 64 bit OS you're rarely going to touch any page file at all

 

 

did u mean me ?

 

if u set the pagefile to min and max its wont expand to full size till it used it all

 

in server that might happened

for client user, the most high i saw ~100mb used

Edited by aviv00
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Do you actually belive the crap you spout?

The people here, including me have well over thirty years of knowledge and practice. I started during the commodore 64 age. I have used and studied every version of windows released and some not released extensively. Telling someone they actually need sixteen gigs of page file is just pure BS.

I agree that a tiny page file can be needed on rare occasion but any more if you have enough ran to actually need a 64 bit OS you're rarely going to touch any page file at all

did u mean me ?

if u set the pagefile to min and max its wont expand to full size till it used it all

in server that might happened

for client user, the most high i saw ~100mb used

not you. That other guy I have seen bigger page files fill and never empty too. Edited by Kelsenellenelvian
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The page file is used by Windows to hold temporary data which is swapped in and out of physical memory in order to provide a larger virtual memory set.  This may help you understand what it is and why it's needed.

 

Out of curiosity, did you actually read the page you linked to?  :unsure:

 

A few snippets from it (colouring/bolding/underlining by me):

 

However, now consider a system managed page file on a 64-bit server with 32GB of RAM. The page file size would range from 32GB to 96GB! This is why understanding the performance of your server is so important. Although there are general recommendations about page file sizing that are based on the amount of physical RAM in a system, this is not 100% valid. If you think about it, the more memory you have, the less likely you are to need to page data out.

The page file needs of an individual system will vary based on the role of the server, load etc. There are some performance counters that you can use to monitor private committed memory usage on a systemwide or per-page-file basis. There is no way to determine how much of a process' private committed memory is resident and how much is paged out to paging files.

 

If the page file on the system is too large, the system does not use it any more or less. In other words, increasing the size of the page file unnecessarily does not change the system performance - it just means that the system has more nonshareable committed virtual memory. If the page file is too small on the other hand, you may see error messages such as the "system is running low on virtual memory". 

 

 

So finally, a quick word on system-managed versus statically defined page files. Some administrators will allow the system to manage the page file sizes. However, while this ensures that you are unlikely to encounter page file related resource depletion, it can lead to severe disk and page file fragmentation as the page file continuously shrinks and expands to keep up with the needs of the system. If you are in a situation where there is severe disk fragmentation and you have a dynamic page file, I would strongly recommend reconfiguring the server with a static page file.

 

 

Maybe this only applies to servers (that allegedly run different operating systems on different hardware)

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/174676-difference-between-home-and-core/?p=1113018

:whistle:

 

jaclaz

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