setting my page file

[ripken204]

i was wondering about paging files and couldnt find much on google about setting it to something besides 1.5 or 150% of ur physical ram. i have 768mb of ram and was wondering what i should set it to and will it even make a performance difference?

the paging file is on the same drive as my windows install

[dirtwarrior]

First turn off paging files then defrag HD. Set minimum and max to the same size with this much ram bout 500 would be OK. If you get out of memory error set it higher. Just put min and max the same.

I have 1024 meg physical memory and convert avi to dvd and some gaming, I turned off paging files and never got out of memory error or any adverse effects.

[ripken204]

is that just what the error would say? i used to get "page file low" or something like that with 256mb of ram

[dirtwarrior]

with 256 I would set page file a little higher or get more ram. 256 is a little low for most needs.

[ripken204]

256 is what i had before, but a 512 in and now have 736

and i just defragged with no page file and now am setting to 500

[dirtwarrior]

you should be ok for most needs just set min and max the same to prevent frag of data

[Buccaneer]

dirtwarrior  Posted Today, 05:06 AM

...I have 1024 meg physical memory and convert avi to dvd and some gaming, I turned off paging files and never got out of memory error or any adverse effects.

Same for me.

[ripken204]

so does any1 else suggest 500 or something else? i have it set to 500 right now and ill see how it runs

[ssmokee]

so does any1 else suggest 500 or something else? i have it set to 500 right now and ill see how it runs

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was using 768MB system RAM w/ 256MB page file not too long ago. Doom3 forced me to raise it, so I increased the swap file to 512MB and it worked fine after that.

[Zxian]

I'm constantly multitasking (VMWare, Outlook, Opera, etc etc etc). I've got 1GB of RAM and with no pagefile, Windows complains (it's the VMWare...). Dirtwarrior - you must not be running any sort of virtual machine...

So I've got 1024MB min/max pagefile, and I haven't run into any problems yet. Unless you're strapped for hard drive space, I'd set it to about 1 GB.

If you're going to be doing any sort of gaming you must have a pagefile. Some modern games (and even older ones) will complain at you if you don't, even if you've got 2GB of RAM

[Martin Zugec]

Oh my, pagefile again Ignore recommendations like 1,5 times more etc... Just leave it on system to determine the best value. If you really want to do something with swap, just move it to another partition...

[LiquidSage]

yes, i agree. Set it to system or set it to the min for c and system managed on a seperate hard disk if you have one. XP always needs a page file regardless of the amount of ram to run everything correctly and this is one setting that windows in genreral knowx what is best for it. If you are trying to get a faster response from programs and you have a seperate harddisk, try moving your profile's temp path and also adjust any program that uses temp space (photoshop, nero, etc) to that seperate HD.

[Zxian]

Oh my, pagefile again Ignore recommendations like 1,5 times more etc... Just leave it on system to determine the best value. If you really want to do something with swap, just move it to another partition...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm going to call upon your knowledge of the subject here, since all I've heard are shady explanations of this so far.

Wouldn't it be better to "pre-allocate" the pagefile to the maximum size you'd need it at? That way it's there if the system needs it, and it just writes the memory to disk. If you set it to system managed and your system needs more pagefile, doesn't that mean that it will take time for the system to allocate hard drive space for it? Not to mention the problem of pagefile fragmentation - I'm not sure if it plays as big of a role as some people make it out to be, but it's another question mark for me.

I think you meant to say that the swap/pagefile should be put on a separate hard drive, not partition. If you put it on a separate partition, chances are the hard drive read/write head will have to move back and forth between system files on your system drive, and the other partition where the pagefile lies. So it's either on system drive or other hard drive... or ideally, both (if they're on separate IDE channels).

[Technoguy]

@zxian i agree with martin cause if u r usin Xp the virtual memory shud not be arnd 1.5 to 2 times larger than RAM.its reqd.. for 98/ME/NT.well i think u can defrag ur pagefile and keep it on different drives of the same hdd.will like 2 get some info about this though

[svasutin]

If you don't get prompted about low vm, just keep it disabled. When you see the prompt, just enable a page file, and when the program is done, disable and reboot. On my notebook, I don't use a page file and hibernate as these just use my battery.

When moving the page file, you need to move it to a physically different hdd, not just a different partition; I think Msft actually has a benchmark on this fact. Moreover, XP worked faster when there were pagefiles on both physical drives (again, not partitions on the same drive). I'm pretty sure they didn't test the case for no pf. Finally, not neccessarily from Msft, I think the max pf recommended was 1.5 GB (1536 MB) for XP home and pro.

Yes, you should either set the min/max to the same size or System Managed.

If you use System Managed, then the pf should shrink after reboots.

If you use different min/max sizes, then Win keeps the largest size used (up to your max). In Start | Run, gpedit.msc, OK, Comp Config\Win settings\local pol\sec opts you can change the shutdown option to delete the pf. This way, next time win boots your pf will be small. However, this will increase start up/shutdown times.

Your pf should be where %systemdrive% evaluates to for best performance.

Aside from processing 300 GB of raw video, I've found issues with certain print drivers and the office image writer (but this hasn't happend in office for sometime now).

Win98 That can't handle more than 128 MB.

Anytime you can move programs to different physcial drives you always do better. Partitioning just makes life eaiser for humans, not faster for computers.