Pagefile use when having lots of ram

[Doom Machine]

got 4 gigs of ram, Vista makes a pagefile 1.5x's the rams size?

advantage?
necessary or what size should i make it?

 

[degibson]

Pagefile demand depends on how you're using the system. A few applications will require big swap spaces... but not most. If you're not working with multiple gigabyte-size data sets, the pagefile size should be left at its default setting.

 

[postmortemIA]

page size is not same as page file usage. it won't matter either way, page file will be rarely queried because of RAM amount you got.

 

[Rubycon]

I have a system with 64GB and let the OS use an entire 15K 147GB drive for paging. It's there for a reason.

 

[ViRGE]

Leave the pagefile on auto, the OS knows what it's doing.

 

[GrumpyMan]

Time for this discussion again? Maybe a sticky with the facts on virtual memory and the page file might be nice. Or maybe just the cliff notes: just leave it alone.

 

[nerp]

Originally posted by: GrumpyMan
Time for this discussion again? Maybe a sticky with the facts on virtual memory and the page file might be nice. Or maybe just the cliff notes: just leave it alone.

Good idea. I'd love to do it but I'm too busy. And someone else here could do a better job.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: Rubycon
I have a system with 64GB and let the OS use an entire 15K 147GB drive for paging. It's there for a reason.

You really have a 192gb memory load on that system? Unless you do, this is just silly.

 

[Doom Machine]

according to page file monitor, my pagefile is never used, even with a game like Crysis running i still have plenty of ram leftover...is why i asked.
i'm sure its a common question but with more ram being installed these days, i didnt figure any app would use up all that then 4 gigs of drive space on top of that...thats rediculous

i have an SSD drive thats only 64gigs. i really dont want a 4 + gig pagefile if i dont need it.
i went ahead and set it to 400 mb's. opened all my apps and 2 games and none of it has been used yet, so i guess its fine.

 

[pcslookout]

Originally posted by: Rubycon
I have a system with 64GB and let the OS use an entire 15K 147GB drive for paging. It's there for a reason.

:Q

Wow that system must be fast what OS does it run ?

 

[nerp]

Originally posted by: Doom Machine
according to page file monitor, my pagefile is never used, even with a game like Crysis running i still have plenty of ram leftover...is why i asked.
i'm sure its a common question but with more ram being installed these days, i didnt figure any app would use up all that then 4 gigs of drive space on top of that...thats rediculous
i have an SSD drive thats only 64gigs. i really dont want a 4 + gig pagefile if i dont need it.
i went ahead and set it to 400 mb's. opened all my apps and 2 games and none of it has been used yet, so i guess its fine.

But that's not really how the pagefile works. It's not about apps "running out of memory" so much.

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: bsobel

You really have a 192gb memory load on that system? Unless you do, this is just silly.

Yes - the vendor suggests 256GB of RAM.

 

[caveman017]

On my netbook, i have it disabled with only 1.25GB of RAM (2GB stick + 768mb RAM Disk for temp files) and I havent run into any problems

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: Rubycon

Originally posted by: bsobel

You really have a 192gb memory load on that system? Unless you do, this is just silly.

Yes - the vendor suggests 256GB of RAM.

I'd love to know what you're doing with all that ram :^)

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: Rubycon

Originally posted by: bsobel

You really have a 192gb memory load on that system? Unless you do, this is just silly.

Yes - the vendor suggests 256GB of RAM.

What app are you running which is using 192gb of memory? If your actually using it and swapping that much your app would very slow and you should consider upgrading the memory on the box.

 

[pallejr]

Originally posted by: nerpBut that's not really how the pagefile works. It's not about apps "running out of memory" so much.

What do you mean?

 

[Rhonda the Sly]

The PF is used in regular operations, not just extremes when there's no physical memory left on the system. Photoshop is cited as program that crashes without a pagefile.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: Rhonda the Sly
The PF is used in regular operations, not just extremes when there's no physical memory left on the system. Photoshop is cited as program that crashes without a pagefile.

No, its rarely used but same apps may require one (older version of Photoshop for example) on XP for example. To the OP's point, he probably doesnt need a 6gig PF on a 4gig system unless his memory load is really around 12gig (in which case he should buy more memory)

 

[pcslookout]

Originally posted by: caveman017
On my netbook, i have it disabled with only 1.25GB of RAM (2GB stick + 768mb RAM Disk for temp files) and I havent run into any problems

Nice does the 768mb RAM Disk help a lot? What is it used for if you don't mind me asking?

I could easily see getting a little bit more ram then needed so you could put it on the side for ram drive use! Like 8 GB instead of 4 GB so you could have 4 GB of ram for system use and a 4 GB ram drive! That would be awesome! Think what you could do with a 4 GB ram drive!

 

[plion]

Does setting the PF to auto create fragmentation? I always thought it was better to set a static size instead of leaving it on auto.

 

[ViRGE]

Technically yes. However NTFS is fragmentation-resistant to a degree, enough so that it should never be a problem.

 

[Doom Machine]

well i found this tid bit of info from the MS website

When lots of memory is added to a computer, a paging file may not be required.

However, as the amount of RAM in a computer increases, the need for a page file decreases.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/889654/en-us#appliesto

good enough for me...thanks all

 

[Scotteq]

I'm not inclined to believe that turning *off* the Page File is necessarily a good thing. As pointed out, some applications do use it and may get cranky when it's not available.

Having said that, if/when your computer has a large amount of RAM (Scientifically Defined as: "Lots More Than May Realistically Get Used"), then I see no issues with manually turning the Page File Down to a significantly smaller size. I'm running 8GB of memory at the moment - because it's cheap, and I *can* - and turned the Page File down to 512MB.

 

[pallejr]

Originally posted by: ScotteqAs pointed out, some applications do use it and may get cranky when it's not available.

Personally, I am not happy about such statements. Because applications cannot address the paging file. Only the windows memory manager has access to it.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: pallejr

Originally posted by: ScotteqAs pointed out, some applications do use it and may get cranky when it's not available.

Personally, I am not happy about such statements. Because applications cannot address the paging file. Only the windows memory manager has access to it.

He's refering to unnamed memory mapped files which are backed by the paging system.