1 Gig Disabling the Virtual Memory ?

[Mir96TA]

I have WinXp Pro.
I have 1 Gig Memory
Should I disable it for better performance ?

 

[reapsy]

no cos some programs expect virtual memory to be there

 

[reapsy]

no cos some programs expect virtual memory to be there

 

[Stunt]

is there any performance gain by disabling some of the virtual memory?
i have 756mb of memory and winxp automatically set my page file to ~1.5gb
does it need to be that big?

 

[jonesthewine]

You can set VM to any amount you like by going to System Properties, clicking advanced, clicking Performance Options, clicking advanced, finding virtual memory and changing it.

 

[Accord99]

Originally posted by: Stunt
is there any performance gain by disabling some of the virtual memory?
i have 756mb of memory and winxp automatically set my page file to ~1.5gb
does it need to be that big?

Most likely not. It depends on how you use your computer, the type and number of applications you run. Use Task Manager to give a rough estimate of the amount of memory you use. If your usage patterns don't come close to 768MB, then probably a minimum page file of 256MB-768MB would be adequate. Just set the maximum size of the page file to something large, so that if you were ever to use a program that requires a extremely large amount of memory, Windows will be to run it, instead of crashing out.

Also, a large page file does not mean that Windows will be slower or use more of the page file.

 

[mmnatas]

If you know you don't need much of a paging file, just set it really small (128-256 megs). Make the upper and lower limits equal to further help performance so Windows doesn't have to resize it. The likelihood of a program actually crashing due to low memory is pretty low, since Windows is smart enough to upsize the upper memory limit if you're running out.

 

[stephbu]

Having some paging file is a must-have regardless of amount of RAM - you'll gain performance by paging out infrequently accessed memory pages, they are usually handing back to the cache manager - it'll make far better use of the pages to improve system responsiveness.

Good rule of thumb for most home users with 700Mb+ is have a paging file at least as large as the typical commit-charge of your installation. (start all the apps that you'd typically simultaneously use then look in Task Manager performance page)

It at least gives the VMM a chance to better optimize performance.

For mine this gives around 450Mb of Paging File. Set upper and lower bounds to be the same - means it won't grow but it will warn you if you approach that ceiling. I've never hit that limit though with 1Gb of RAM and 512Mb Page File.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

You can create a RAM disk, put the page file on it, and in essence not be running virtual memory even though it will look like you are to the OS and any programs.

 

[stephbu]

Thing about RAM Disk is that apps cannot directly reclaim that space when they need the memory - worse by putting the swap disk on there just adds several extra layers of code to call just to swap in the page that is already 'in-memory' (page fault followed by page load via disk emulator etc.) Code which would have been avoided if the memory was in the global pool in the 1st place.

Most RAM disk utilities died a death w/ the adoption of the NT Kernel - it brought APIs to map/buffer file blocks as paged memory - and the cache manager does a great job of balancing process performance against file caching needs.