12GBs of ram means the pagefile size should be........

[Burner27]

12GBs of ram means the pagefile size should be........(other than the same size for min and max)


Microsoft recommends 1.5x the amount of installed ram--yeah right. Not with this much ram installed.

So what do you think it should be?

 

[JAG87]

System managed?

 

[Auric]

I don't see the relationship. Given sufficient RAM to preclude paging, the pagefile can simply be set to some minimal amount such as 500MB to satisfy queer requirements.

The arbitrary 1.5x schtick is a catch-all suggestion from decades ago when sufficient RAM was relatively rare and the user was dim enough to ask Microsoft rather than monitor their own usage needs and set accordingly. Automatic settings are not much evolved from that.

 

[EarthwormJim]

System managed?

System managed will do a rather large page file despite having a lot of RAM (rather ass backwards now). It'll do around 18gb for the OP's 12gb of RAM. Why would you need or want a constant 18gb page file. Total waste of hard drive space.

Just set the initial size to the minimum (500mb) and the maximum to maybe 2gb or something (or bigger if you want to feel safer). It won't always use 2gb, just if it really needs to (which probably won't happen).

 

[Seero]

12GBs of ram means the pagefile size should be........(other than the same size for min and max)


Microsoft recommends 1.5x the amount of installed ram--yeah right. Not with this much ram installed.

So what do you think it should be?

That comment is created back at windows 95 time where 128MB RAM is a lot. The Pagefile should be big enough to fully store everything in RAM and therefore have to be at least as big as the size of RAM, plus some drivers that ain't used often but are necessary. Back then the maximum memory address is 4Gb(32bit), which is much bigger than 128MB.

The size of pagefile depends on the type of application you are running. If you mostly run 32 bit apps, then you probably don't need a big pagefile, a fix size 128MB is good enough. Technically speaking, that 128MB will never be used. It is there in case of some older drivers that assumes there exist a pagefile and will put itself into a pagefile regardless of window's settings. If space is not an issue, you can make a small partition to hold a single pagefile. That way it won't cause fragmentation to your data drives.

Note that windows will try to use pagefile before it defragment data RAM, setting a big pagefile on a slow disk will have negative speed performance issues.

System manage means the pagefile only grows in size when needed. The problem of it is fragmentation. Avoid using it.

 

[Emulex]

so if you open a dozen 1GB avi's to edit; you will have plenty of pagefile with 500mb?

 

[Nothinman]

12GBs of ram means the pagefile size should be........

Irrelevant.

Just ignore it and let the system do it's thing unless you're worried about space on an SSD or something. Then you can make the system drive pagefile small and put one on a second drive.

 

[Voo]

The Pagefile should be big enough to fully store everything in RAM and therefore have to be at least as big as the size of RAM, plus some drivers that ain't used often but are necessary.

I don't see any coherence between size of RAM and the pagefile size, why exactly should I have to store everything I have in the RAM on the disk?

Depends solely on the used applications, if it's not on a SSD and therefore space is extremely valuable I'd set it to some small number and let Windows resize it if necessary.. will probably stay the same forever

 

[corkyg]

It depends on what you do. Since I don't edit AVIs at all, and if I had 12GB of real RAM, why would I need a page file?

 

[JAG87]

It depends on what you do. Since I don't edit AVIs at all, and if I had 12GB of real RAM, why would I need a page file?

You don't. But some software will not run or even crash without a pagefile.

 

[Nothinman]

It depends on what you do. Since I don't edit AVIs at all, and if I had 12GB of real RAM, why would I need a page file?

Because even though Windows has gotten better since the NT/Win2K days, it still pretty much requires a pagefile.

 

[corkyg]

OK - if a 1 GB Pagefile works perfectly with 2 GB of RAM, then it should also work perfectly with 12 GB of RAM.

This shows what you say - the pagefile gets a modicum of usage all the time, but is never used to its full extent in my XP system based on what I do there.

 

[Nothinman]

OK - if a 1 GB Pagefile works perfectly with 2 GB of RAM, then it should also work perfectly with 12 GB of RAM.

Maybe, you can't really make generalizations like that. I would think that a machine with 12G of memory is going to have a very different workload than that of one with 2G of memory.

Oh and the "PF Usage" in task manager isn't actually pagefile usage despite the label, it's just the commit charge. And if you look at Win7 (and probably Vista) it's been renamed to "Memory".

No matter what MS does they can't seem to get their terminology right or even consistent with regards to memory management.

 

[SunnyD]

System Managed. Period.

If you think you know better than the OS on how to manage memory, you should be writing OSes.

Say, for instance, you're running 3 different browsers, bittorrent, a multimedia client (decoding and streaming HD video), burning a DVD, playing a modern game, then all of a sudden want to load and edit a 4GB H.264 video clip - what do you think is going to happen?

Arbitrary numbers are bad when it comes to virtual memory. Let the system do its thing, and that way you'll be assured that, at least as far as memory, your system will run at as close to optimal speed without error. If you set an arbitrary amount, under the above scenario you'll probably find yourself slamming up against "Running out of virtual memory" warnings and the system will bog down as it attempts to do garbage cleanup and find more space for pages to swap out to.

 

[Nothinman]

Arbitrary numbers are bad when it comes to virtual memory.

Just being pedantic but you mean pagefile size, the amount of VM available is static and you can't change it.

 

[Voo]

If you think you know better than the OS on how to manage memory, you should be writing OSes.

Actually if you have some internal knowledge that the OS writers can't assume (or they have to keep backwards compatibility or it's just too much extra work to implement, or..), you can do better than the standard OS implementation. One famous example? TCP windowsize in XP.

And the pagefile is just as fine with a small startsize and allowed to grow, no reason to use any unrealistic standard sizes - though if you don't have the pagefile on a SSD, who'd bother about 10gb data more or less?

 

[jimhsu]

Microsoft suggests (sorry don't have time to dig up the reference):

1. Restart your computer and boot to Windows.
2. Open as many apps as you will realistically have open at once.
3. Go into Task manager under the Performance tab.
4. Note the "Peak commit charge" number ( = A).
5. Subtract the total amount of physical memory you have from A ( = B).
6. If B<0, Set B to 0.

B is the minimum pagefile size that you need.

Personally, if B=0, I would still set the pagefile to 500MB or so for application compatibility, and to allow for system BSOD dumps to complete.

---

The above advice is really only relevant in space-limited scenarios (i.e. SSD). If space is not a problem, stick it to "system managed" and stop thinking about it.

--

Here is some more info direct from Microsoft. Not the reference I was looking for, but still helpful. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/889654

 

[corkyg]

'Nuff said, jimhsu! Excellent reply.

 

[joutlaw]

Maybe, you can't really make generalizations like that. I would think that a machine with 12G of memory is going to have a very different workload than that of one with 2G of memory.

Oh and the "PF Usage" in task manager isn't actually pagefile usage despite the label, it's just the commit charge. And if you look at Win7 (and probably Vista) it's been renamed to "Memory".

No matter what MS does they can't seem to get their terminology right or even consistent with regards to memory management.

I got back from tech-ed last week with a session with Mark Russinovich. This exact topic came up. System managed will lead to 1.5x the amount of RAM. He advised there is no real answer to satisfy every need. With 12GB of RAM I'd suggest as small as possible.

Somewhat OT, Mark remoted into a machine with 1TB of RAM and it had to have over a 100 cores. He said the limit of Windows is 2TB of RAM because that is the max they have been able to test.

Also use Process Exporer instead of Task Manager. It's free, easily can replace task manager, and it much more informative. The terminology is more consisent. Autoruns is a great replacement for msconfig as well.

 

[Al Koholic]

I have 8GB of ram and what I like to do is set aside 1GB of it as a ramdrive. On this, I place a static 500MB pagefile because it allows for compatibility with some programs and if it is there, you can see it getting used in the resource monitor in windows 7, so something is using it.

I use the other 500mb for scratch space and crap files that don't need to sit around on the disk forever.

I rarely reboot.

 

[Nothinman]

I have 8GB of ram and what I like to do is set aside 1GB of it as a ramdrive. On this, I place a static 500MB pagefile because it allows for compatibility with some programs and if it is there, you can see it getting used in the resource monitor in windows 7, so something is using it.

Sigh...

 

[Voo]

Sigh...

*hands out a cookie* You know how I said nobody would do that today with 64bit OSes and so? Sorry, seems like there really are people who do stuff like that

 

[GlacierFreeze]

I don't see the relationship. Given sufficient RAM to preclude paging, the pagefile can simply be set to some minimal amount such as 500MB to satisfy queer requirements.

The arbitrary 1.5x schtick is a catch-all suggestion from decades ago when sufficient RAM was relatively rare and the user was dim enough to ask Microsoft rather than monitor their own usage needs and set accordingly. Automatic settings are not much evolved from that.

This.

With 12GB RAM, I would turn down Pagefile pretty low (1GB or less), unless you're using lots of programs that use more than 12GB RAM at a time, which is doubtful.

 

[MJinZ]

12 gb is what the system will set it to I believe.

 

[aigomorla]

im on 12GB of DDR3.

I have 0 page file because im on a SSD Raid Array.
I havent run into any problems with normal stuff and even long term gaming.

If your gonna load up graphic apps or other stuff which can require u needing more then 12GB of page file... that means ur gonna be copying and pasting big images left and right.... then i think you should set it to system managed.

Otherwise disable Page file... heres how my task mgr looks on windows 7 ultimate.