Best swap file size with huge ram

[dougjnn]

I've got 640mb of ram in a T-Bird 1200@1350 system. Also 90gb of hard drive space - so it's not tight there. Dual boot W98se and W2k.

I understand that under W2k anyway, performance is helped by setting a fixed size swap file. I've set up a seperate partition, second on my drive, to be nothing but swap file space under both W98se and W2k.

Right now it's 1200mb. I'm wondering if that is excessive. I saw somewhere a recommendation of 2x ram, but I wonder if that's really applicable when the ram gets huge.

I have Partition Magic, so I could easily resize.

The main issue for me isn't recovering some disk space (although why totally waste), its not bogging performance with too large a fixed swap file, if that can happen.

Any hard knowledge?

Any informed guesses?

 

[sohcrates]

i give my win2k install approx. 2 gigs of swap space spread over multiple drives..i'm pretty sure 1200 is a good start...but i would suggest going higher

 

[SonOfZeuz]

Man, with that much ram i doubt you would even need a swap file LOL
anyway set a min size of 100-160 with a high (or no max)

Swap-File myth #1: Create a permanent Swap-File 2 1/2 or 3 times the amount of physical memory.

Fact: Virtual memory (Swap-File) is a substitute for physical memory. Common sense tells you the more physical memory you have, the less virtual memory you need. Conversely (all other things being equal) the less physical memory you have the more virtual memory you will need. There is no reasonable "rule of thumb" formula for setting the size of a permanent Swap-File.

Swap-File myth #2: Set the 'min' and 'max' size the same for the Swap-File. This one can cause you grief, it is bad advice!!!

Some seem to think of the Swap-File like an insect trap, if you don't have a lid on it, all of those Ks and Ms of bytes and bits will fly out all over the HD. Not so!!! It may help to think of your Swap-File as a water glass sitting on the table (The level within this container will rise and fall as demands change and it is emptied whenever you shut windows off), the only time it will overflow is if you try to put more into it than it can hold, (your 'min' size setting) and that is the reason you 'never' want to place a 'max' size for your Swap-File, you want it to overflow if it needs to. (This is an analogy, it will not overflow, the Swap-File will increase in size if need be, possibly using non contiguous HD space until it shrinks to your 'Min' size setting again.)