I had never used this before. I read a thread about this yesterday and then added the line to my system.ini. I've always specified my own virtual memory settings with minimum and maximum of 256MB. My question is, how is this different than disabling virtual memory? I've disabled virtual memory before and my system ran like crap. Now i'm watching my system monitor and i have no swap file in use at all, but the system runs fine. What bothers me is i still have a 256MB WIN386.SWP and i can't delete it. Should i reduce the swap file size to say 10mb or even 0?
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 question
- Thread starter soulm4tter
- Start date
Conservate Swap file usage simply means that your all of your RAM will be used before Windows goes into the swap file, even with this on, I still keep a set swap file, as you never know when you may need it, as a game may run past or doing video editing etc, I'd say to still keep a set swap file, with both min/max at the same number. (I don't see any harm in it, and I haven't seen it affect performance anyway)
--Mark
--Mark
Set "Allow Windows to manage virtual memory". With the CSFU=1 line added, your 256MB Win386.swp file should vanish upon reboot.
MereMortal
Golden Member
- Oct 16, 2000
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In my experience, setting CSFU=1 does not utilize all physical memory before using swap space. This setting does set the baseline swapfile
to 0 MB, but even with 256 MB RAM I still get a swap file when I play games. The swap file returns to 0 MB when the application is stopped, of course. The benefit I can see is that it frees up some hard drive space. I don't know what to say about the other claimed benefits. I just started up UT as a test, and I get a 32 MB swap file, with 38 MB of free physical memory. This is opposed to a 148 MB swap file with 17 MB free physical memory with CSFU=0. Ugh.
to 0 MB, but even with 256 MB RAM I still get a swap file when I play games. The swap file returns to 0 MB when the application is stopped, of course. The benefit I can see is that it frees up some hard drive space. I don't know what to say about the other claimed benefits. I just started up UT as a test, and I get a 32 MB swap file, with 38 MB of free physical memory. This is opposed to a 148 MB swap file with 17 MB free physical memory with CSFU=0. Ugh.
<<Conservate Swap file usage simply means that your all of your RAM will be used before Windows goes into the swap file>>
This is a false statement I wish people on this forum would stop spreading...
It does however utilize your physical memory much better "WHEN" you have gobs of it. Without gobs of memory however, it actually suffers performance wise.
There is a Very poorly written description of CSFU=1 on MS Technet which is hard to comprehend for most of us, but saying <<Conservate Swap file usage simply means that your all of your RAM will be used before Windows goes into the swap file>> is not an accurate definition of the switch.
I would encourage people to explain it more like:
"On 98 and Me machines, using the switch ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 in system.ini [386enh] with systems with at least 256MB ram will increase performance significantly. Swapfile usage is greatly reduced and physical memory usage in greatly increased."
This is a false statement I wish people on this forum would stop spreading...
It does however utilize your physical memory much better "WHEN" you have gobs of it. Without gobs of memory however, it actually suffers performance wise.
There is a Very poorly written description of CSFU=1 on MS Technet which is hard to comprehend for most of us, but saying <<Conservate Swap file usage simply means that your all of your RAM will be used before Windows goes into the swap file>> is not an accurate definition of the switch.
I would encourage people to explain it more like:
"On 98 and Me machines, using the switch ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 in system.ini [386enh] with systems with at least 256MB ram will increase performance significantly. Swapfile usage is greatly reduced and physical memory usage in greatly increased."
<< "On 98 and Me machines, using the switch ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 in system.ini [386enh] with systems with at least 256MB ram will increase performance significantly. Swapfile usage is greatly reduced and physical memory usage in greatly increased." >>
Agreed with that description. When I had 256 I never had a swapfile with ANY app or game running. Makes a nice difference and can with as little as 128 of ram depending on what programs are being run.
Also, AFAIR, the reason NOT to set "Allow Windows to manage virtual memory",
was because with a dynamic swap file windows adds a thread to periodically
check if the swap file needs to be resized, even when it is not in use.
Setting at least a minimum swap size cuts down on that CPU overhead.
Although, if you have a fast enough CPU, that overhead might not be noticed.
was because with a dynamic swap file windows adds a thread to periodically
check if the swap file needs to be resized, even when it is not in use.
Setting at least a minimum swap size cuts down on that CPU overhead.
Although, if you have a fast enough CPU, that overhead might not be noticed.
So what should be the minimum and maximum values of the fixed swap file if you use CSFU=1@256MB RAM? Or d'you just let windows manage the swap file?
- Oct 25, 1999
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What make sense is if you have 128MB or more.
1. Assign the CSFU to =1 let windows manage the swap file for few days, and periodically check the size of the swap file.
2. Disable the swap file. Defrag the HD and, re enable Swap file of min. and max same size with a value that is twice of the largest swap file that you find in step 1. If the value is zero I will put 128MB fixed swap. This step insures that the swap file is in one contiguous chunk of the hard drive.
Disadvantage of this setting, you loose some HD space (in era of $100 for 20GB HD it hard even to call 0.5% a lose).
Advantage you don?t loose time and resources on any of the activities that windows has to perform on checking and managing the Swap file system
1. Assign the CSFU to =1 let windows manage the swap file for few days, and periodically check the size of the swap file.
2. Disable the swap file. Defrag the HD and, re enable Swap file of min. and max same size with a value that is twice of the largest swap file that you find in step 1. If the value is zero I will put 128MB fixed swap. This step insures that the swap file is in one contiguous chunk of the hard drive.
Disadvantage of this setting, you loose some HD space (in era of $100 for 20GB HD it hard even to call 0.5% a lose).
Advantage you don?t loose time and resources on any of the activities that windows has to perform on checking and managing the Swap file system
The article I read on TechNet explained why it doesn't matter (for improved performance) if the swapfile is continuous or fragmented. It only reads it in 4k chuncks at a time, so fragmented or continuous, it doesn't matter.
With only 128 megs ram, you'll not benifit "much" from CSFU=1.
With only 128 megs ram, you'll not benifit "much" from CSFU=1.
- Oct 25, 1999
- 29,510
- 406
- 126
It is all a matter of what system you have, what programs you mainly use, and a lot of experimenting.
General info about this Staff:
http://www.aumha.org/a/memmgmt.htm#conserve
General info about this Staff:
http://www.aumha.org/a/memmgmt.htm#conserve
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