Do you have the Page file (Virtual Memory) on or off?

[thewhat]

Unless you disclose a list of what you do with your computer the above is a "misleading" post.

I'm just stating my experience. I use a lot of different programs, too many to mention (mostly media related, audio/video encoding..), and they all work fine.
YMMV, of course, and maybe I should have made that clear.

It would make more sense to list programs that do require a pagefile, since I believe those are a very small minority.


Actually, now that I think about it, there was an old game (Titan Quest) that complained about the lack of a pagefile, but simply changing a setting made it work without it.

 

[bruceb]

Yes, it is on and set to 2000MB (Windows XP SP3 Pentium P4 at 1.8Ghz, main ram is 512MB)

 

[Fardringle]

I almost never "need" the page file since I have plenty of RAM, but Windows still uses it for some things, which tells me that it's a good idea to leave it enabled.

 

[hhhd1]

On, Fixed 400

Just enough for a memory dump.

 

[Nothinman]

but the thing that I always question is that I only use 3 GB of my RAM according to the Task Manager / Performance tab

so I am NEVER going to even reach my memory limit...

I have like 13 GB free RAM

If you're never putting real memory pressure on your system what's the point of disabling the pagefile?

 

[Berryracer]

If you're never putting real memory pressure on your system what's the point of disabling the pagefile?

Just to ensure that Windows doesn't put anything on the pagefile?

or is it that Windows will never put anything on the pagefile unless the RAM is full?

 

[Zxian]

I have like 13 GB free RAM

No you don't. On the Resources tab of Task Manager, click on "Resource Monitor." On the Memory tab, you'll see a nice bar graph that will show your system using much more of that memory. You can hover your mouse over each section to see what they represent.

or is it that Windows will never put anything on the pagefile unless the RAM is full?

Windows will never unnecessarily write active pages to the pagefile.

The real question is this. How do you know that 1024 MB is "enough"? People throw out these arbitrary numbers without having done any real research. Like I said before, you have to test this using the method in Mark Russinovich's blog post.

"I need some sort of pagefile, but I don't want to bother figuring out how big it should be, and I clearly know what settings are better than Microsoft's engineers do."

 

[lord_emperor]

I let Windows manage it.

I haven't done any kind of thorough testing like in the referenced article, but in the past I never noticed a difference on/off auto/fixed.

The article just reinforced that, differences <1% which would never be subjectively noticed and disabling the page file caused an issue with CS5. While he resolved this issue easily I bet the time he spent resolving it exceeds the marginal difference in performance.

 

[Sheep221]

I don't really understand how memory management in Windows work, but here's relatively understandable article I dug out of my bookmarks:
http://www.tweakhound.com/2011/10/10/the-windows-7-pagefile-and-running-without-one/

But the bottom line is: there's NO REASON WHATSOEVER to disable it. Neither because of disk space nor because of performance.

This is not true, for example I have 60GB SSD, but have 16GB of RAM, the pagefile alone, stole 20GB of my space on SSD, I disabled it as I don't go much beyond 4 GB of RAM and never had problem since. And it also decreases performance a bit as the page-file is from time to time used to store large data regardless how much RAM you have.

 

[Berryracer]

No you don't. On the Resources tab of Task Manager, click on "Resource Monitor." On the Memory tab, you'll see a nice bar graph that will show your system using much more of that memory. You can hover your mouse over each section to see what they represent.

Ok I see what you are saying, what does Standby RAM mean? does that mean these are the apps that Windows cached using Super Fetch?

It's good to see that Windows IS making use of my RAM I thought I am only using 3 GB and the rest goes to waste which is why I've always disabled the pagefile thinking I will never even touch the limit of using my RAM

 

[taq8ojh]

This is not true, for example I have 60GB SSD, but have 16GB of RAM, the pagefile alone, stole 20GB of my space on SSD, I disabled it as I don't go much beyond 4 GB of RAM and never had problem since. And it also decreases performance a bit as the page-file is from time to time used to store large data regardless how much RAM you have.

You're right, but that's an extreme case of pretty low storage capacity But valid nontheless.

 

[Nothinman]

Just to ensure that Windows doesn't put anything on the pagefile?

or is it that Windows will never put anything on the pagefile unless the RAM is full?

Windows may cache some data there when it's idle, but if the memory pressure never gets high enough for it to evict the original data from memory the copy in the pagefile will never need to be read. Windows pages to/from disk to many other locations too so all you're doing by eliminating this one area is limiting it's choices when memory gets low and removing a safety net.

Again, get yourself a copy of Windows Internals by Mark Russinovich and find out how Windows manages memory and how virtually memory really works.

There's also this: http://serverfault.com/questions/23...-a-pagefile-on-an-8gb-ram-machine/23684#23684

This is not true, for example I have 60GB SSD, but have 16GB of RAM, the pagefile alone, stole 20GB of my space on SSD, I disabled it as I don't go much beyond 4 GB of RAM and never had problem since. And it also decreases performance a bit as the page-file is from time to time used to store large data regardless how much RAM you have.

You should have bought a bigger SSD. It's not like the size of Windows came as a surprise to you or did it?

 

[Sheep221]

Windows may cache some data there when it's idle, but if the memory pressure never gets high enough for it to evict the original data from memory the copy in the pagefile will never need to be read. Windows pages to/from disk to many other locations too so all you're doing by eliminating this one area is limiting it's choices when memory gets low and removing a safety net.

Again, get yourself a copy of Windows Internals by Mark Russinovich and find out how Windows manages memory and how virtually memory really works.

There's also this: http://serverfault.com/questions/23...-a-pagefile-on-an-8gb-ram-machine/23684#23684



You should have bought a bigger SSD. It's not like the size of Windows came as a surprise to you or did it?

You're right, but that's an extreme case of pretty low storage capacity But valid nontheless.

The size of system is approx 30GB, as I only want SSD for fast system boot and responsiveness I don't need to buy bigger SSD, programs and user data I have on my magnetic drive. It was bought at the time when 60GB was standard and 120 was luxury so I went for the standard option

 

[Berryracer]

now 256 GB is the standard

I am waiting for Samsung to release a 920 GB SSD

 

[Nothinman]

The size of system is approx 30GB, as I only want SSD for fast system boot and responsiveness I don't need to buy bigger SSD, programs and user data I have on my magnetic drive. It was bought at the time when 60GB was standard and 120 was luxury so I went for the standard option

The point is that you should have factored in the pagefile and probably the hibernation file into that before buying. The latter can be disabled with no ill effects but the former should be left intact, unless you think your anecdotal evidence of no problems has more credibility than virtually everything put out by OS developers for the past 30 years.

 

[It's Not Lupus]

off, but i'll enabled it if i need to do chkdsk.

 

[HeXen]

There is an app that shows a record of how much if any pagefile you ever used. I forget what it's called now but I suppose theoretically one could run it with pagefile on for a month or so and see if it ever got used, if not then perhaps you're fine without it. Worst case scenario is resolved by just turning it on again.

To some people, footprint size goes ignored, and for others it doesn't. If the man hasn't had noticeable problems with it off then no one else should really give a damn imo. There are tons and tons of "pagefile on vs off" threads out there, the debate has died several years ago.

You should have bought a bigger SSD. It's not like the size of Windows came as a surprise to you or did it?

Price is probably the likely culprit. Personally I prefer to make a custom ISO and remove components I never use. With RT7lite and Winreducer, I created a W7 installed footprint size of under 7gb's still being fully useful for what I use it for.
So something like that might be the better option for some who want to save money and buy a smaller SSD.

 

[taq8ojh]

Windows pages to/from disk to many other locations too so all you're doing by eliminating this one area is limiting it's choices when memory gets low and removing a safety net.

Wait. Any proof of that?

 

[amenx]

This is not true, for example I have 60GB SSD, but have 16GB of RAM, the pagefile alone, stole 20GB of my space on SSD, I disabled it as I don't go much beyond 4 GB of RAM and never had problem since. And it also decreases performance a bit as the page-file is from time to time used to store large data regardless how much RAM you have.

Huh? You werent aware that you could manually set the size of the PF? I set mine to 1024mb. Little point in it being more when I have 16gb of ram. So disk space is really a non-issue to PF usage.

 

[Nothinman]

Price is probably the likely culprit. Personally I prefer to make a custom ISO and remove components I never use. With RT7lite and Winreducer, I created a W7 installed footprint size of under 7gb's still being fully useful for what I use it for.
So something like that might be the better option for some who want to save money and buy a smaller SSD.

I understand that, but part of life is weighing cost vs need. If you can't afford what you need to do something right then you shouldn't get it until you can.

Apps that remove parts of Windows that MS never intended to be removed aren't a good idea either. I've seen reports of odd things failing because they don't understand the inter-dependencies and MS just assumes certain things exist in a Windows install. Like disabling the pagefile, you may not have had any issues so far but when you do it'll be a PITA to fix. And all because you cheaped out on an SSD? Not worth it to me.

Wait. Any proof of that?

Yes, an understanding of how virtual memory works.

 

[Raduque]

I have 6 gee bees, and have my page file on a non-boot drive set to 12 gee bees.

 

[taq8ojh]

Yes, an understanding of how virtual memory works.

I read that article people mentioned here and yet - unless I am blind - there's not a single line saying Windows would page anywhere else. Please provide some information because I am really curious where else is this sort of data being written to.

 

[hanspeter]

I read that article people mentioned here and yet - unless I am blind - there's not a single line saying Windows would page anywhere else. Please provide some information because I am really curious where else is this sort of data being written to.

Memory mapped files (exe and dll file are examples of such) use the same technique as the page file. They are "paged" into memory and non-modified pages can easily be thrown away again, if memory runs low.

 

[taq8ojh]

Yes, but we are talking physical files here, aren't we? There's only one pagefile...

 

[hanspeter]

Those memory mapped files are also real files. Nothinman is not talking about the page file.