How do you Measure Pagefile Usage?

[Rezident]

On Windows 7 64-bit, 4Gb ram, SSD

I know Commit (Task Manager > Performance > System) shows ram plus virtual memory usage and Process Explorer (Peak) also shows actual memory usage (ram plus Pagefile) but how do you measure actual Pagefile usage alone?

I have 4GB ram and the maximum Commit I can force is about 3,800K (and that’s multitasking, gaming, browsing, open office doc.s, pdf.s, and playing a DVD etc. all simultaneously, more than I would ever normally multitask). My system is primarily for gaming, no encoding etc.

I know some apps need a Pagefile anyway but I'm not convinced the 4GB of my precious SSD space that is being used by pagefile.sys is needed, although now that I’m getting older my primary aim is stability over performance so I’m not going to totally remove the Pagefile. I used to just make a large Pagefile to play it safe but now SSD space is at a premium. I’ve already reduced the size of memory dumps to mini dumps, so how much of a Pagefile do I need on my SSD or how do I measure real Pagefile usage?

I’m thinking 1Gb – 2Gb max, or maybe 1Gb Pagefile on the SSD and another one on a different drive. I’ve done a fair bit of research and read some of Mark Russinovich’s articles on Virtual Memory but some of the advice I’ve read is somewhat contradictory and I would appreciate anyone’s thoughts, suggestions etc.?

Many thanks,

Rez.

 

[wpcoe]

Great question, as I've been wondering the same thing.

One option you mention I recall reading someplace, but can't find it again: Vista/Win7 require at least a token pagefile.sys on the system drive for best performance. I've maintained a 1GB page file on my C:, but wondered if I could/should cut it down to 512MB. I just came home with my shiny new SSD, so am eager to hear what the others say, as well.

I recall in the "old days," and I can't remember which Windows version it was, the rule of thumb was to have 150% of the size of your physical RAM set aside for page files, but then I remember with newer versions of Windows (or perhaps it was with the current copious amounts of RAM in some systems), a smaller page file was needed. But, how much smaller?

 

[corkyg]

One school of thought is to let Windows manage it and not worry about it.

Personally, I fix the size at 1.2GB in a separate partition and I don't worry about it. Been thet way for several years with no probs.

I can understand SSD users with small drives being concerned.

 

[alaricljs]

I beat the daylights out of my system, 1 or 2 VMs in VirtualBox doing stuff, email, 20 tabs in firefox, 8 or so tray apps, other users leaving junk up in firefox, and then I throw a game in the mix so it's interesting.

My pagefile has never surpassed 4GB, I have 4GB of RAM... If you can't spare 4GB of your SSD then I recommend leaving ~1GB on the SSD and having windows manage a pagefile on some HDD somewhere. See how big that gets.

If you don't know already, definitely disable hibernation and make sure the file gets deleted.

 

[Nothinman]

How do you Measure Pagefile Usage?

With perfmon. There should be performance counters for overall pagefile usage and usage per-pagefile if you've got more than one.

You should still have a mechanical drive, right? Just put a managed pagefile there and a small one on the system drive so you can still get dumps if you need.

 

[john3850]

I leave 3m for error writting.
If your system is rock solid no pagging on main drive.
If I had had a new SSD page file would be shut off.
corkyg
(Personally, I fix the size at 1.2GB in a separate partition and I don't worry about it. Been thet way for several years with no probs )
Since win 3.11 I always had Page on a separate partition on a 2nd drive.

 

[Rezident]

ok thanks for the replies, I haven’t seen perfmon before, must check it out.

Yes I got rid of hiberfil.sys, that cleared around 3gigs so I’m eager to make some more room from the pagefile. I’m leaning towards a small pagefile on SSD and a large one on one of my faster media drives. I’ll try some testing like that. Cheers.

 

[jimhsu]

According to microsoft (http://www.theeldergeek.com/sizing_the_page_file.htm):

1. Open all the apps that you need at once
2. Take the peak commit value after opening every app that you need to use at once
3. Subtract the amount of physical memory you have from this value.
4. If the result is less than 0, set to 0.
5. Add however much you need as a "safety margin". A few hundred megabytes will allow things like kernel minidumps to be written during a BSOD.

 

[Nothinman]

How is that link "according to Microsoft"?

 

[jjmIII]

Since win 3.11 I always had Page on a separate partition on a 2nd drive.

I did that too, but stopped with SSD's. Everyone wants to move everything off the SSD....I say what's the use of an SSD then?

To each their own, but IMO if you need to move everything off an SDD, get a bigger one or wait until bigger sizes are cheaper (end of year).

$0.02

 

[tcsenter]

Windows will grow the pagefile as needed but only resets/shrinks it on reboot/restart.

Set minimum pagefile size to 512MB. Maximum to 2GB. Restart. Run your computer in moderately demanding scenarios for a couple hours without rebooting. Check the size of pagefile.sys.

If pagefile.sys has never grown beyond 512MB, there's your answer. If it has grown to the maximum of 2GB, then you need to increase the maximum to something like 4GB and repeat the test.

 

[Rezident]

With perfmon. There should be performance counters for overall pagefile usage and usage per-pagefile if you've got more than one.

You should still have a mechanical drive, right? Just put a managed pagefile there and a small one on the system drive so you can still get dumps if you need.

Does anyone have a working link to download PerfMon? I tried a lot of Google results and cannot find a working download link, just loads of dead ends and "free scans" rubbish.

 

[wpcoe]

@tcsenter: If you set the page file to min:512MB max:2GB, and the page file grows during usage, does it ever dynamically shrink, as well, or is the dynamic change only upward in size?

Reason I ask, is how would I know by looking at the page file size after a couple hours and it shows 512MB that it hadn't ramped up to 2GB and then back down to 512MB?

 

[FishAk]

Windows will grow the pagefile as needed but only resets/shrinks it on reboot/restart.

See Above

 

[Nothinman]

Does anyone have a working link to download PerfMon? I tried a lot of Google results and cannot find a working download link, just loads of dead ends and "free scans" rubbish.

There's nothing to download, it's been included with Windows since the NT4 days, if not earlier.

 

[corkyg]

Does anyone have a working link to download PerfMon? I tried a lot of Google results and cannot find a working download link, just loads of dead ends and "free scans" rubbish.

Just go to \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\perfmon.exe. Run it. As Nothinman says, it has long been an integral part of Windows.

You can send a shortcut to it for your Desktop if you like.

 

[wpcoe]

See Above

Doh! Thanks.

 

[john3850]

You got a real fast drive and your slowing it down by not using it for paging.
Onless you set the pagefile to auto or to a large fixed size wont the rewrites from the page start slowing down the ssd.

 

[tosinek]

My recommendation is to avoid paging file if possible. You save your harddrive and make your system way more responsive. However if you don't have enough RAM to run all you need, you have to set it to decent amout (~having at least 8 GB RAM total on W7).

I was personally fine with 6 GB of physical RAM with no paging file. You just have to keep "normal" amount of tabs in Chrome otherwise your applications start crashing.

Currently having a laptop with 8 GB RAM and no paging file which haven't caused any problem yet. My GF is having 5 GB of RAM and a quite slow HDD, but as she is unable to manage browsers running within 5 GB, I had to set her up with a paging file.

At work, I have 16 GB of RAM and no paging file, however chkdsk seems to be memory-leaking (it is able to consume all my available memory, no matter what size it is). Also had problem with Ati catalyst control centre which is buggy - it consumed all my memory and crashed my computer.

Currently having also a company laptop with 4 GB RAM and a magnetic HDD and once it starts paging, it is super slow and I want to smash it with a hammer.

So: if you are fine with the memory you already have, disable paging file. Otherwise try to keep it as small as possible.

 

[ironk]

its just sad that so much memory is required now to just browse the web.

 

[Z15CAM]

I still use Win Managed Page File with an SSD Boot OS but place it on an HDD Partition in RAID-0.

Whether it serves a purpose - I can't say - But I have no issues with Win and I do a lot of Video Encoding.

 

[Elixer]

Necropagefile for the win!

How do people find these old posts anyway ?

 

[Z15CAM]

Necropagefile for the win!

How do people find these old posts anyway ?

If you Video Encode you might not find the necessity of a Pagefile is "Necromantic"