WinXP: How big a swap file w/ 2GB of Ram?

[ghart999]

What size virtual memory swap file would you recommend in XP home with 2GB of RAM? I will create a separate partition for the swap file. Thanks.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Just let Windows manage it. Doing anything to it will probably slow things down.

 

[ghart999]

I have always heard that I should specifiy the exact min and max size of this and make sure its in its own partition. Is this not true? If I let windows manage it, what size should I make the partition?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: ghart999
I have always heard that I should specifiy the exact min and max size of this and make sure its in its own partition. Is this not true? If I let windows manage it, what size should I make the partition?

Leave it where it is. Putting it on a seperate partition will make it slower since the drive head will have to seek more often.

Putting it on a second disk might help, but I wouldn't bet that it would be noticable.

 

[Nothinman]

Putting it on it's own partition will make things worse, all that does is make the heads seek around more whenever pagefile access is required. And setting the min/max the same size gains you nothing except for wasted disk space.

 

[daniel49]

seems like that was a popular thing to do for win 9x. At least a lot of people were doing it , but now the general thought among most now is its a waste of time.

 

[Nothinman]

Reinstalling every 2 weeks was also popular with Win9x, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea.

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Reinstalling every 2 weeks was also popular with Win9x, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea.

no, in fact it sounds like a waste of time

 

[KoolDrew]

Just leave it system managed on your root partition. As already said you could put it on a seperate drive and controller, but with 2GB of RAM that won't make a noticable difference most likely, but it all depends on your usage patterns.

 

[ghart999]

Thanks all. I will leave it system managed.

 

[Spencer278]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Putting it on it's own partition will make things worse, all that does is make the heads seek around more whenever pagefile access is required. And setting the min/max the same size gains you nothing except for wasted disk space.

Well it also makes sure that if you accedently decided it is a good idea to download a few hundred gigs that your harddrive won't be full and limit virtual memory. Also waiting for windows to expand the swap file sucks.

 

[Nothinman]

Well it also makes sure that if you accedently decided it is a good idea to download a few hundred gigs that your harddrive won't be full and limit virtual memory. Also waiting for windows to expand the swap file sucks.

Virtual Memory is never limited by disk space, although pagefile space may be.

And Windows using the pagefile sucks, waiting for it to grow only sucks a very little bit more.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

That's strange, because this is contrary to everything I've always heard. Interesting.
Tas.

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: tasburrfoot78362
That's strange, because this is contrary to everything I've always heard. Interesting.
Tas.

Most of the things you read on the net about virual memory or tweaking of any kind is most likely wrong.

 

[theMan]

i always leave it on the system partition, but, do 2.5x your total ram, which is 5120mb, and make that for the minimum and maximum. having a range for you swapfile is bad.

 

[Nothinman]

That's strange, because this is contrary to everything I've always heard. Interesting.

How many of the people who wrote the docs you read have ever done OS development? I would guess not many, they're usually just people with lots of time on their hands and no real understanding of how an OS works or why it does things.

but, do 2.5x your total ram, which is 5120mb, and make that for the minimum and maximum. having a range for you swapfile is bad.

No, it's not. It's only bad if you're using the pagefile a lot and with 2G of memory I doubt that'll happen. And even so, waiting a few milliseconds for the pagefile to expand is better than wasting 4G of disk space.

 

[OptimusPrime]

ghart999,

I think this article might help a bit. I also have 2gb in a dell 8600 inspiron laptop. The only real place I see a performance gain is in Adobe CS, and Adobe Premiere. Most other applications, really don't use that much ram.

Remember that at some point your system bus, processor, drive rotation & cache will make a difference but you will eventually reach a peak...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307886/#3
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314482

one other thing..placing the pagefile on it's own partition may sound great in concept and yes it won't get as defragmented as it would say if it sat on the c or d partition ( assuming you have one drive & 2 partitions) I see the point in where the system now has to perform extra work in reading a seperate sector to access the pagefile. I don't know what the performance gain or loss might be, ghost your system and try it. By the way, linux runs on the same principle /, /boot, and swap = pagefile for windows.

let me know how it turns out...

OP

 

[imported_michaelpatrick33]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew

Originally posted by: tasburrfoot78362
That's strange, because this is contrary to everything I've always heard. Interesting.
Tas.

Most of the things you read on the net about virual memory or tweaking of any kind is most likely wrong.

Including these posts?

Just kidding. Couldn't resist. I usually set a a consistent pagefile on my C:\ drive myself but have never noticed in performance difference either way. Of course I am not always so observant. LOL

 

[Phoenix86]

Text

This is one of the single best articles for understanding RAM and VM at a basic level.

My basic recommendation is now this: Screw tweaking the page file, get enough RAM and it won't really matter.

How do you determine what's "enough RAM?" simple. Give your machine a workout, run it for several days w/o rebooting. Now, check your commit charge peak (open task manager, performance tab). This is the peak memory usage, you want "more" RAM than is listed here.

 

[KoolDrew]

My basic recommendation is now this: Screw tweaking the page file, get enough RAM and it won't really matter.

I agree. Haven't talked to you in a while Phoenix. My account at hardforums was hacked

 

[silverpig]

With 2 GB of ram it doesn't really matter

 

[theMan]

Originally posted by: silverpig
With 2 GB of ram it doesn't really matter

:beer:

 

[Zucarita9000]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: ghart999
I have always heard that I should specifiy the exact min and max size of this and make sure its in its own partition. Is this not true? If I let windows manage it, what size should I make the partition?

Leave it where it is. Putting it on a seperate partition will make it slower since the drive head will have to seek more often.

Putting it on a second disk might help, but I wouldn't bet that it would be noticable.

Hmm... I disagree. I have my swap file on a separte hard disk, and even though I don't hit the swap file often (unless I do some heavy work), the performance difference is noticeable.

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew

My basic recommendation is now this: Screw tweaking the page file, get enough RAM and it won't really matter.

I agree. Haven't talked to you in a while Phoenix. My account at hardforums was hacked

Get it fixed, heck start a new acct if you got to. Post count means nothing.

Now, about password security...

Originally posted by: silverpig
With 2 GB of ram it doesn't really matter

It does if you're using +2GB commit charge.
"Is 2GB enough?" is an impossible question to answer w/o a point of referrence.

Originally posted by: Zucarita9000
Hmm... I disagree. I have my swap file on a separte hard disk, and even though I don't hit the swap file often (unless I do some heavy work), the performance difference is noticeable.

Really? How'd you measure the difference?