RAM usage

[Thomas Wendell]

Should I change the size of my pagefile, and if so, which direction?
Or does it make any matter??
I have 1GB (or 960MB + 64MB for integrated gfx)
(The I: drive IS a second physical 120GB drive, used mostly for archives and
pictures)

Doug Knox pagefile monitor says:

Pagefile Physical Location: C:\pagefile.sys
Current Pagefile Usage: 58 MB
Session Peak Usage: 63 MB
Current Pagefile Size: 64 MB

Pagefile Physical Location: I:\pagefile.sys
Current Pagefile Usage: 173 MB
Session Peak Usage: 286 MB
Current Pagefile Size: 1024 MB

--
Tumppi
=================================
A lot learned from these newsgroups
Helsinki, FINLAND
(translations from/to FI not always accurate
=================================

 

[Admiral Q]

Should I change the size of my pagefile, and if so, which direction?
Or does it make any matter??
I have 1GB (or 960MB + 64MB for integrated gfx)
(The I: drive IS a second physical 120GB drive, used mostly for archives
and pictures)

Doug Knox pagefile monitor says:

Pagefile Physical Location: C:\pagefile.sys
Current Pagefile Usage: 58 MB
Session Peak Usage: 63 MB
Current Pagefile Size: 64 MB

Pagefile Physical Location: I:\pagefile.sys
Current Pagefile Usage: 173 MB
Session Peak Usage: 286 MB
Current Pagefile Size: 1024 MB

--
Tumppi
=================================
A lot learned from these newsgroups
Helsinki, FINLAND
(translations from/to FI not always accurate
=================================

I let the system manage it on both my hard drives, and I've never had any
issues.

 

[Ron Martell]

Should I change the size of my pagefile, and if so, which direction?
Or does it make any matter??
I have 1GB (or 960MB + 64MB for integrated gfx)
(The I: drive IS a second physical 120GB drive, used mostly for archives and
pictures)

Doug Knox pagefile monitor says:

Pagefile Physical Location: C:\pagefile.sys
Current Pagefile Usage: 58 MB
Session Peak Usage: 63 MB
Current Pagefile Size: 64 MB

Pagefile Physical Location: I:\pagefile.sys
Current Pagefile Usage: 173 MB
Session Peak Usage: 286 MB
Current Pagefile Size: 1024 MB

With that amount of actual pagefile usage you must be running some
extremely memory intensive applications and it appears quite likely
that your overall performance would improve somewhat if you added more
RAM.
Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[James W. Long]

in the past I have had great sucess doubling the size of system ram for the
pagefile size,
allowing it to expand to quadruple system ram.
(thats RAM, not video memory). this seems to give better performance
than the default 1.5x numbers.
system ram can be found on contol panel->system.

note that somtimes this applet will not report orrectly because
bios may or may not "steal" a bit. you should uually round up
to the next even hex boundry that makes sense. for instance,
if it reports 508 meg, you probly have 512 meg chips....

its that power of 2 thing.


James

 

[Ken Blake]

in the past I have had great sucess doubling the size of system ram
for the pagefile size,
allowing it to expand to quadruple system ram.
(thats RAM, not video memory). this seems to give better performance
than the default 1.5x numbers.

Note several things:

1. The page file size has *no* effect on System Performance. A larger page
file lets you run more apps, but it doesn't make any program run faster.

2. Since the page file substitutes for real memory, when there isn't enough
RAM for everything you want to do, the larger the amount of RAM you have,
the *less* page file you need. Therefore all the "rules" that specify how
much page you file you should have as a multiple of system RAM are wrong.
That's true of 1.5X as well as of 2X

3. Having a page fie larger than you need it has no downside except that
it's a waste of disk space.

4. For most people, letting the system manage the page file size is fine,
but in general, if you want to set the page file size manually, you should
make the starting size small (100-200 MB or so) but let it expand to as big
as it needs to.

For more info on the page file, read this excellent article by the late MVP
Alex Nichol: Virtual Memory in Windows XP at
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

 

[Ron Martell]

in the past I have had great sucess doubling the size of system ram for the
pagefile size,
allowing it to expand to quadruple system ram.
(thats RAM, not video memory). this seems to give better performance
than the default 1.5x numbers.
system ram can be found on contol panel->system.

note that somtimes this applet will not report orrectly because
bios may or may not "steal" a bit. you should uually round up
to the next even hex boundry that makes sense. for instance,
if it reports 508 meg, you probly have 512 meg chips....

its that power of 2 thing.

It is also totally incorrect.

Windows XP creates the pagefile so as to compensate for the *lack* of
sufficient physical RAM to satisfy the total memory requirements of
the computer.

Pagefile size requirements are *inversely* related to the amount of
physical RAM installed in the computer - more RAM means less pagefile
and less RAM means more pagefile, provided all other factors remain
constant.

For more information about the Windows XP pagefile and memory
management see the article by the late Alex Nichol MVP at
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm


Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."