Page file size - who to believe?

[Cooler Dude]

XP has set my Page file to 1.5GB.
According to Windows Task Manager, my Page File usage is currently
299MB.
According to WinXP Pagefile Usage Monitor by Bill James, my Page
File usage is currently 42MB and has never been above 51MB.

Which do I believe?

With 1GB RAM and 656+MB "Available", it seems odd that the Page
File would be running at 300MB or am I misunderstanding something?


TIA

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Windows Task Manager records allocations of the pagefile
made to running programmes. It does not record usage.
The Pagefile Usage Monitor records what is being used,
which can never be more than the total allocation ( unless
the total allocation is increased ) and will usually be
significantly less the sum of all allocations.

A usage of 50 mb is fairly typical for a home computer,
unless programmes requiring lots of memory are run.
Graphics and other camera related programmes will mean
much higher pagefile usage when run.

When you quote usage as 299 mb are you referring to the
Total figure under the section Commit Charge? Total means
the total allocations of pagefile, not usage of those allocations.

The operating system uses RAM memory in the main but
requires a certain amount of pagefile for certain tasks. This
means there will always be some pagefile usage.

A longer and more detailed explanation is given here:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Cooler Dude]

Windows Task Manager records allocations of the pagefile
made to running programmes. It does not record usage.

On the Task Manager "Performance" tab, the bar chart under "CPU
Usage" is entitled "PF Usage". I see I'm going to have to learn to
translate!

The Pagefile Usage Monitor records what is being used,
which can never be more than the total allocation ( unless
the total allocation is increased ) and will usually be
significantly less the sum of all allocations.

A usage of 50 mb is fairly typical for a home computer,
unless programmes requiring lots of memory are run.
Graphics and other camera related programmes will mean
much higher pagefile usage when run.

When you quote usage as 299 mb are you referring to the
Total figure under the section Commit Charge? Total means
the total allocations of pagefile, not usage of those
allocations.

I was reading the figure in the "PF Usage" bar chart (which is the
similar to the "Commit Charge (K) Total" figure. Naively, I
thought "PF Usage" meant PF Usage and not PF Allocation. ;-)

The operating system uses RAM memory in the main but
requires a certain amount of pagefile for certain tasks. This
means there will always be some pagefile usage.

A longer and more detailed explanation is given here:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

Thanks for your prompt and informative reply.

 

[NewScience]

Windows normally sets (when Let Windows decide option is on), the
pagefile.sys to be 1.5 times system RAM.

You can reseet the beginning pagefile.sys yourself to what you believe it
should be and Windows will automatically resize if needed. It will tell you
when it is resizing.

If your system keeps resizing everytime you reboot and start working, I
would then reset the beginning size to the current. It means your system
needs to be that.

 

[Cooler Dude]

Windows normally sets (when Let Windows decide option is on),
the pagefile.sys to be 1.5 times system RAM.

You can reseet the beginning pagefile.sys yourself to what you
believe it should be and Windows will automatically resize if
needed. It will tell you when it is resizing.

If your system keeps resizing everytime you reboot and start
working, I would then reset the beginning size to the current.
It means your system needs to be that.

Thanks. I think I'll leave well alone. My original query was
simply due to a misunderstanding of the terminology ("PF Usage")
used in Windows Task Manager.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Glad I was able to be of assistance,

This topic got me confused until it was explained.

--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

XP has set my Page file to 1.5GB.
According to Windows Task Manager, my Page File usage is currently
299MB.
According to WinXP Pagefile Usage Monitor by Bill James, my Page
File usage is currently 42MB and has never been above 51MB.

Which do I believe?

Believe Bill James.

Unfortunately, what Windows reports on the task manager is very confusing.
It's allocations made to the page file, not actual usual.

 

[Cooler Dude]

Believe Bill James.

Unfortunately, what Windows reports on the task manager is very
confusing. It's allocations made to the page file, not actual
usual.

Ah! The good old "actual usual". ;-)

 

[Ron Martell]

XP has set my Page file to 1.5GB.
According to Windows Task Manager, my Page File usage is currently
299MB.
According to WinXP Pagefile Usage Monitor by Bill James, my Page
File usage is currently 42MB and has never been above 51MB.

Which do I believe?

With 1GB RAM and 656+MB "Available", it seems odd that the Page
File would be running at 300MB or am I misunderstanding something?

Actually both figures are correct, but they are based on different
definitions.

Windows Task Manager reports how much memory address space has been
mapped to locations in the page file. This includes the unused
portions of memory allocation requests and as almost everything
(Windows components, application programs, device drivers, etc) asks
for larger allocations than they usually need under normal
circumstances these unused portions can add up to a substantial total.

MVP Bill James' utility reports how much valid memory content has been
relocated from RAM to the page file so as to allow that RAM to be used
for other, currently more important purposes. This is the
measurement that provides an indication of the potential benefit of
adding more RAM to the computer. Generally if this utility reports
more than 50 mb of actual PF usage on a consistent basis then it is
quite likely that the overall performance of the computer would
benefit from having additional RAM installed. Conversely, if this
utility reports less than 50 mb most or all of the time then it is
unlikely that adding additional RAM will provide any noticeable
improvements to performance.

Hope this explains the situation.

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."

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Ah! The good old "actual usual". ;-)

Oops! That should be "usage," not "usual," of course. Sorry.

 

[Cooler Dude]

Actually both figures are correct, but they are based on
different definitions.

Windows Task Manager reports how much memory address space has
been mapped to locations in the page file. This includes the
unused portions of memory allocation requests and as almost
everything (Windows components, application programs, device
drivers, etc) asks for larger allocations than they usually
need under normal circumstances these unused portions can add
up to a substantial total.

MVP Bill James' utility reports how much valid memory content
has been relocated from RAM to the page file so as to allow
that RAM to be used for other, currently more important
purposes. This is the measurement that provides an indication
of the potential benefit of adding more RAM to the computer.
Generally if this utility reports more than 50 mb of actual PF
usage on a consistent basis then it is quite likely that the
overall performance of the computer would benefit from having
additional RAM installed. Conversely, if this utility reports
less than 50 mb most or all of the time then it is unlikely
that adding additional RAM will provide any noticeable
improvements to performance.

Hope this explains the situation.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada

Thank you. I think I'm getting the hang of it now.

I had 512MB RAM in my Win98 PC and the swap file usage was
minimal. I thought that installing 1GB RAM in this new XP PC was
reasonably generous and was therefore surprised to see an increase
in Page File usage. If I install another 1GB will XP just help
itself to even more or is there a point at which it stops being
'greedy'?

 

[Gerry Cornell]

The extra will help when you get round to editing those holiday snaps!


--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


snipped

 

[Cooler Dude]

Holiday? What Holiday?!!! I'm spending all my time reading
newsgroup posts! It was never this busy in alt.windows98!! ;-)