Questions Regarding Memory

[Larry Goodman]

Windows XP Home Edition, PIII, 256 RAM, 20 gig hard drive.

1. Does Virtual Memory = Swap File = Page File ?

2. Does increasing the size of the virtual memory improve
performance? Is bigger better? And how does one determine
what size is best?

3. How does one determine how much physical RAM is needed
for optimal performance? Can one reach a point where more
RAM makes no difference?

Thank You,
Larry
(e-mail address removed)

 

[eddie]

As a rule 1.5 x ram is average, virtual memory (pagefile)
is very slow and realistically you would be better off
increasing your ram.

 

[David Jones]

1. Yes and no. Virtual memory is basically the
combination of your physical RAM and your swap file.
(It's actually more complex than that, but it's close
enough).

2. Not really. Just let Windows manage the pagefile
size and it will tune itself over time.

3. The best way to determine it is to check out some of
the performance counters under Memory in Performance
Monitor (perfmon.exe). You can see what the memory usage
of your system is and such. You can eventually reach a
point where adding RAM makes no difference, although 256
MB is definately not it.
All the stuff you run asks for RAM, and you can reach a
point where you have more RAM than all the stuff you run
at once is asking for. Windows will use the extra RAM as
a cache to try and speed things up additionally, but
after a point the performance benefit from adding RAM
just for the cache becomes negligible.

Unfortunately there's no one "right" answer here, and I
hate to use the phrase, but it depends. It's all
dependant on your usage, the applications you run, what
loads at startup, stuff like that.

 

[John Barnett - MVP]

Larry,

Question one is correct.

Question two is debatable. Half the time windows doesn't
use half the amount of virtual memory it allocates
itself. As a rule of thumb the virtual memory is usually
calculates at between 1.5 and 3 times physical memory.
However 1.5 is the usual recommendation. In your case the
formula would be 256 + 128 = 384

Question three. The more physical memory you have the
better, but you must really look at what applications you
plan on running. If you are using memory intensive
applications then, by all means, increase your physical
memory. But if you are just using your pc to 'potter
about' then high physical memory isn't really needed. My
machine currently has 384MB of memory and that is ok for
me. Others will have a Gigabyte or more simply becuase
they are either playing games or have heavy duty
applications to run

Hope this helps

John Barnett - MVP
Associate Expert

 

[rifleman]

Windows XP Home Edition, PIII, 256 RAM, 20 gig hard drive.

1. Does Virtual Memory = Swap File = Page File ?
Yes


2. Does increasing the size of the virtual memory improve
performance? Is bigger better? And how does one determine
what size is best?

For normal use, it's best to let Windows manage the size of the file

3. How does one determine how much physical RAM is needed
for optimal performance? Can one reach a point where more
RAM makes no difference?

Physical RAM is faster than virtual memory. If you do a lot of graphics
or video work for example, then the more RAM the faster your PC will
work. With less RAM, the applications are constantly switching data in
and out of virtual memory, which uses CPU resources.

 

[rifleman]

Windows XP Home Edition, PIII, 256 RAM, 20 gig hard drive.

1. Does Virtual Memory = Swap File = Page File ?
Yes


2. Does increasing the size of the virtual memory improve
performance? Is bigger better? And how does one determine
what size is best?

For normal use, it's best to let Windows manage the size of the file

3. How does one determine how much physical RAM is needed
for optimal performance? Can one reach a point where more
RAM makes no difference?

Physical RAM is faster than virtual memory. If you do a lot of graphics
or video work for example, then the more RAM the faster your PC will
work. With less RAM, the applications are constantly switching data in
and out of virtual memory, which uses CPU resources.

 

[Ken Blake]

Windows XP Home Edition, PIII, 256 RAM, 20 gig hard drive.

1. Does Virtual Memory = Swap File = Page File ?

2. Does increasing the size of the virtual memory improve
performance? Is bigger better? And how does one determine
what size is best?

Answered this morning. Please read the responses you've already
got. Don't start all over again with a new thread.