Virtual memory

[Guest]

Hi all,

just a quick one, what are the implications of increasing the virtual memory?

Many thanks

 

[D@annyBoy]

use physical RAM may be a better alternative

While sipping a glass of green tea, I read that Luke Chalmers wrote in

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Please try the following article:

"Virtual Memory in Windows XP"
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

--


Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[null2006]

Loss of space on the drive for other uses, and the unwanted possible recovery of
data from the swap file by law enforcement or others with detailed knowledge and
equipment.

 

[Jim]

Hi all,

just a quick one, what are the implications of increasing the virtual
memory?

Many thanks

Wasting disk space unless you need to increase the size of the pagefile.

Jim

 

[HEMI-Powered]

Today, =?Utf-8?B?THVrZSBDaGFsbWVycw==?= made these interesting
comments ...

Hi all,

just a quick one, what are the implications of increasing the
virtual memory?

Many thanks

You get virtually the same performance increase as increasing
real memory.

Huh?

Virtual memory is just that - an illusion created by seamlessly
copying data to/from "memory" to some slower-but-larger-capacity
device such as a HD or even to streaming tape. So, while VM
capacity is limited only by the O/S and how much space you're
willing to devote to it, the more the system swaps to the slower
media, the more and more slowly your system will run.

Then, too, is a syndrome called "thrashing" where the CPU is
attempting to read/write/read/write ... continuously as real
memory fills, programs or data are swapped out, the next piece
swappin in for a few CPU cycles, etc. You notice that happening
when you see or hear your HD grinding away and not much else
happening.

The cure for all of this, within the other limits of your current
system, is to get more real memory. There's a number of other
considerations, of course, but doubling real memory will have an
immediate and noticeable improvement in performance, that is,
except that I don't call Windows "Windoze" for nothing - it ain't
my idea of an efficient O/S for either disc or memory access, but
that's a story best left on the side of the road.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

just a quick one, what are the implications of increasing the virtual
memory?

How much real memory (RAM) do you have? What apps do you run? What are your
current virtual memory settings? What are you considering changing the
settings to? Why?

 

[DatabaseBen]

unfortunately, whatever size you choose that is more than optimal for
windows to operate will only lock up that disk space
you reserved for it.

the draw back may be that you set the virtual memory size
to the size of all of your free space on the disk...

have fun... !