[RESOLVED] Opinion - At which amount of RAM would you disable Virtual Memory?

[Darren Wilson]

Just after a few opinions here.

At what amount of RAM would you consider running Windows without a Swap/Page file?

It is just that I have been monitoring a few things over the last couple of days, regarding Page/Swap file usage with large amounts of RAM (512Mb +) and it looks to me that Windows actually prefers to use the Swap/Page file over the available RAM regardless of how much you have.

For example, at present I am running 1024Mb of RAM. Page file is set to 128Mb Min & Max, yet Windows still has a Page File Usage of 123Mb, when there is well over 700Mb of RAM free!!!!!!!

In this situation would you consider running Windows without a Swap/Page file or leave it as it is????

Just some observations that I have made over the last few days. I am waiting to find a third 512Mb DIMM to max the KT7A-RAID out (I have one sitting here on my desk but when installed Windows throws up errors on boot up) to see what the usage values will be then.

What is your view on this matter?

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System Specs
Abit KT7A-RAID (Rock F'n Solid!!!) - AMD Athlon 1Ghz (10x100) - 1024Mb PC133 SDRAM - ATI Radeon (AGP4X) - Maxtor ATA100 30Gb - 2 x Seagate ATA66 (RAID 0 totalling 26Gb) - Toshiba SD-1202M DVD - Plextor PlexWriter 2410A (Buy One!!!!) - Creative Labs SB Live! Value (No Pops , Hiss or Crackles here) - 20" Eizo Flexscan Monitor - Microsoft Windows XP Professional OEM Final Release

[MacGyver]

Leave it alone. Although it might seem stupid for Windows to be using a page file with that much RAM, the page file allows Windows to avoid running out of memory. I don't know if Windows has a failsafe when it actually "runs out of memory". Not likely on a machine with that much RAM, but still possible. Would be interesting to see what would happen if Windows did run out of memory.

Isn't there an "aggressive" setting for the page file that will severely limit the use of a page file....?

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I help others in the name of my Lord, Jesus Christ.

[godofuq]

I think the Windows architecture was made in a time in which 1 gig of RAM was really unthinkable and if it was installed it was herendously expensive. Now that SDRAM is so cheap we're seeing more and more RAM in computers but windows was based around a system that would always use a swap file so I don't think the little kiddies at MS thought to utilize a large amount of ram BEFORE going to the swap file. Just my $0.02.

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I feel like a little worm on a big f*****g hook.

-Aplustech

[ReBoot]

With anything over 256meg, put the line: ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 into the [386enh] section of system.ini, and you won't use the swapfile any more (well, almost).

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Who needs a life, I have Internet! Jim & Sue's Free Files | Jim's Modems | [email protected]

[Darren Wilson]

I have now had this running for 24hrs constant with a lot of apps running, CD burning, etc, and at no time on the performance logs has it gone over 123Mb of Page file used and never got anywhere near the amount of RAM. I may turn the PAGE file off for a little while to see if it does make any difference. Knowing my bloody luck though it will prob not let me back into Windows LOL

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System Specs
Abit KT7A-RAID (Rock F'n Solid!!!) - AMD Athlon 1Ghz (10x100) - 1024Mb PC133 SDRAM - ATI Radeon (AGP4X) - Maxtor ATA100 30Gb - 2 x Seagate ATA66 (RAID 0 totalling 26Gb) - Toshiba SD-1202M DVD - Plextor PlexWriter 2410A (Buy One!!!!) - Creative Labs SB Live! Value (No Pops , Hiss or Crackles here) - 20" Eizo Flexscan Monitor - Microsoft Windows XP Professional OEM Final Release

[3faze]

Depends what you use it for.

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It's supposed to do that... and that... hmmmmm... probably not.

[kingtbone]

Give er a shot DW, I'd be interested in seeing what happens. I have a KT7A too, so this could be interesting

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Posts look pretty stupid without the signature, so here it is.

[ilovetheusers]

I turned my swapfile down to nothing in Win2000 as I have 768mb of ram. It just pushed the swapfile up to what it needed even though I had 400mb of ram still free. My other system is constantly using the swapfile even though there is over 200mb of ram free. I don't know what will happen with 9.x but from what I've seen all ofthe windows platforms don't seem to understand how to properly utilize the new massive amounts of ram in our systems.

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now type format c: and press enter and you will never have a pc problem ever again...

[thirdfey]

I'm running 2k Pro with 512 meg of RAM. When I boot it warns me that I do not have a swap file and how to turn it on. Only one time have I run out of RAM(I guess, I didn't check task manager) and that was when I had a lot of apps running and AVG was scanning my system for viruses. Win2k automaticallt turned on the swap and kept going.

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I'd rather be riding my motorcycle

[This message has been edited by thirdfey (edited September 27, 2001).]

[techs]

A word of caution. If you put in 1.5 gb of ram in win98 or me you will very likely have your lmachine constantly rebooting. There is an MS Knowledge base article on this, but I can't find it again. Also, with over 512mb you may get errors from msdos programs indicating there is not enough memory to open the program. There is a workaround for this, however.
I think the key to eliminating the swap file may lie in creating a virtual disk out of ram memory. I wonder if there is a utility that would let you create a large enough virtual disk that windows would recognize, and assign a drive letter to. Then you could just set the swap file to it.

[Darren Wilson]

<font face="Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva" size="2">Originally posted by techs:
A word of caution. If you put in 1.5 gb of ram in win98 or me you will very likely have your lmachine constantly rebooting. There is an MS Knowledge base article on this, but I can't find it again. Also, with over 512mb you may get errors from msdos programs indicating there is not enough memory to open the program. There is a workaround for this, however.
I think the key to eliminating the swap file may lie in creating a virtual disk out of ram memory. I wonder if there is a utility that would let you create a large enough virtual disk that windows would recognize, and assign a drive letter to. Then you could just set the swap file to it.</font>

I am running XP


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System Specs
Abit KT7A-RAID (Rock F'n Solid!!!) - AMD Athlon 1Ghz (10x100) - 1024Mb PC133 SDRAM - ATI Radeon (AGP4X) - Maxtor ATA100 30Gb - 2 x Seagate ATA66 (RAID 0 totalling 26Gb) - Toshiba SD-1202M DVD - Plextor PlexWriter 2410A (Buy One!!!!) - Creative Labs SB Live! Value (No Pops , Hiss or Crackles here) - 20" Eizo Flexscan Monitor - Microsoft Windows XP Professional OEM Final Release

[Hippie_Techs]

I say go for it. Disable it. I think as long as your not leaving your computer on 24/7 you should be fine. However, I'm not sure if you'll notice any performance boost from disabling virtual memory. I think I remember seeing an article showing Win2K not seeing any increase in performance after 512MB RAM and since XPerience is basically Win2K code...ahh who knows. Good luck.

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In the immortal words of Socrates, "I drank what?"

[Hippie_Techs]

I can tell you one thing, though. Windows 98 does not like it. I tried it on mine and I couldn't run a single program. Runtime Error in C++ something or other.
Windows XP here I come.

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In the immortal words of Socrates, "I drank what?"

[Darren Wilson]

I did disable VM, and noticed that programs took a little onger to actually start up , but performed tasks faster once running. Also Windows lagged a little upon start-up. I have now re-enabled Page file size of 128Mb which has smoothed things out a lot. Oh well I will keep plugging away at this one as this has been one area that has interested me and I hadn't had the time to actually run tests with it.

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System Specs
Abit KT7A-RAID (Rock F'n Solid!!!) - AMD Athlon 1Ghz (10x100) - 1024Mb PC133 SDRAM - ATI Radeon (AGP4X) - Maxtor ATA100 30Gb - 2 x Seagate ATA66 (RAID 0 totalling 26Gb) - Toshiba SD-1202M DVD - Plextor PlexWriter 2410A (Buy One!!!!) - Creative Labs SB Live! Value (No Pops , Hiss or Crackles here) - 20" Eizo Flexscan Monitor - Microsoft Windows XP Professional OEM Final Release

[ilovetheusers]

I just set my swapfile down to 2mb and 2000 and my system is actually a tiny bit slower. I've set it back to the huge swapfile (1gb) that 2000 wants and it's happier. I don't get it.

This is one of those things that makes me throw my hands in the air and walk around in circles gibbering "Why'd they make it like that?".

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now type format c: and press enter and you will never have a pc problem ever again...