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GoNYIsles
TweakNOOB
Joined: 02 Jun 2003
Posts: 60
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 Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 8:20 pm Post subject: Is It A Good Idea To Adjust The Pagefile? |
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| I have 512MB of RAM running Windows XP...would it be good idea to make the minimum and maximum values equal? And if so, what should I set it as? Is 784 (512 x 1.5) about right? Thanks. |
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 8:20 pm Post subject: Advertisement |
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DMW
SirTweaksabit
Joined: 16 May 2002
Posts: 457
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 8:57 pm Post subject: |
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an exceprt from the windows help files:
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Managing computer memory
When your computer is running low on RAM and more is needed immediately, Windows uses hard drive space to simulate system RAM. This is known as virtual memory, and is often called the paging file. This is similar to the UNIX swapfile. The default size of the virtual memory pagefile (named pagefile.sys) created during installation is 1.5 times the amount of RAM on your computer.
You can optimize virtual memory use by dividing the space between multiple drives and removing it from slower or heavily accessed drives. To best optimize your virtual memory space, divide it among as many physical hard drives as possible. When selecting drives, keep the following guidelines in mind:
Try to avoid having a pagefile on the same drive as the system files.
Avoid putting a pagefile on a fault-tolerant drive, such as a mirrored volume or a RAID-5 volume. Pagefiles don't need fault-tolerance, and some fault-tolerant systems suffer from slow data writes because they write data to multiple locations.
Don't place multiple pagefiles on different partitions on the same physical disk drive.
You can choose to optimize your computer's memory usage. If you use your computer primarily as a workstation, rather than as a server, you can have more memory devoted to your programs. Your programs will work faster and your system cache size will be the default size that came with Windows XP. You can also specify to set aside more computer memory for a larger system cache, If your computer is used primarily as a server, or if you use programs that require a larger cache.
Changing visual effects
Windows provides several options to set the visual effects of your computer. For example, you can choose to show shadows under menus, giving them a 3-D look. You can tell Windows to display the entire contents of a window while you move it on your screen. To make large text more readable, you can choose to display the smooth edges of screen fonts. You can also enable the Web view in your folders, which will display a list of hyperlinked tasks and information on the left side of the folder window. Windows provides options for enabling all of the settings (for best appearance), or none of the settings (for best computer performance). You can also restore the original default settings. |
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GoNYIsles
TweakNOOB
Joined: 02 Jun 2003
Posts: 60
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 9:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Thanks DMW, but that didn't exactly answer my question...I was really looking for opinions over excerpts. I already know what the pagefile is for. |
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[TN] Nathan
ALMIGHTY PWNER!
Joined: 14 Feb 2002
Posts: 7406
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 10:25 pm Post subject: |
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I personally set the minimum and maximum to 2X the system memory I have.
Works out well and stops windows from wasting time trying to calculate it.
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DMW
SirTweaksabit
Joined: 16 May 2002
Posts: 457
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2003 4:27 pm Post subject: |
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| GoNYIsles wrote: | | Thanks DMW, but that didn't exactly answer my question...I was really looking for opinions over excerpts. |
well partially true...since windows by default set the max pagefile (virtual memory) size to 1.5 times the system memory....it answers one question...why would you set it to the same thing windows does.
I would make the minumum 1.5 times the RAM and the max roughly twice.
Also, if you had a small partition you could dedicate on a separate HDD the would be good as well.
Most of the other ino was just fluff.....other little tips.
Keep in mind that there is a limit....if I can find the article I read on this I will post it here.
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[TN] Nathan
ALMIGHTY PWNER!
Joined: 14 Feb 2002
Posts: 7406
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2003 6:33 pm Post subject: |
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Keep the minimum and the maximum at the same size to get rid of the performance loss from windows pausing to resize the page file. Keeping them both the same locks it at one size.
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DMW
SirTweaksabit
Joined: 16 May 2002
Posts: 457
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2003 8:58 pm Post subject: |
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true...
but it lkinda makes you wonder why they would bother to write a minimum and maximum into the code, unless there was some advantage to it.
They could have much more easily said if your RAM equals "this much" then your swap file will be "this size"....just one figure.
it's just a look at it from another angle...I am not arguing this point.
A lot of people have come to the conclusion that the one size fits all is best. It might be true. |
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robin338
TweakNOOB
Joined: 16 Jun 2003
Posts: 34
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| Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2003 10:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Do you have more than one harddrive? If you do, you can use the other(s) for pagefiling. I have set up my storage drives for this purpose, like what DMW says above. I don't know what kind of memory you have, but if you double it you might be able to eliminate pagefiling--if you aren't running programs that use lots of memory. |
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