Windows Page File

[AKA_RA]

ive a gota gig of ram(2x512) and i was wondering whats the best size for my page file. also, for some reason, it seems like the page file usage listed in the task manager is way higher than it used to be. anyone got any input? it would be much appriciated.

[CanaBalistic]

A paging file is an area on the hard disk that windows uses as if it were ram. So the higher the better, i have mine set at 4 gig's. It actually works better and much faster if you change the location of the paging file to another physical drive asuming you have more than one drive installed. Also, a faster hard drive would increase the performance a notch.

To get into the options for virtual memory, Control Panel>> System >> Advanced >> Performance, memory >> advanced >> Change

[CyBeR]

Not really the higher the better. If you set your page file to half your hdd space... I generally set it at 2-2.5x the size of the RAM.

[Airbozo]

I usually just let windows manage it. For some systems we have created a specific partition on the HD for ONLY the page file. A good rule of thumb is what CyBeR posted; 2-2.5x the size of ram. This is also true with linux and swap space (swap is the unix/linux term for a page file). If you are running multiple memory hog programs (photoshop, maya, 3d studio) then the larger the better as the programs will have a place to page out textures and layers not in use. There was an article I read many many years ago about a group of unix geeks spending about a week trying to figure out the specific answer to the how much is enough and how much is too much question and that is where I came up with the 2-2.5x ram figure and this method has been adopted by most unix/linux vendors.

[AKA_RA]

is there such thing as too large of a page file? i was thinking about what was mentioned about a separate HDD. ive got a 20gig sitting around, if i were to put that on the opposite channel as the main HDD, and use that, would i even see a differance? i already set the page file to 2gigs. also, its not the fastest HDD, but reguardless, i think im gonna try it out and see if notice a differance. would anyone advise against making a partion on the second hard drive and using that entire partition as space for the page file. like make it 2-4 gigs and leave the rest unformated?

[Airbozo]

is there such thing as too large of a page file? i was thinking about what was mentioned about a separate HDD. ive got a 20gig sitting around, if i were to put that on the opposite channel as the main HDD, and use that, would i even see a differance? i already set the page file to 2gigs. also, its not the fastest HDD, but reguardless, i think im gonna try it out and see if notice a differance. would anyone advise against making a partion on the second hard drive and using that entire partition as space for the page file. like make it 2-4 gigs and leave the rest unformated?

Should be no problems and may even be a faster option for the page file to be on its own drive and controller.

Too much page file is only a problem with respect to disk space. Over a certain size you will never see the whole page file being used, so it would only waste space. Not sure that it would affect access times or not since the coding as to address space is not readily available. It may be that the page file is addressed sequentially or more likely some custom algorithm is used to read and write data to the page file.

[AKA_RA]

page files for windows, home version at least, seems to limited to 4gigs anyways, and im not using the drive otherwise. and since i put it on its own controller, replacing my seldom used burner, it seems to have boosted performance all around. not significantly, but it was definately noticable. i honestly cant recall the last time i used a cd on this system other than installing the OS a few months back. the only games i play dont require discs. they are also not illegally cracked games or games i own with no-cd cracks installed. thank you direct-2-drive ^_^

[Omega]

I have 1gb of physical RAM, but 10GB of paging space (maximum) across 2 drives (5gb each) and my system runs smooth as butter.