Virtual Memory

squid13 · Jan 16, 2011

I'm using Windows 7Pro 64 bit with 8 Gig of ram. What would be a good setting for my virtual memory? Right now it's set 8191 MB.

Mashed1316 · Jan 16, 2011

Hello there, you should let windows manage the page file on its own, i do not have it that way, but it's the recommended setting.

Some people use to say 1.5x your RAM for minimum and 3x times your RAM for maximum.

You could try different sizes, i find 4096MB more than enough for me, it's the same amount of RAM in my system, i used to have 2GB and never had any issues, i guess it not that big of a deal if you have 8GB of RAM, nonetheless, don't disable it, never. it is NOT recommended

Note that i don't have a Page File in my OS HDD, but i do have it in another HDD

and it's set for the same size (minimum/maximum)

2010MegaScooter · Jan 16, 2011

Yeah I'd Like That Question Answer For Me... ^^^^ Haha I Seen You IN My Other Post Punkster.. I have 2 GB RAM
VVV Here Is What Its Set too..

Mashed1316 · Jan 16, 2011

It's set to the recommended setting so i wouldn't touch it.. but it's ok, when i had 2GB of RAM, i set 2GB of Page File and never had issues of any kind.. but that's a risky setting, the system could need even more than 2GB of Page File and it wouldn't be available, so i wouldn't touch the page file on your system, but you could just try it for a couple of days, i mean.. it wouldn't harm you.. Trial and Error

Set it to 2GB, run it like that for 1 ~ 2 days.. if you see any performance change (good or bad) then change it to 4GB or leave it like that (depends on the situation), run it another 1 ~ 2 days, if the same thing happens, let windows manage it

it's only Page File.

BTW, do that D: (Backup Drive) is another HDD or just another partition on the same HDD? because you could move the Page File to the Backup Drive

2010MegaScooter · Jan 16, 2011

Punkster said:
It's set to the recommended setting so i wouldn't touch it.. but it's ok, when i had 2GB of RAM, i set 2GB of Page File and never had issues of any kind.. but that's a risky setting, the system could need even more than 2GB of Page File and it wouldn't be available, so i wouldn't touch the page file on your system, but you could just try it for a couple of days, i mean.. it wouldn't harm you.. Trial and Error

Set it to 2GB, run it like that for 1 ~ 2 days.. if you see any performance change (good or bad) then change it to 4GB or leave it like that (depends on the situation), run it another 1 ~ 2 days, if the same thing happens, let windows manage it it's only Page File.

BTW, do that D: (Backup Drive) is another HDD or just another partition on the same HDD? because you could move the Page File to the Backup Drive

Lol, But I have 52 MB Left on my Back Up... So its Completely Filled..

Mashed1316 · Jan 16, 2011

OH haha! then leave it where it is

don't move it around xD hehe

squid13 · Jan 16, 2011

I'll just let Windows take care of it and leave it as it is. Thanks for your responses.

Mashed1316 · Jan 16, 2011

You're welcome, squid

glad to hear your doubts have been cleared

whs · Jan 16, 2011

It will depend of what you are doing and how much RAM you have. Most programs do not need a lot or any space on the pagefile. But if you have a small RAM (e.g. 2GBs) it is advisable to leave it up to the system to manage. For a large RAM (e.g. 6 or 8GBs) and cramped quarters on the OS disk (e.g. small SSD), you can reduce it to 2GBs.

You can monitor your paging activeity in the Resource Monitor > Memory tab. Either in the Hard Fault column or in the graph on the bottom right.

If you are tight for disk space, I would first delete the hiberfile with the powercfg -h off command. That saves you appr. the equivalent of your RAM size. Then, of course, you cannot use hibernation any more.

2010MegaScooter · Jan 16, 2011

whs said:
It will depend of what you are doing and how much RAM you have. Most programs do not need a lot or any space on the pagefile. But if you have a small RAM (e.g. 2GBs) it is advisable to leave it up to the system to manage. For a large RAM (e.g. 6 or 8GBs) and cramped quarters on the OS disk (e.g. small SSD), you can reduce it to 2GBs.

You can monitor your paging activeity in the Resource Monitor > Memory tab. Either in the Hard Fault column or in the graph on the bottom right.

If you are tight for disk space, I would first delete the hiberfile with the powercfg -h off command. That saves you appr. the equivalent of your RAM size. Then, of course, you cannot use hibernation any more.

So That means You Save RAM Space... ? Then You Cannot Use Hibernation Mode For The Rest Of The Time Your Computer Lives?

whs · Jan 16, 2011

You can always set the hibernation file back on, with this command: powercfg -h on

2010MegaScooter · Jan 16, 2011

whs said:
You can always set the hibernation file back on, with this command: powercfg -h on

Thanks.

cluberti · Jan 16, 2011

If you want to know fairly close to real-time numbers how your system performs with different settings, consider using perfmon to make this determination while tracing your system under normal usage. I personally keep my paging file small (512MB) with 8+GB of RAM on an x64 Win7 or 2008 R2 machine, and only change it back to RAM+50MB if I need to gather a crash dump. There are exceptions to this rule, but most of those involve SQL or Exchange running on 2008 R2, and not the Win7 client at all. I also set DisablePagingExecutive on x64 to 1 as well, as this can affect kernel debugging (and if you get to a point in resource exhaustion where your Kernel executive needs to be paged, you've already lost the battle anyway - this would not be your problem, and bugchecking would be the least of your problems).

Frank1 · Jan 16, 2011

Does a computer with 8GB of RAM really need a pagefile?? With RAM as inexpensive as it is, it makes me wonder if MS will someday do away with the page file.

whs · Jan 16, 2011

Frank1 said:
Does a computer with 8GB of RAM really need a pagefile?? With RAM as inexpensive as it is, it makes me wonder if MS will someday do away with the page file.

Yes it does. For some odd reason some program generate page faults regardless how much free RAM you have. I noticed that e.g. with the AV programs.

cluberti · Jan 16, 2011

Yes, but hard faults or soft? Only a hard fault requires a read from disk - and even then, a hard fault does not mean the read from disk was from the paging file (it could have been serviced from the file on disk that was requested). In general, though, it is good to have a paging file to allow the kernel and paged pool to be allowed to work properly under load, or to gather at least a kernel dump on a crash. In general, more than 512MB - 1GB would not be required though. The links I posted, if followed, should give you an idea of what windows is doing when set to "system managed" and thus what sorts of settings you may need if you want to configure it manually.

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