Solved Do I need a Swap File....if so how big?

[the lemming]

Hello

I've just bought a new computer from PC World.

So far I have ripped the guts out of the eMachine case and put it into another case along with my ATI graphics card and 8gb of new RAM to go with the 2GB that came with the computer. The computer also has 3 hard drives, one dedicated only to Windows 7.

Somebody mentioned about moving a Swap File to another drive.

With having 10Gb of RAM to play with, do I need a Swap File?

If I do need a Swap File should I stick to the Rule of Thumb and make it a whopping 15Gb in size?

Cheers

 

[zigzag3143]

Hello

I've just bought a new computer from PC World.

So far I have ripped the guts out of the eMachine case and put it into another case along with my ATI graphics card and 8gb of new RAM to go with the 2GB that came with the computer. The computer also has 3 hard drives, one dedicated only to Windows 7.

Somebody mentioned about moving a Swap File to another drive.

With having 10Gb of RAM to play with, do I need a Swap File?

If I do need a Swap File should I stick to the Rule of Thumb and make it a whopping 15Gb in size?

Cheers

You need a swap file to write the contents of a crash to DMP file.. You dont need a big one just 1 gig will do

 

[DeaconFrost]

You're best bet is to leave it alone. Windows 7 is different than XP, and shouldn't be treated or tweaked as such.

 

[whs]

Many programs produce hard page faults even if there is plenty of available RAM. If you do not have a page file, you will crash. If I recall right, 200MB is the minimum. But I would go with 1GB as recommended by zigzag. You will, however, not get a dump in case of a BSOD. For that you need the full size page file.

 

[Oaken]

Having read a range of mixed opinions on this and tested various settings over the months, I've come to the conclusion it's better to have a swap file than not. The only discernible difference I've experienced is when setting a constant size for the virtual memory- to that shown as recommended in the advanced settings for all drives.

 

[Frank1]

I have my page file set so that the maximum size is the same as minimum. I believe that the reason for the file being dynamic dates back to when hard-drive space was in megabytes not gigabytes. Therefore, so as not to use any more space than needed, the default setting had a maximum and minimum setting. I don't know why MS still has it that way when we have hundreds of gigabytes of space. I believe that your computer will run more efficiently when the page file is static verses dynamic. But that's only an opinion and not a fact.

 

[Britton30]

With an SSD for the OS, I have read the system will run faster if the Page File is relocated to a 2nd drive. But keep a Page aka, swap file anyway.

 

[whs]

With an SSD for the OS, I have read the system will run faster if the Page File is relocated to a 2nd drive. But keep a Page aka, swap file anyway.

This is also one of those sagas for which there is no proof and no logic. Look into your Resource Monitor > Memory tab and you will find that there are very few hard page faults (with 3, 4GB or more RAM). How could they possibly impact performance one way or another.

On the other hand there is the occasional hard page fault even if plenty of available RAM is there. This is why you need a page file.

 

[Airbot]

I think if a page file wasn't needed, or even could be used/redundant in Windows 7, they would have just taken the option out altogether. Wouldn't you think?

They've done it for other things.

 

[cluberti]

On the other hand there is the occasional hard page fault even if plenty of available RAM is there. This is why you need a page file.

A hard fault simply means a page was requested from RAM that was no longer in RAM - it does not in any way mean that you need a page file. If a hard fault causes a crash, then it was in a poorly-written driver. Not having a page file does not cause a crash on hard fault.

 

[Frank1]

I think if a page file wasn't needed, or even could be used/redundant in Windows 7, they would have just taken the option out altogether. Wouldn't you think?

Yes, I would think so. But I would also think that by now Microsoft would have done away with the Temporary Internet Files. That was something that was necessary when we had the slooooow dial-up connections. Now with our high speed connections, in my opinion, they are not only un-necessary, but if you have a huge cache, it can actually slow things down. But who am I to say? MS is smarter than I am. Wouldn't you think?

 

[cluberti]

You'd be surprised at how useful the TIF is, especially for intranet applications. And yes, because it's an indexed (index.dat) location, the larger the size the slower it is. That's why the default isn't a large value .

 

[Frank1]

You'd be surprised at how useful the TIF is, especially for intranet applications. And yes, because it's an indexed (index.dat) location, the larger the size the slower it is. That's why the default isn't a large value .

Darn it! That meas that Microsoft really is smarter that I am. I'm going to drink an extra bottle of beer tonight, it might make me feel better.

 

[pallesenw]

A hard fault simply means a page was requested from RAM that was no longer in RAM - it does not in any way mean that you need a page file.

Memory mapped files makes them. So just by launching an application you will get them.

 

[cluberti]

Correct, if the app uses a mapped file you will see them.

 

[pallesenw]

The exe file itself and dll files are also memory mapped files