Solved PAGE File Size

[inwell]

Hi,

New year greetings....

I purchased a new motherboard and RAM . ASUS M5a97 and 32GB DDR3
Made a fresh install of Windows 7 x64. My query is how much PAGE FILE do i really need? Currently windows created a PAGEFILE of 32 GB..(Do i need that ?) or manually reduce the size ? and how much ?

Will be using 3dsMax Design for rendering


regards

 

[LittleJay]

Hi inwell. With 32 Gbs of RAM, you shouldn't need a page file that size. I have 8 Gbs myself and have manually set the page file to 2 Gbs without encountering any problems.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Theoretically pagefile is there in case you run out of RAM, but with 32 GB... it's not going to be the case even with 3ds max.
Keep it below 1 GB but don't ditch it as it still serves some minor functions.

 

[inwell]

thank you ,

 

[Wrend]

I have 32GB RAM and don't use the Windows 7 paging file at all. It works great for me, but I make sure to leave plenty (typically roughly 16GB, though this does drop lower from time to time, depending on what I'm running) of RAM available and free for SuperFetch and so I don't risk filling it too full. I plan to get another 32GB shortly for a larger RAM drive.

The Windows 7 paging file system does provide some minor additional beneficial functions other than covering you if you run out of RAM, but for my usage and needs, not using one has proven to be completely inconsequential.

 

[OldMX]

Dont disable it, make it static or fixed size, like 2048 min/max.

 

[Wrend]

Yeah, probably good advice, but in my case at least, there seems to (in effect) be no real need for it. I'm not advising others to disable it; just sharing my empirical results.

...

I've left my computer up and running nearly 24/7 (only restarting for updates and the like) for several months now without using the Window's paging file. I primarily use my computer as a gaming PC, Minecraft server, workstation, web browser, home entertainment system, and also for crunching for BOINC.

 

[pbcopter]

If you remove the page file completely, the system can not generate a memory dump file if needed.
I believe it needs at least 800MB for this.

 

[Wrend]

This might be a workaround for that:

A hotfix is available that enables a Windows 7-based or Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer to create a memory dump file without a page file

Either way, I'm not too concerned about needing to use it, so I haven't bothered with it.

I've heard that the Windows 7 paging file also helps cycle through the loaded application data to defragment RAM over time so that enough sequential RAM is available to be written to, though I'm not sure if that is actually the case or not, nor how much of an issue fragmented RAM actually is, especially in my case where nearly half of my 32GB of RAM is typically "available" and/or "free," and about a third is used as a RAM drive. As mentioned, I haven't notice any negative effects of not using a paging file for my needs. I typically restart my computer for updates of some sort or another about once a week, it seems, and that might be enough to keep my RAM from becoming too fragmented to effectively use.

 

[pallesenw]

Physical memory is already divided into many small pages. Only for special purposes does it need to be contiguous. There is no way to defragment the virtual address space.

 

[Wrend]

This is where I heard it:

low ram? - Minecraft Forum - Page 3 - Page 3

Not knowing the poster very well, and being on a video game forum, I took it with a grain of salt. Then again, I may be misinterpreting what they said.

I'm not an expert; just a DIY² geek.

 

[pallesenw]

Well, it is nonsense. A block of allocated contiguous memory (by an application) points to many small pieces in physical memory. Those pieces don't need to be contiguous.

If there is no contiguous block large enough in the virtual address space, the application will just fail to allocate the memory. It is not possible, having a page file or not, for the memory manager to defragment the application's virtual address space.

It is impossible, because the memory manager has no way of correcting all the memory references the application has to its data. All those references would be invalidated, if the memory manager began to shuffle data around.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

sigh. RAM is Random Access Memory, stuff is horribly fragmented in there at the physical level, but being that a totally different technology than HDDs and SSDs it's completely irrelevant. It's like comparing apples to bananas.

pagefile is nowadays needed only for some minor diagnostic functions like generating a memory dump file (as we can get so huge amounts of RAM that it hurts), so if you don't have any issue, you don't need it, point is if you need it and it wasn't set correctly, you are a bit screwed.

 

[Wrend]

OK, yeah. It seemed a little off to me too, and I had never heard of the need to "defragment" RAM before, which is why I just relayed it as something that I had heard that might or might not be correct, since I wasn't sure.

They unfortunately seemed to know what they were talking about though (and went into some detail about it), even if they actually didn't.

I would think that if the Windows 7 paging file was actually necessary under all circumstances, even if for just the more minor functions, they wouldn't have the option to disable it altogether in the settings menus, beyond maybe just a registry edit for some kind of troubleshooting, or the like.

 

[pallesenw]

Not much of it is true. They also talk about the page size will be 64kB when you disable the page file - when in fact the page file has no impact on this at all. The current x86 cpus don't even support pages at that size.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Well, if you wanted an OS that treated you like a child you'd have bought a Mac, or a tablet.
There are quite a few settings that are dangerous, but are useful in some specific circumstances if you know what you are doing.

 

[Wrend]

Right, could be dangerous, but there aren't so many accessible menu settings that will be under any and all possible circumstances that I can think of off hand. Kind of late here though, and I'm a bit tired.

What I mean is, some of the people in that thread were making it sound as though disabling the paging file is never a valid usable option.

And yeah, not a Mac/Apple user, nor much of a fan of any mass marketed pre-built PCs as far as my home PCs are concerned.

I do have a Nexus 7 though, but not to be used for all the same things as my PCs.