Recommended size of swap file with 4 GB ram

[truckerking]

Hi. I'm wondering what the recommended size of the swap file is for a system with 4 GB of ram & a AMD Dual-core CPU.

 

[Dwarf]

Hi truckerking and welcome to Windows 7 Forums

Seeing as though I have the same CPU/RAM/OS combination as you, I figured I would show you what I have set for mine. Because Win7 does a much better job of memory management than its predessors, I recommend that you leave the setting as shown here as System managed size. If you wish to create a custom paging file, then untick Automatically manage paging file size for all drives and click on Custom size:. Using the values given below Minimum allowed: & Recommended:, fill in the appropriate boxes. For a fixed-size paging file, use Recommended: for both values. If you wish, you can instead disable the paging file by clicking No paging file although this is not recommended.

 

[brianzion]

i agree with dwarf windows 7 does a good job managing the page file one way to help is to leave the page file where windows installs it as default (c drive) if you have a large drive example 500GB partition 250GB and use this for all your data needs documents, pics, vids, etc

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2674-partition-volume-create-new.html

 

[truckerking]

thanks guys. I have heard that if you have more than 3 GB ram you do not need a swap file and that you should use a fixed size for the swap file because if you let windows manage it by itself it sometimes change the size and after some time the system will become slower because windows keep changing the size of the swap file all the time. But this is maybe just for xp.

 

[brianzion]

i have 6 gig of ram but i still use the swap file i experimented by turning the page file off but windows changed it back so i let windows sort it if you have a decent drive with good read and write properties you will be ok

 

[brianzion]

"quote" windows manage it by itself it sometimes change the size and after some time the system will become slower because windows keep changing the size of the swap file all the time.

windows doesnt change the swap file. once it is set it stays that size, it does all the calculations for you

 

[brianzion]

go to system information to get yours and post it back

 

[truckerking]

okey, that's just what i have heard

 

[truckerking]

 

[brianzion]

that looks good to me what size is the hard drive?

 

[brianzion]

check this thread of mine and you can download a program to see what type ram you have

http://www.sevenforums.com/software...-snapshot-available-data-each-ram-module.html

 

[brianzion]

make sure you choose what bit size though for your system

Versions:
V1.0 (Build 1000)
32-bit (921 KB)
64-bit (940 KB)

 

[truckerking]

that looks good to me what size is the hard drive?

250 GB

 

[brianzion]

that looks good to me what size is the hard drive?

250 GB

i would not partition then leave as it is

 

[truckerking]

that looks good to me what size is the hard drive?

250 GB

i would not partition then leave as it is

yes. I haven't done that.

 

[truckerking]

check this thread of mine and you can download a program to see what type ram you have

http://www.sevenforums.com/software...-snapshot-available-data-each-ram-module.html

that program looks like a useful program

 

[pparks1]

Just let Windows manage the swap file itself. If you really feel that you have to set it to something, the old school recommendation was 2x the amount of RAM...thus in your case 8GB. If you have a large hard drive, this may be hardly noticeable.

 

[madtownidiot]

If you're used to linux, which I'm guessing because you called it a swap file, it should be at least the same size as the memory in your system. You can get away with less than that if you don't plan to do any memory intensive applications, like multiple VMs, graphics music or photo editing etc..

Windows depends much more heavily on the pagefile than linux does on swap. I recommend 1.5x the actual memory for a pagefile, which is what I usually set as a fixed amount immediately after installing windows. Letting windows manage the virtual memory means the pagefile will become fragmented if you later decide to use Photoshop, Nero, or VMware... or even Winrar or 7zip, which can take a huge amount of memory during file compression operations.

 

[truckerking]

If you're used to linux, which I'm guessing because you called it a swap file, it should be at least the same size as the memory in your system. You can get away with less than that if you don't plan to do any memory intensive applications, like multiple VMs, graphics music or photo editing etc..

Windows depends much more heavily on the pagefile than linux does on swap. I recommend 1.5x the actual memory for a pagefile, which is what I usually set as a fixed amount immediately after installing windows. Letting windows manage the virtual memory means the pagefile will become fragmented if you later decide to use Photoshop, Nero, or VMware... or even Winrar or 7zip, which can take a huge amount of memory during file compression operations.

yes I'm using very memory intensive applications. I'm for example using Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended, VmWare Workstation and other Adobe memory intensive applications. I'm also playing pretty heavy games too. But I did a few modifications. Instead of having the swap file on the main partition(the partition with Windows and all my programs installed) I created a new partition with a size of 5 GB and use this ONLY for the swap file because if you do this the main partition does not have to work that much and the computer might be a bit faster

 

[brianzion]

If you're used to linux, which I'm guessing because you called it a swap file, it should be at least the same size as the memory in your system. You can get away with less than that if you don't plan to do any memory intensive applications, like multiple VMs, graphics music or photo editing etc..

Windows depends much more heavily on the pagefile than linux does on swap. I recommend 1.5x the actual memory for a pagefile, which is what I usually set as a fixed amount immediately after installing windows. Letting windows manage the virtual memory means the pagefile will become fragmented if you later decide to use Photoshop, Nero, or VMware... or even Winrar or 7zip, which can take a huge amount of memory during file compression operations.

yes I'm using very memory intensive applications. I'm for example using Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended, VmWare Workstation and other Adobe memory intensive applications. I'm also playing pretty heavy games too. But I did a few modifications. Instead of having the swap file on the main partition(the partition with Windows and all my programs installed) I created a new partition with a size of 5 GB and use this ONLY for the swap file because if you do this the main partition does not have to work that much and the computer might be a bit faster

cool and is it working ok ?