Windows 7 & Virtual Memory

[ZeuZ]

I pretty much only use my pc for gaming (world of warcraft, fps games) and my question is, how should I handle the virtual memory aspect for better gaming? Currently the virtual memory is set to "Automatically manage paging file for all drives". Now is there a better or more precise setup to handle that for better performance for my gaming rig?

My setup:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 GHZ
Asus P5KC Mobo
Patriot PC2-6400 800mhz 4gigs
Western Digital SATA150 16mb 10,000rpm
GeForce 8800GT 512MB
Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit

Also on my hdd, I have 2 partitions, 1 solely for the os, and 1 for games, movies, mp3, etc. My partition is 20gigs and has 7gigs free and my gaming partition has about 50gigs free. For the paging file option should I leave that to automatic with what I have or is there a better option for optimal performance for gaming? Or what about setting 1 for both partitions? Sorry for the noobieness, just seeking some info and insight.

 

[Urbwolf]

You should set paging file to twice your ram you have installed so you have 4gbs you should set it to min 8gb and max 10-12gb

 

[Qdos]

There's always been a huge debate about paging files and what's best.

I've only ever seen noticeable performance gains when the paging file is placed onto a separate drive (not a spare partition, but a separate physical drive).

Even then the gains were hardly terribly significant.

 

[ZeuZ]

You should set paging file to twice your ram you have installed so you have 4gbs you should set it to min 8gb and max 10-12gb

Since I have 2 partitions and 4gigs of ram, would it be more beneficial to set the paging file on the partition where the games are installed to?

 

[johnhoh]

Try it with no paging file

 

[green98ls]

From what I've read in various places, the paging file is mostly beneficial to computers with 512mb -1gb or less of ram.

I've ran Windows with no paging file with 4gb of ram and then used the default settings and noticed no difference

 

[Urbwolf]

Paging file works with your physical ram, The page file is one of those pieces of the operating system that administrators know that they need to have - but they can't always explain why they need it, or how to accurately size it. Since Windows 95, Windows-based operating systems have used a special file that acts as a sort of "scratch pad" to store modified pages that are still in use by some process. Page file space is reserved when the pages are initially committed, however the page file locations are not chosen until the page is written to disk. So, in simplistic terms, the page file is used by Windows to hold temporary data which is swapped in and out of physical memory in order to provide a larger virtual memory set. When the system boots up, the Session Manager process determines the list of page files to open by reading the value in the HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PagingFiles. This value contains the name of the paging file as well as the minimum and maximum size of each paging file. Windows supports up to 16 page files. On a 32-bit system running the normal kernel, the maximum size of each page file is 4095 MB. On x64 systems and x86 systems with the PAE kernel, the maximum page file size is 16 terabytes (16TB).

 

[ZeuZ]

Im going to try it with no paging file on either partition and see how it goes. I think I understand now how it works to some point more or less. I would assume that a page file would be better if you are playing games that loads in alot of data? Like World of Warcraft for example, some of the world zones are pretty big, wouldn't a page file be more useful in something like that?

 

[stormy13]

Don't bother with making it on the second partition. The worst thing you can do is to create it on a second partition as if anything actually has to use the pagefile, then the read head will have to bounce between the second partition and whatever program is loading/running (that in all likelihood is installed on the first partition).

The only way there is any benefit to a partition anywhere other than the boot drive/partition is if it is on a separate hard drive, and even then the benefits are usually minimal.

 

[Dwarf]

If you have more than one physical drive, then you can set the paging file up on that and have it managed by the system. As said by stormy13 (and Qdos), don't have the file on a separate partition on the same drive as your OS as that can slow things down due to excess head movement. Even if you have plenty of memory, don't be tempted to disable the paging file altogether because some applications still check for its presence. In actual fact, Windows is designed to make use of this file.

 

[johnhoh]

Im going to try it with no paging file on either partition and see how it goes. I think I understand now how it works to some point more or less. I would assume that a page file would be better if you are playing games that loads in alot of data? Like World of Warcraft for example, some of the world zones are pretty big, wouldn't a page file be more useful in something like that?

A page file is vital when there is not enough physical memory to service the program(s), and is unnecessary otherwise. Since some programs do not work without it, many advise that you not turn it off. I have run for years without a paging file and have never suffered any negative effects. Not a gamer however.

 

[Creer]

I pretty much only use my pc for gaming (world of warcraft, fps games) and my question is, how should I handle the virtual memory aspect for better gaming? Currently the virtual memory is set to "Automatically manage paging file for all drives". Now is there a better or more precise setup to handle that for better performance for my gaming rig?

My setup:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 GHZ
Asus P5KC Mobo
Patriot PC2-6400 800mhz 4gigs
Western Digital SATA150 16mb 10,000rpm
GeForce 8800GT 512MB
Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit

Also on my hdd, I have 2 partitions, 1 solely for the os, and 1 for games, movies, mp3, etc. My partition is 20gigs and has 7gigs free and my gaming partition has about 50gigs free. For the paging file option should I leave that to automatic with what I have or is there a better option for optimal performance for gaming? Or what about setting 1 for both partitions? Sorry for the noobieness, just seeking some info and insight.

Read the article by Mark Russinovich about Virtual Memory in Windows OS on his blog:
Mark's Blog : Pushing the Limits of Windows: Virtual Memory

This should answer your question.

 

[ZeuZ]

Oh definitely a nice read. I've read pretty much the same thing on differernt threads about having a page file on a separate hdd. My question would be if you did put the page file on the 2nd hdd, that 2nd hdd would have to be the same speed as your main hdd? I guess no sense putting the page file on a slower hdd or would that even matter? My main hdd is a sata 10,000rpm and the one I might test out for a page file hdd is only 7200 rpm, or would that even matter?

 

[ZeuZ]

Had another hdd with same specs as my main but smaller, and set the pagefile to 8gig-12gig on it and going to see how that goes.

 

[fw2010]

The absolute best place for the paging file would be on an SSD (as long as the SSD is on a fast channel).

FW