Vitual Memory/page/swap file

Ken Veal · Post by **Ken Veal** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 11:36 pm

At present I have 1.5 GB ram.The VS11+ manual tells me to set the min + max value to twice my ram.In a recent article in a computer magazine
it reccommended 2034MBmin +3072max.Is this not an excact science here or is it just guess work.What are the advantages/consequences etc of setting a lower min than double the ram regards Ken

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:34 am

Twice your RAM is old and out of date advice now. Imagine some users who have 2GB (or more) of RAM!!

Please view:
Virtual Memory Optimization Guide

Post by **jparnold** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 5:12 am

Wow that article (Virtual Memory Optimization Guide) is a big read.

One thing which is important if you change your paging file (and pointed out in the article) is to DEFRAGMENT the hard drive before creating/changing it.
I do that by disabling the paging file (this is ok if you have at least 256Mb ram) then Defragment the hard drive then set the paging file to a value. I set mine to 1.5 times ram and set the MINIMUM and MAXIMUM size the SAME. I read somewhere that by setting the paging min and max size the same you avoid fragmentation of the paging file. I can't see how this can be but I think that it can't hurt even if it makes no difference.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 5:25 am

You read it in that article.
What it means is that a chunk of your hard drive is reserved for a swap file, no matter how large or small it is, nothing else uses that area.
(Unless your hard drive gets full)

Ken Veal · Post by **Ken Veal** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 12:13 am

Thanks for the link steve, I think I now know all I need to know about paging and swap files.Since posting the memory question I have installed 3GB of ram.I still need clarification though on how much I should set the min + max values to or if I need any at all.Will any applications actually need paging/swap files.Would it be wise to let XP by default control the files even if this would take up some processing power.
As for this being old hat it does rather beg the question why is setting to twice the ram being published in the manual of Uleads latest video editing software regards Ken

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 12:40 am

If you right click "My computer" and select 'properties', 'Advanced' and then select 'Performance Settings'. 'Advanced' 'Virtual memory' [change]
What do you see near the bottom of the dialog box next to "recommended"

According to Microsoft you still need a paging file - even if it is only a very small one.

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Vitual Memory/page/swap file

Vitual Memory/page/swap file

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