Page File Size in WinXP..

[Starburn]

Whats a decent size for the page file in WinXP?
With a gig of RAM..

By default it seems windows likes to have 1.5 x size of RAM.. but a gig of main memory /and/ a one and a half gig page file seems like such overkill..

Got it set to 256mb-512mb atm.. seems to be running ok.


Another question I have is; why does Windows use the page file so much? Looking at the number of page faults for an application just makes me wonder - why page out half of a program that is only using 10mb of RAM for example? with 1024mb total why not just keep it in main memory? :|

[directhex]

in case something needs that much memory!

as a quick example, Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines needs 384mb RAm and 1.4Gb swap in order to run - i.e., until you have 2gb, it'll swap during play.

[EvilMunky]

its standard practice to have windows page file at 1.5 x the amount of ram.

It may seem like overkill but with disk space not exactly breaking the bank these days - its good to have it!

[wasabi]

Don'tallow it to have a variable size pagefile - set it to a fixed amount. It is somewhat dangerous to have it set smaller that your physical RAM. Best configuration for you is to set at 1500 min and 1500 max - that means it won't have to resize itself often (slow) and is less likely to fragment.

[Allen]

I have mine at 1500-2000 (1GB of RAM), wasn't aware that setting it to a variable amount could slow the machine down though...

[EvilMunky]

Don'tallow it to have a variable size pagefile - set it to a fixed amount. It is somewhat dangerous to have it set smaller that your physical RAM. Best configuration for you is to set at 1500 min and 1500 max - that means it won't have to resize itself often (slow) and is less likely to fragment.

Agreeed - I always set it to a fixed amount.

Another good thing to do is have the pagefile either split up over different drives - or on a different drive to your system one!

[Dooms]

I have 2gig ram and have the page file turned off.

[str]

You can use a defrag program such as Diskeeper (Lite version is free) to put the swap file at the end of the disk. You would want to switch to a fixed size before doing it.

[buzz_lips]

Agreeed - I always set it to a fixed amount.

Another good thing to do is have the pagefile either split up over different drives - or on a different drive to your system one!

Didn't realise that, hoe come that makes a difference? - and how do you move the page file?

[wasabi]

If you want to move the pagefile to a different drive or partition, it is safer to create the new pagefile first, (e.g. one on C and one on D) reboot a couple of times, then delete the original one. I've seen Win2000 and XP do a nasty BSOD a few times when doing a a straight swap.

[ikonia]

I thought XP / 2000 had removed the overhead of varible swap partition.

I remembe in the N4/3.51 days setting sily size page files to swap it growning but I thought the varible sizing was "ok" now, and didn't really dent the performance.

[tommylittleboy@]

I thought I'd just mention, I had to repair someones comp here, it was getting the BSOD in XP. Later found out it was a knackered page file, so I rebooted in safe mode, disabled the page file, rebooted, re-enabled the page file, and that seemed to clear up the problem. As for size, it had 256MB RAM so I set the page file to 512MB

[Captain Fizz]

I have 2gig ram and have the page file turned off.

Some applications will not run without a page file.

It's always better to have one, even if it's only 100MB.

And the amount of PF you need depends on what you do.

I have 1GB of RAM and have used up to 2GB of a Page file editing big pictures etc.
Map editing programs can also use way over 1GB.
LOTR BFME uses over 1GB at times.

So I would always leave a gig or two as a page file.
Just in case!
(You really don't want to run out and it be set to a fixed size)

[Nox]

Whats a decent size for the page file in WinXP?

Really depends what you do! For the optimum result I would probably set it to a static 1024mb and monitor pf useage over the next 24 hours of regular computer use - If you never go above 200mb pf usage, i would then set it to 300mb, if it screamed out of memory every hour, set it to 1.5gb, then monitor again for 24hrs. And if I had 1TB disk storage space, I wouldn't worry about setting it too high

Nox

[Dooms]

Some applications will not run without a page file.

It's always better to have one, even if it's only 100MB.

And the amount of PF you need depends on what you do.

I have 1GB of RAM and have used up to 2GB of a Page file editing big pictures etc.
Map editing programs can also use way over 1GB.
LOTR BFME uses over 1GB at times.

So I would always leave a gig or two as a page file.
Just in case!
(You really don't want to run out and it be set to a fixed size)

I havnt come across anything that hasnt run without pagefile... I keep it disabled becuase things work, open and close faster with it off.

[ikonia]

I personally think swapping is a good process in computing, no matter how much ram you've got.

I remember the old nieve debates when I was younger about running nt 4 without a page file as it was so much cleaner than NT 3.5.1 and all that jazz.

The only possible problem I can see with the senario Dooms is mentioning without a swap file is actually on an idle machine.

If you have a lot of RAM but no page file there is no disk location for swapper to swap out not busy programs, thus is you have say photoshop open and a big image in it, call it 500meg for example, then start playing doom 3 then instead of being able to leave photoshop open and let XP swap it out into disk to free up more ram for the game you've actually reduced the ammount of ram available. Remember its better to have free ram to swap on or use for buffering.

I've worked on Big machines with terrabytes of disk storage and so much ram it goes of the scale, and even these machines have swap file for better machine managment.

I suppose it shouldn't matter as much on a workstation where its not running processes for long periods of time though.