virtual memory

[squid13]

Windows XP Home SP3. I put 1 gig of memory in this computer. What would be a good setting for virtual memory, minimum and maximum? 40 gig hard drive.

[Midknyte]

http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

[Broni]

1.5xRAM

[Midknyte]

1.5GB seems excessive to me. I'd probably put the max at 1024MB, if anything.

How big should the page file be?

There is a great deal of myth surrounding this question. Two big fallacies are:

* The file should be a fixed size so that it does not get fragmented, with minimum and maximum set the same
* The file should be 2.5 times the size of RAM (or some other multiple)

Both are wrong in a modern, single-user system...

it is suggested that a sensible start point for the initial size would be the greater of (a) 100 MB or (b) enough to bring RAM plus file to about 500 MB. EXAMPLE: Set the Initial page file size to 400 MB on a computer with 128 MB RAM; 250 on a 256 MB computer; or 100 MB for larger sizes.

But have a high Maximum size — 700 or 800 MB or even more if there is plenty of disk space.

[Broni]

OK. We may have interesting discussion here.
First of all, I can see at that page: Last Updated February 21, 2006
Then, I don't see any explanation for the above settings.
What do we do with 2, 3, 4GB of RAM?

[squid13]

The computer said the recommended size should be 1533 MB. That's what I put both settings at,initial size and maximum size. the minimum is 2 MB. Is that good or should it be something else? That's one and a half the size of the ram.

[Broni]

This is how I have it set up, but I'll be very interested to see, what others have to say.

[photolady]

That's the number we've always recommended here, 1.5x your actual memory installed. And it worked on my XP computer just fine.

[squid13]

Thank You to everyone for your responses, it's greatly appreciated.

[Midknyte]

The whole point of the pagefile is to act as ram when you run out of physical ram. The more physical ram you have, the less you will use the pagefile. So if you have 2GB of ram, it wouldn't make sense to create a 3GB pagefile. Having a bigger pagefile won't hurt, but it will take up space.

The computer said the recommended size should be 1533 MB. That's what I put both settings at,initial size and maximum size. the minimum is 2 MB. Is that good or should it be something else? That's one and a half the size of the ram.

There is a great deal of myth surrounding this question. Two big fallacies are:

* The file should be a fixed size so that it does not get fragmented, with minimum and maximum set the same
* The file should be 2.5 times the size of RAM (or some other multiple)

I think you're just wasting disk space by setting the min/max to 1.5GB. Initial = minimum. Like I said, 1024 Max. You can set the min to something like 512.

This has been debated ad nauseum all over the net. Why are you fussing with the pagefile in the first place? If you were going to choose 1.5GB as your max, you could have just let Windows manage the pagefile automatically.

[Midknyte]

One more thing. If you are constantly hitting the pagefile (disk thrashing), then you need to add more physical ram. There is no substitute for real ram.

[photolady]

One more thing. If you are constantly hitting the pagefile (disk thrashing), then you need to add more physical ram. There is no substitute for real ram.

This is absolutely true.

Comments on your previous post; if you have a larger harddrive, it shouldn't matter, though I do see your point.