Virtual memory yes or no?

Liamalxd

Liamalxd

Liamalxd

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i have 4gb ddr2 800mhz ram running at 898mhz ...
and a 500gb 7200rpm sata hard drive.

yes or no on the virtual memory, will it affect my performance and how?
keep in mind i'm running windows 7 and lots of high def games like crysis and mirrors edge :)

p.s - right now i have 4096mb of virtual memory set.

Thanks,
Liam.
 
What do you mean by "yes or no on the virtual memory"?

If you're thinking of turning it off, I wouldn't recommend it.

VM is vital for smooth operation.
 
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Performance effects will be negligible and it is likely some programs will become unstable... leave it on:)
 
I assume you're talking about the page file. Virtual memory is a concept that cannot be turned off in Windows.

In which case, no. Turning the page file off seriously hurts performance and will cause stability problems as well.
 
Liamalxd said:
what? lol i'm asking if it makes sense performance wise to turn it off or leave it on.
Click to expand...

It doesn't make much sense to disable the paging file from a performance perspective. The paging file is there so the system can write pages on the modified page list, which represent pages which have been taken out of a process working set because they aren't being accessed actively but have not yet been saved to disk, out to the paging file. This then results in that memory being available for more useful purposes such as caching.

If you have no paging file on the other hand, private modified pages would have to be backed by physical memory. Forcing data which isn't being accessed actively to occupy space in memory isn't a particularly intelligent thing to do. The system also won't be able to generate crash dumps without a paging file either. You then also have to take into account whether your workload requires a paging file or not. If your workload requires more system committed virtual memory than the amount of physical memory of the machine, you would need to have a paging file. If you disable it without taking this into account, you may run into some issues as highlighted here.

Generally, it's best to leave the paging file enabled. As far as what sort of size the paging file needs to be, there is no single answer because it depends on your workload. If you are not interested in monitoring the system committed virtual memory requirements of your workload, letting Windows manage the paging file should be sufficient. While this isn't necessary the best way to size the paging file because it will base it on the amount of physical memory of the machine, it shouldn't cause any issues. However, if you would like to size the paging file yourself, this article here will help you do that.
 
I prefer to set my own min-max for the pagefile, I can't see why it's really 'best' to let the system do it.
Mine is set to 4gb min+max which is plenty as I have 4gb memory and a 4gb flash drive dedicated to readyboost.

You definitely shouldn't turn it off though :)
 
Simi said:
I prefer to set my own min-max for the pagefile, I can't see why it's really 'best' to let the system do it.
Mine is set to 4gb min+max which is plenty as I have 4gb memory and a 4gb flash drive dedicated to readyboost.

You definitely shouldn't turn it off though :)
Click to expand...

Because if it goes to exceed your limit, it can't and you get an out of memory error message :D
 
Simi said:
I prefer to set my own min-max for the pagefile, I can't see why it's really 'best' to let the system do it.
Click to expand...

Because the pagefile size required is dynamic. It's based on your current memory usage and your peak commit charge. By setting a rigid fixed limit you are not providing the optimal or possibly even the required pagefile size. So unless you can change the pagefile size when you launch a large program, Windows will always be better than whatever arbitrary limit you set.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
Because the pagefile size required is dynamic. It's based on your current memory usage and your peak commit charge. By setting a rigid fixed limit you are not providing the optimal or possibly even the required pagefile size. So unless you can change the pagefile size when you launch a large program, Windows will always be better than whatever arbitrary limit you set.
Click to expand...
Hmm, never really looked at it like that, I always thought 4gb would be more than enough.
Going to try it out and see if there's any difference.
 
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I'll say what I always say when this comes up: if you think you know more about managing memory than the guys who wrote the Windows kernel, by all means turn the pagefile off* or set it manually. If you don't, then let Windows manage it.

* You're talking about disabling the pagefile, not virtual memory... memory in Windows or any modern OS is always virtualized, and the use of a pagefile is just one element of that process.
 
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