Ok I've got 6gb ram now...what do do with pagefile?

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As title really, I'm on Vista 64 (ultimate) and I've just put 6gb ram in (2x2gb and 2x1gb Corsair XMS2 DHX 6400 @ 4 4 4 12)

Should I still have a page file? If so how large?

Thanks for any advice,

G
 
Left for windows . . . It wants it, let it use it.
I have 4gb system and a 4gb readyboost (I know, but it was going to waste anyway! Apparently it stores its superfetch data on there)
 
Leave it alone.
Let windows control it.
Even with 8Gig then Windows will still use virtual ram(hard drive for pagefile).
If windows was meant to NOT use it then it would not be there.
 
I recently upgraded to 8gb also, started using xp less and less, so thought i might aswell go all out vista 64

atm ive got a static size page file created after i defragged so its all in one place on my hard drive, but im wondering if it might be worth just getting rid of page file altogether, as i never seem to even use 4gb let alone all 8gb

littlepuppy have you had any issues at all since you got rid of the pagefile?
 
You're unlikely to notice any issues unless you have numerous processes running.

The only real reason to disable the pagefile is for security purposes.
 
Strife212 said:
Some programs just need the pagefile or they will go wrong, just leave it on.
Click to expand...

Tuvoc said:
I have 8GB and kept mine :)

Nice to see everyone in complete agreement on this issue :D
Click to expand...

musicman53 said:
Leave it alone.
Let windows control it.
Even with 8Gig then Windows will still use virtual ram(hard drive for pagefile).
If windows was meant to NOT use it then it would not be there.
Click to expand...

I've tried running Vista on 5GB, 6GB and 8GB without a paging file. 5GB is not reliably enough RAM. I had a couple of issues with 6GB, mostly when I was running Crysis alongside a media player, multiple internet browsers and a few smaller programs - from my experience, you'll be alright with no paging file at 6GB until you have less than about a GB free, so you just have to keep an eye on how much RAM you have free.
With 8GB I've never had a problem, and it's sufficient that I rarely bother to see how much I have free.

I've also never come across a program that has to use a paging file.. I can't see how that would work, since the paging file is essentially additional RAM for the computer that the OS allocates to ensure the computer doesn't run out (although it gets overenthusiastic and therefore uses it even when it doesn't need to, i.e. with 8GB RAM).

If you do decide to disable it (hey, you could disable it for a test and revert back if you start getting errors) it's worth first reducing the size of the pagefile to 16MB (min size) before disabling it, since Windows leaves the unused paging file on your HDD, taking up GBs of space.

And, if you decide not to disable it, you can improve performance by spreading it out over multiple drives (not partitions).
 
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