Windows is low on Virtual Memory. Huh?!

Firegod · 7 Dec 2006 at 19:55

Hi,

Just been playing PoE2 (a mod for BF2) and it's been freezing and crashing sometimes. When I came out of the game tonight, Windows had a little icon saying that I was low on Virtual Memory. :confused:

The reason I'm confused is because I have 2Gb of RAM. I have set the pagefile on another hard drive to 1024 - 1024mb (i.e. 1Gb).

I have checked in TaskManager and it reports that the Peak Commit Charge was 1778208(K). Total Memory is 2095536(K).

Do people think I should perhaps increase the page file to perhaps 1.5Gb?

Thanks.

tonyyeb · 7 Dec 2006 at 20:10

I would suggest reading this:

http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm

Explains about what size a page file should be plus loads of other info on virtual memory.

Richdog · 7 Dec 2006 at 20:11

How much free HD space do you have?

Tony Williams · 7 Dec 2006 at 20:36

Vitual Memory should be 150% your RAM ie, if you have 2GB you should use 3GB or better still let Windows do it.

I wouldn't set it too high, Windows might take advantage of it and use it insted of RAM. Since HDDs are much slower comrpared to RAM it's understandable.

Clarkey · 7 Dec 2006 at 21:16

let windows manage it, it knows best

tonyyeb · 7 Dec 2006 at 21:19

Tony Williams said:
I wouldn't set it too high, Windows might take advantage of it and use it insted of RAM.

Please link to a website that states this. I have never heard anything so ridiculous.

TheVoice · 8 Dec 2006 at 09:44

Tony Williams said:
Vitual Memory should be 150% your RAM ie, if you have 2GB you should use 3GB or better still let Windows do it.

Not really, because if you only have 256MB of RAM you'll end up with a smaller pagefile than someone with 2GB of RAM. Letting Windows configure the pagefile means it alters in size dynamically, and so will become more fragmented.

With 2GB of RAM, a pagefile of 1536MB works fine for me. 2048MB would also be good, but can't really see the point in going over that. Theoretically, the more RAM you have, the smaller the pagefile you need.

Windows is also certainly not stupid enough to use the pagefile before RAM.

Burnsy2023 · 8 Dec 2006 at 09:57

TheVoice said:
With 2GB of RAM, a pagefile of 1536MB works fine for me. 2048MB would also be good, but can't really see the point in going over that. Theoretically, the more RAM you have, the smaller the pagefile you need.

You say that, but if you have a machine with 2GB of RAM you are likely to use programs that will fill a large amount of that space and therefore you need a large amount of virtual memory. It's doubtful that your going to just use a word processor on a machine with such a large amount of RAM.

Fragmentation of virtual memory isn't really an issue, as your paging information onto the drive that isn't going to stay there for relatively long time, and even if it is there a while, the current program will have most of it's paging in the same place on the disk. The amount of fragmentation that is possible and likely is minimal and IMO certainly not enough of a reason to take away that control from Windows.

Burnsy

Firegod · 8 Dec 2006 at 11:39

Thanks guys.

I don't want to set it so that Windows manages it, because of fragmentation (regardless of if it only is a small amount) I'd rather have it a set size which I know. The funny thing is, I've never seen this before on my machine, it's only since using this mod on BF2, which makes me think perhaps it's a bug???

Regardless, thanks for the help, I shall try increasing it slightly to see if that helps first of all. With regards to hard drive space, I have 48Gb free on my Raptor (Windows Drive) and 175Gb free on the Seagate (Games Drive / PageFile Drive).

Thanks for that link, I'll have a read of it.

bledd · 8 Dec 2006 at 12:18

Clarkey said:
let windows manage it, it knows best

yup, definatly the best advice, i've read up loads on pagefile usage, and in 2000 and xp, windows managed pagefile is definatly the best -even if you have 4gb of ram xp will always create a pagefile (there's no way to trully disable it)

the amount of defragmentation is so small anyway, but if you're worried, then use this..

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDisk/PageDefrag.mspx

PinkPig · 8 Dec 2006 at 12:31

Anyone who knows anything about how the page file works suggests that you leave it to let Windows manage it - anyone running around saying "fragmentation" is being ridiculous, there is no evidence at all that it causes any issues and some tests show that trying to use a fixed size causes performance less itself. You're not going to notice any difference whatsoever, we're not even talking a fraction of a percentage here.

Firegod · 8 Dec 2006 at 15:12

Ok guys, I'll set it back to Windows. :cool:

Curiosityx · 8 Dec 2006 at 15:18

Your getting the error because you have removed the pagefile from the boot partition.

Remember that for debugging information a page file will still be required on the boot partition, the required size will vary depending on the debugging option selected.

If you want to use a minimal size place a pagefile on the C: and D: volumes, set them each to 1024Mb Min/Max size to prevent fragmentation and you wont have further problems.

Also virtual memory can never be truly turned off.

sWiZzLe · 1 Jul 2007 at 19:24

Clarkey said:
let windows manage it, it knows best

I have to 2gb, with my Pagefile set to 3072

I have been getting 'Out of Virtual Memory' messages. Windows sets it to around 5500 :eek:

Should i let Windows manage my pagefile?

tonyyeb · 1 Jul 2007 at 19:45

sWiZzLe said:
Should i let Windows manage my pagefile?

Yes.

NathanE · 1 Jul 2007 at 20:44

There seems to be an endless stream of people that believe virtual memory is like an overflow carpark. This could not be further from the truth.

The page file is intended to be a 'slightly dirty' mirror image of system memory. Virtual memory is just a software construct (OK, since the 386, hardware too) to allow the OS to seamlessly switch pages of memory between RAM and the page file without the program realising.

With that in mind there should be at least a 1:1 ratio between the amount of RAM installed and the size of the page file. Often it is best to increase the ratio by 1/4 to aid with multi tasking - especially on PC's with less than 1GB of RAM. This is what 'system managed' option will do - so if in doubt, use that.

zobby · 1 Jul 2007 at 22:01

good though all this talk of virtual memory is.. its probably not his virtual memory size that's causing this problem. It sounds more like a bug in his mod that's causing it - no amount of virtual memory will help this.

FreeStream · 1 Jul 2007 at 22:12

I don't even have a pagefile on and I've never run out of space with 2gb...

growse · 1 Jul 2007 at 22:24

Concorde Rules said:
I don't even have a pagefile on and I've never run out of space with 2gb...

Windows will always keep a pagefile, even if you tell it not to. It couldn't function otherwise. You'd probably find that performance increases a little if you add a pagefile.

bledd · 1 Jul 2007 at 22:53

Concorde Rules said:
I don't even have a pagefile on and I've never run out of space with 2gb...

its an often mistaken myth that running xp without a pagefile is better for it when you've got a lot of ram

it uses one whether you like it or not

i think extemehardware or gamepc did a massive comparison with differing pagefiles

windows set came out almost on top

having multiple raptors was the best option and having a pagefile on each, but they then said you'd be better off RAID0'ing the lot and doing windows managed