Initial and max pagefile 4GB XP

khemist · 8 Aug 2007 at 22:46

I have just added another 2gb (2x1GB) sticks of G.Skill HZ giving me 4GB in total with XP showing as 3.25GB.
What would be the best initial and max pagefile size i should be using? cheers.

Oops! meant to post this in hard drives.

Cupra · 8 Aug 2007 at 23:11

i always have mine @
4096
4096

Mattus · 9 Aug 2007 at 19:19

Keep it on automatically managed. Windows knows best.

Admiral Huddy · 10 Aug 2007 at 09:48

Mattus said:
Keep it on automatically managed. Windows knows best.

same here

helmutcheese · 10 Aug 2007 at 14:25

Ya long ago when XP was new there was a big review and it was found XP manages the pagefile best on its own, no amount of messing with it or turning off helps much if any and can hurt it, let it be.

Default is 1.5x Physical Ram.

Participant · 10 Aug 2007 at 14:50

But if Windows if constantly fiddling with the size of the pagefile, does this not in itself affect performance? We don't want constant "Windows is resizing your pagefile" messages! Everything I've ever read says fix it at 1.5-2x physical RAM.

stoofa · 10 Aug 2007 at 15:35

In the days od DOS & Windows being entirely seperate I used to specify a fixed pagefile - and it did make a difference.
Since the days of Win95 I've always allowed Windows to manage it's own swap files and it has always done so extremely well.

Admiral Huddy · 10 Aug 2007 at 15:45

Robbie G said:
But if Windows if constantly fiddling with the size of the pagefile, does this not in itself affect performance? We don't want constant "Windows is resizing your pagefile" messages! Everything I've ever read says fix it at 1.5-2x physical RAM.

You can always check the level of paging activity on your perfomance tab in control manager.

Mattus · 10 Aug 2007 at 17:13

I've only ever seen the 'Windows is increasing your virtual memory allocation' message once. That was when I was at school using a Win2000 machine with 64MB of RAM!

I'd say if you're getting this message often then you need to add more RAM, not just make your pagefile bigger.

TheVoice · 10 Aug 2007 at 18:40

Robbie G said:
Everything I've ever read says fix it at 1.5-2x physical RAM.

Doesn't work like that though, because it would mean that systems with less RAM would have a smaller pagefile.

I personally have mine at 2048 on a separate drive, and a 256MB one on the same drive as Windows. Reduces pagefile fragmentation, if nothing else.