Noob pagefile question

welshdragon

welshdragon

welshdragon

Soldato
Joined
28 Dec 2009
Posts
6,927
Location
Wales
I have not long had my SSD. A crucial M4 128gb with a 1tb drive for storage.

I should have approximately 61gb free. This morning I noticed it was down to 46gb.

I have disabled hibernation as I never use it. However on checking the pagefile it if 16gb. This seems a touch excessive to me.

I also recently upgraded my ram to 16gb.

I don't mind it using the space as for now I don't need it. But can/should I set the pagefile lower in lieu of the ssd and 16gb ram?
 
Some will say do. some will say don't
I just put the page file on my 1TB to 2048/2048 and turn the page file off on the SSD.
since i have 12GB Ram.

i have never had any problems in 2years. ;)
 
Some programs will not work/will work poorly with no/low page file!
I have a 128GB M4 and a 1TB HDD and 16GB RAM, and I have set a constant 4gb page file on the SSD.
 
I disabled the pagefile completely on my system, with 6GB RAM, as soon as I got my M4. So far its been fine, but this is on a machine that is mainly used for gaming, so it depends what other applications you plan to use.
 
The pagefile is set up on a per-drive basis. So I'm fairly sure you just set it to 0 on your SSD, and something sensible on your HDD.
 
I wouldn't disable it. Past experience has taught me this. However you could reduce it in size. Lowest id go is 2gb, but 4gb should be plenty. However if possible leave it system managed on another hard drive (not your ssd).
 
So much bad advice on pagefiles, many kittens die.

The actual truth is...

For a 64-bit system the pagefile (virtual memory) should be 1.5x RAM (physical memory).
For a 32-bit system it's 2.5x.

Windows will take care of this for you if you leave it on Auto.
 
billysielu said:
So much bad advice on pagefiles, many kittens die.

The actual truth is...

For a 64-bit system the pagefile (virtual memory) should be 1.5x RAM (physical memory).
For a 32-bit system it's 2.5x.

Windows will take care of this for you if you leave it on Auto.
Click to expand...

:eek:
That was a loooooooong time ago!
Wayyyyyyy before windows 7, when windows 98 ruled the earth!

You DO NOT have to have 1.5x the ram for page file.
I some times use Photoshop CS5 and that is the only reason I can't disable the page file completely!
CS5 would some times work slowly or some time would not work at all with out a page file - I am sure there can be other programs that uses the page file no matter how much ram you have.
But I have tried my games and they all worked fine with out page file!


EDIT:
@welshdragon
You can move the page file by going to "advance system properties" -> "Settings" button in the "Performance" section->"Advanced" Tab -> "Change" button in the "Virtual memory" Section.
But setting the page file in HDD would make it slow to access due to the slow read/write speeds of the HDD compared to the SSD.
 
Last edited:
Windows 7 will allocate those amounts if you leave it on Auto, so it's current.

The pagefile is the one file that benefits most from being on the SSD. Don't move it.
 
Great cheers for the reply guys. A 16gb pagefile seems excessive but as I still have 45gb free and no sign of filling it I will porbably leave it for now, and maybe reduce it to something like 8gb if need be in the future?
 
What I've done (I also have 16GB) is set my pagefile to 'None' on my SSD, then on my data drive, I've set it to 16 - 8000 MB.

If I get any out of memory errors, I'll set it to system managed on the data drive.


It probably performs better on the SSD, but I prefer having the space
 
This is a decent end user analysis of whether disabling a pagefile produces any benefits, or problems. And broadly matches my experience on the subject.

http://www.tweakhound.com/2011/10/10/the-windows-7-pagefile-and-running-without-one/

TLDR:

You can run Windows without a pagefile if you have enough RAM.

There’s pretty much zero performance benefit to disabling the pagefile, but there is a saving on utilized disk space.

And billysielu's assertion that many kittens will die if your primary storage isn't occupied with a bloated pagefile, is, providing you have sufficient RAM, not true.

________________________________

I've been running my home system without a pagefile for ~6 months without any issues.

Don't believe everyone that tells you what you can and cannot do. Back your OS up (image it), and then test it for yourselves. If you're to scared to do this, then don't. /shrug Windows will manage it quite happily for you, all you need is enough storage to handle it.
 
I've disabled it on my SSD and set it to system managed on my 1tb spinner, no difference noticed in speed to before I changed it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom