Pagefile writes during large file operations on SSD

[spirits247]

I know SSDs are good enough now not to be too bothered about writes, however one thing bothers me.

I have 32GB RAM and most of the time the Pagefile isn't touched as free RAM is available.

However any kind of operation that fills the disk cache (eg large file copy operations) soon fills all 32GB (most of it just the windows disk cache) and Windows starts dumping huge writes to the pagefile. EDIT - writes are not as big as I thought but point still stands.

Is there a setting to tell windows to not dump ram to the pagefile just to make way for an even larger disk cache? I can understand to make way for memory for programs, but it seems wasteful just dumping RAM to SSD just because the disk cache has grown to 20GB using all free RAM.

Probably not, just thought I'd ask. Guess it will still last 10 years!

 

[spirits247]

Thanks for the replies, it does return to normal after heavy file reading/copying activity has finished - I just wondered if I could limit the disk cache size in RAM to say 10GB max using group policy or the registry. That means it doesn't start hitting the pagefile needlessly as free ram would still be available.

Did a search and it doesn't seem possible. It's fine, SDDs last ages and are cheap - I use an inexpensive one for pagefiles, scratch disks, temp etc and an expensive one as the main system disk.

I do a lot of heavy copying and working with large files and noticed Windows fills up all 32GB quickly then starts dumping RAM to the pagefile - even if the memory disk cache just contains info that only needs to read once during moving or copying. Just seems a waste of large writes on the SSD as the memory dumping is a few megabytes a second continuous writes until file operations stop.

 

[spirits247]

Thanks for the advice everyone - Rroff, it may be specific to the software I use then. Regardless, I really benefited from reading all you comments and will try a few suggestions out.