Paging file question

[scalelokt]

Hi all, there seem to be some very knowledgable computer geeks around :) So I wanted to ask this question. How big should you set your paging file in Windows for best game performance? I have always heard that you multiply your RAM by 2.5 and then set that as both the maximum and minimum, that way your paging file never gets fragmented because its always the same size. Does that sound correct?

[danlisa]

Yes, that is one approach and keeping to that rule is probably the best way to ensure a balanced system.

The page file is HDD space used as virtual RAM. So if you're a little short on RAM you can set the figures to pretty much what you like. Just note that you will loose HDD space as a result.

[scalelokt]

Thanks :)

[Lightning61]

I would advise static page file on any winblows system.
The size you set depends on your typical usage.
I have noticed SH3 using nearly a GB alone, so if you have less than 2GB RAM, a larger page file is in order.
I'm using the largest static page file allowed in W2K, since I have 4 HDs in this rig, and I'm not pressed for space.
The maximum size is 4094MB due to the 4GB file size limit in 32Bit OS's, (this is probably not true of 64Bit OS).
I have Winblows on C:, Page file on F:, Games on G:, and H: is used for storage.
Static paging can greatly reduce stutters caused by Page file resizing during gaming, which is the main reason for locking the size.
I would strongly recommend using the largest size possible if you have anything <2GB RAM with HDD space to spare.
Hope this helps! :up:

[Zantham]

Personally I disable my page file, I've 2GB RAM (3GB in my current laptop, but 1GB set up as a RAM drive). In general I don't recommend this, unless you're up to doing some test runs....you can potentially run out of RAM very quickly which will at minimium kick you out of the game, or worst case make XP unstable (solved by a reboot). That being said, I have never had any problems in any of my systems with 2GB RAM, and I play a LOT of games. I would not do this in Vista however, and eventually there will be a game I want to play where I will run out of memory and will either have to add more RAM or enable my swap file.
The 4GB file limitation is usually due to the file system used: NTFS supports over 4GB without any issues, but FAT32 wont. The NTFS file system in XP is a newer and much superior version than in W2K, so this may not apply to Windows 2000 users. Windows 2000 was not intended as a gaming platform, more as a stable business platform, but since it supports DirectX 9, it does have the ability to serve as a gaming platform also.
As for page file optimization, generally its best to run it on its own partition, on a drive that is not your system drive nor your boot drive (ie on a 2nd hard drive, not just a 2nd partition on the same hard drive). I've heard of running it on a RAM drive....but if you have that much RAM to spare it would be better off used for something else.
Page files do not require fault tolerance so running one on a RAID-1 (mirror) or RAID-5 actually decreases performance. Running it on a RAID-0 (stripe) can greatly increase performance.
And finally, if you happen to have multiple physical hard drives in your system, spreading the page file across these drives also improves performance.
Also, keeping the page file defragmented can help performance. Since Windows Defragment tool cannot defrag the page file, here is a link to one that does:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDisk/PageDefrag.mspx

[scalelokt]

Thanks guys, a wealth of information here, very helpful! :up:

[Wim Libaers]

The maximum size is 4094MB due to the 4GB file size limit in 32Bit OS's, (this is probably not true of 64Bit OS).


Not really. A 64-bit OS can exceed that easily. A 32-bit OS can do it too and, on recent 32-bit processors, can also deal with more than 4GB physical RAM, but Windows is not set up to allow this (at least, the standard editions aren't. Some server versions do allow it, and Linux has this capability too).

[lesrae]

A useful utility for defragging page files, registry files etc is pagedfrg, formerly from sysinternals - now microsoft:

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

It's a lightweight little program, that runs stand alone - you don't install it. When you run it you see the current level of fragmentation and you can select to defrag next boot/every boot/don't defrag. It runs during the boot sequence to defrag.

I use it on every machine I work on, in conjunction with contig (from the same author) which is a lightweight dos-style defrag tool:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDisk/Contig.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDisk/Contig.mspx)

[Iceman]

Let your OS determnine this as "Ram" in a windows machine gets tied up and not released until you do a "Hard" reboot...you can get into all kinds of trouble messing with it...unless your comfortable with trouble :)....or running Linux/Unix or a Mac which handle memory better...As was pointed out above...different programs can hang onto ram and you find your self in a pickle.

If you need more ram...you need more ram...or a better computer.