Virtual Memory

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I occaisionally get a message that windows in increasing my virtual memory. I
have 512 of ram, and typically have one program application and a handfull of
web pages open. Is there anything I can do to optimize my system performance.
 
pj said:
I occaisionally get a message that windows in increasing my virtual memory. I
have 512 of ram, and typically have one program application and a handfull of
web pages open. Is there anything I can do to optimize my system performance.
Click to expand...

If you get another stick of RAM your PC will probably not have to use Swap
Files (virtual memory) at all and your PC will run faster. Alternatively
monitor your Swap File size (not Swap File usage) and set minimum Swap File
size to the maximum that the Swap File size grows to plus 100 Mb while
leaving Maximum Swap File size at No Maximum. That way you will reduce
fragmentation of Swap Files while still allowing Windows to increase them if
needed. If Windows then needs to increase Swap File size then increase the
minimum. Getting extra RAM is easier and more efficient though.

Rob
 
pj said:
I occaisionally get a message that windows in increasing my virtual memory. I
have 512 of ram, and typically have one program application and a handfull of
web pages open. Is there anything I can do to optimize my system performance.
Click to expand...
The message indicates that the pagefile is too small. Let Windows XP manage
it until you really really understand virtual memory operating systems. You
also should increase the amount of physical memory.

Your assumption that only the one program that you start is running. In
fact, the number of processes is 40 or so. Every one of these has a 4GB
address space, every one of these has some claim on physical memory, every
one has some claim on the pagefile, and all of the drivers must have
physical memory allocated (else performance will go into the tank). So,
just because you have 512MB of physical memory does not mean that you could
use more.

im
 
Rob,
I have a pair of 256 sticks now, the pc is a dell, it came with one stick
and I added a 2nd stick a couple of years later. The RAM is the same DDR/mhz
as original. Any additional thoughts. Thanks for your time.

Paul
 
Page file is what NT systems like XP call the swap file. Your memory is not
at issue except that more than 512mb will mean less use of the hard drive
for the page file for some applications. The virtual memory is on the hard
drive. If left to manage a 512mb system itself, XP will use from 784mb to
1.5gb of hard drive space for the page file. If you increase ram to 1gb, XP
will allocate from 1.5gb to 3gb of hard drive space for the page file on the
assumption that you added ram to support ram-hungry applications. If your
applications are not that hungry, then the actual page file usage will drop
because the memory manager will use the ram first.

There is a difference between the space allocated for the page file and the
actual amount of page file in use. To see how much of the page file is in
use on your machine, right click on the Taskbar, select Task Manager, and
click on the Performance tab.
 
Colin Barnhorst said:
Page file is what NT systems like XP call the swap file. Your memory is not
at issue except that more than 512mb will mean less use of the hard drive
for the page file for some applications. The virtual memory is on the hard
drive. If left to manage a 512mb system itself, XP will use from 784mb to
1.5gb of hard drive space for the page file. If you increase ram to 1gb, XP
will allocate from 1.5gb to 3gb of hard drive space for the page file on the
assumption that you added ram to support ram-hungry applications. If your
applications are not that hungry, then the actual page file usage will drop
because the memory manager will use the ram first.
Click to expand...

So that's why I have so much Swap File allocated by Windows. I have 512 Mb
of RAM and monitoring Swap File usage I see I use up to 175 Mb when editing
images with lots of layers yet my Swap File allocation never goes much below
1 Gb when Windows controls it. Getting another 512 Mb of RAM would speed up
processing of these large files for me, but, it also sounds that I will have
to take Swap File allocation in hand and not let Windows allocate the size
otherwise I'm going to have a lot of wasted disk space. Not a big problem
at the moment as I have space to spare, but, in the future...

Rob
 
Be aware that the pagefile as managed by Windows takes into account memory
dumping in the event of a problem..

--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/user
 
Mike Hall (MS-MVP) said:
Be aware that the pagefile as managed by Windows takes into account memory
dumping in the event of a problem..
Click to expand...

Sure, but, 1.5 to 3 Gb sounds a bit excessive. I used to run at 1 Gb max
and min in 98se with same applications usage with no problem so if I upgrade
to 1 Gb of RAM I'd imagine that 1 Gb min and no maximum should see me OK.
Could even set max after a bit of monitoring.

Rob
 
But it also keeps the page file from fragmenting, which is what happens if
it has to allocate more. I would let the system handle it and not worry
about it.
 
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