hello. i have 4 hard drives in my computer. i have windows set up on my 750 gig hd, and my page file set on a partition on a seperate hd. when i had 4 gigs of ram, i was told to make a 10 gig partition for my page file. but i recently upgraded to 8 gigs of ram, and im wondering should i inrease the page file partition to 20 gigs since i have 8 gigs of ram now. when i look at my partition with the page file on it it says 2.4 gigs free of 10. any help would be great
how big should my page file be
- Thread starter kdfresh09
- Start date
Well the old way of doing it was the pagefile should be 1 1/2 times the amount of ram you have installed. But I believe that rule has gone out the window awhile ago. I think the closer you get to the 1 to 1 ratio the better. I have 2gb of memory running XP and it defaulted to 2046 mb with max being 4096 mb.
The more physical memory you have the less pagefile you need , more or less. Your system starts using the pagefile when it runs out of physical memory. But some programs by default are set to use a certain amount of pagefile. So its not good to completly turn it off even if you have 4gb. or more memory.
rawcomputers
New Member
With your 8gb DDR3 1333mhz - just let windows manage it.
Using your page file is WAAAAAY slower than your 1333mhz memory, so there's no sense taking up hdd space just to accommodate slow memory access.
With slower memory, i recommend 1.5x initial and 2.0x max
Using your page file is WAAAAAY slower than your 1333mhz memory, so there's no sense taking up hdd space just to accommodate slow memory access.
With slower memory, i recommend 1.5x initial and 2.0x max
alright well i dont underatand how you say to not use it, because some programs i use require it. it wont install unless i have a page file set up. so i set it on a seperate drive from my os. i just need to know if i can keep it at 10gigs, or do i need to up it to 20 since i have 8 gigs of ram. as im seeing it, it seems like im either okay with 2.4 gigs left on my 10gig page file, or i need to up it to 20gigs. somebody who knows what they are talking about please help. and by the way, i do let windows manage the page file, but i still need to know how big to make the page file partition for it to be manage
What are you doing to be running out of physical memory (considering you have 8gb.) to need such a large pagefile? The pagefile is alot slower the physical memory. Look in the task manager and see how much physical memory you have (available).
i never said that i was running out of memory. i just know that some programs i use wont install unless there is a page file present on the system, regaurdless of the amount of ram i have. i also believe, although i may be wrong but i dont think i am, is that its not as efficient to run a page file on the disc windows is installed on as windows is using thatr drive constantly and causes disc read delays when it needs to access the page file from the same drive, as compared to having the page file on a comlete different drive than windows, making the acess time a little better. so, this is why i want to know how big to make the page file, as its own partition on its own drive. i thought that when i had 4 gigs of ram i should have my page file 10 gigs big. but now that i have 8 gigs of ram, should i increase it to 20gigs. when i take 4 gigs of ram out of my pc, my page file partition says 6.5 gigs used out of 10gigs, which is fine. when i put 8 gigs of ram in, the page file partition says 8.7 gigs used of 10 gigs. i dont kow if this is okay. so anyone who can follow me in this thread please respond.
2048Megabytes
Active Member
In my opinion I would set the pagefile to a maximum custom of 8,200 megabytes in size. My understanding is if Windows crashes it will be able to save the entire RAM contents to the hard drive for error correcting purposes. The pagefile doesn't need to be any bigger than 8,200 megabytes.
I personally have only 2 gigabytes of RAM but I have my pagefile set at a custom 900 megabytes in Windows XP. I never get out of memory errors and everything runs fine for me.
I personally have only 2 gigabytes of RAM but I have my pagefile set at a custom 900 megabytes in Windows XP. I never get out of memory errors and everything runs fine for me.