Paging file. Replacement for RAM?

S

Schonza

Member
I was wondering, if I create a large paging file on my system, will that reduce my RAM usage, and allocate more of it for games and other applications.
 
Virtual ram (aka paging) is extremely slow. I would highly not recommend using this as a replacement for physical ram.
 
Motoxrdude said:
Virtual ram (aka paging) is extremely slow. I would highly not recommend using this as a replacement for physical ram.
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Slow you say? Hmm, I heard from a couple of so called "computer technicians" that it is fast. Shows how much they know, or claim to know, considering one didn't know how to delete and repartition a drive through the windows installation.
 
A harddrive that can transfer 60 MB/s is considered very fast. PC2700 RAM, can transfer 2700 MB/s, its old and considered slow

Harddrive seek times is measured in miliseconds, in RAM it is in microseconds
 
Paging file is NEVER a substitute for RAM. Setting it too big will just waste space, as a rule of thumb it should be 1.5 size of your RAM capacity.
 
tyttebøvs said:
A harddrive that can transfer 60 MB/s is considered very fast. PC2700 RAM, can transfer 2700 MB/s, its old and considered slow

Harddrive seek times is measured in miliseconds, in RAM it is in microseconds
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Memory chips are labeled using the maximum theoretical bandwidth (PC2-4300, PC2-5300, and so on) - largely for marketing reasons (which I think is a rip-off).

The clock speed of memory is found by dividing the PC rating by 8 then 2. For example PC2-6400. Divide 6400 by 8 than 2 which gives you 400. So PC2-6400 has a clock bus speed of 400 megahertz. So PC-2700 has an actual clock bus speed of 168 megahertz.

168 megahertz is likely faster than the transfer rate most hard drives are going to give you. But most memory nowadays is PC-3200 (200 megahertz) or faster.
 
What matters is how many bytes can be transferd on the bus, that is what the label says. It's rather irrelevant how fast the clock is (its not, but the clock alone doesn't say how many bytes can be transfered)
 
The ram is rated to run at a given clock speed. If you run the clock faster than rated, you overclock the ram, that is not the same as "memorys maximum capabilities"
 
I think we have established here that RAM is WAY faster than the hard drive and the paging file is NO substitute for actual system RAM.
 
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