Is a page file really needed?

[digitaloracle]

Very soon I will have 1.5 gigs of ram. Since before this upgrade I only had around 1 gig with the page file (512 physical, 512 page), I am wondering if it would be safe tuo turn if off completely. I have heard that some programs require a windows page file in order to run/reamian stable. Is this true at all? Why would it matter to a program whether there is/isn't a page file, since it is not a system the program has acsess to?

 

[Inaris]

Just turn it down. Set it to like 512mb for both. Then if something needs it, it can use it. I have not run into any app that explicitly needed one, but if you want to be safe, then that is what I would do. I personally don't use one on my machines at home...

 

[RicoDirenzo]

If you have 2 hd's. put the page file on the slave. I have two gigs PC3200 and I set my page file at 2mb-1024mb. I keep a running page file log. It is almost never accessed and the log only shows access minimally when my SATA master is heavy defragmented (which I do not understand???). Your page file, in any case, is going to be very lonely!

 

[Him]

No, you get best performance with a large page file. there is actually an equation that is somewhere on the MS website that will determine the optimal page file usage. Windows thrives on virtual memory, and the page file controls that, so you want to keep it. Even with 1.5 gigs of RAM, it will only be detrimental to performance without a page file.

 

[TMT]

I'd recommend keeping the page file. But keep it static at around 512MB (considering the amount of RAM you will have). If you have an adjustable page file (like the 2MB-1024MB one mentioned above), then the system will slow down when it needs to resize it according to its usage. Set the parameters to 512MB-512MB and it will remain one fixed size, thus not needing to be resized.

TMT.

 

[TheHeadFL]

You do not neccesarily *need* a page file. There are a lot of complicated things that go into determining page file performance. For instance, theoretically, adding physical memory can sometimes increase paging, as unbelievable as that is. (If you don't believe that I can demonstrate it, its in every CS textbook) You should use whatever settings work best for you.

 

[Him]

Well the equation is a matter of how much physical RAM you have and your HDD empty space, so yes, that makes perfect sense.

But Windows uses that page file, it needs it, turn off the paging file and see how windows runs.

 

[TheHeadFL]

Well remember paging was originally implemented to solve the problem of computers not being able to fit executables in main memory and thus not being able to run them.

The theoretical case I was talking about was not something you'd see in daily use, or even maybe hardly ever if at all. It was just something proved long ago (by Dijkstra I think) that demonstrated that page fault frequency can go *up* sometimes, when physical memory is added to the system. Theres a whole host of other factors involved...

 

[Inaris]

HIM, It runs great.
The page file is not a necessity. It's nice on low memory systems, but not needed as much on higher memory systems. Windows can only deal with 4 gbs of memory at any one time, unless you are running server, so there isn't a point to using it if you have say 1.5 to 2.0 gbs of Ram.

You should try it and see how you do. On low memory, it's worse, on high memory, there is no difference. you just save disk space/access.

 

[TheHeadFL]

Inaris is correct. In my setup, if I were to run on 32 bit windows with a page file equal in size to my physical ram, I would be at the absolute limit of addressable virtual memory anyway. Besides, 32-bit Windows performance is craptacular with >2GB addressable memory, really, because of the way it partitions the memory into two 1GB halves.