Questions regarding Page File

[Bast]

Hi, I'd appreciate it if someone can help me.

I have 1022 MB RAM and two partitioned HDD of approximately 80 GB each. The C: drive has all of my programs including Windows and Civ IV. The D: drive is blank (for now).

My current page file is 3072 MB and is located on the C: drive. And I have the initial and maximum size set to this one so that's not a problem.

My computer is recommending me 1533 MB instead.

So here are my questions:

1. Does it matter that I don't have the Page File set to recommended figure? And if it doesn't is 3072 a good figure? What should I set it to instead?

2. Can I put the Page File on the D: drive? Is that drive faster for Page Files since it is unused and blank?

The questions aren't just for Civ IV and running it but for optimum general computing and I guess doing the right thing.

Thanks in advance. Please help me!

 

[Bast]

Bump. Please!

 

[Bast]

Anyone? Please!

 

[bohica]

H
1. Does it matter that I don't have the Page File set to recommended figure? And if it doesn't is 3072 a good figure? What should I set it to instead?

2. Can I put the Page File on the D: drive? Is that drive faster for Page Files since it is unused and blank?

Q2: Yes you can put it on D: drive. Yes it will be faster since currently you do not have anything else on the drive. The swap file should end up as a single file fragment thus improving access speed.

Q1: Rule of thumb is usually 1.5 times physical memory. Setting to 3Gb is fine if that's what you want to do. Mine's set to 2Gb with 1Gb on board (mainly because I have some very big Excel spreadsheets I work on). Just make sure it's permanent. I've been playing Civ4 on Thinpad T40, mobile radeon 7500 32Mb. Civ4 appears to consume 500Mb+. And yes it does have all the graphics problems but I can just about to play it.

 

[lamaslany]

Hi, I'd appreciate it if someone can help me.

I have 1022 MB RAM and two partitioned HDD of approximately 80 GB each. The C: drive has all of my programs including Windows and Civ IV. The D: drive is blank (for now).

My current page file is 3072 MB and is located on the C: drive. And I have the initial and maximum size set to this one so that's not a problem.

My computer is recommending me 1533 MB instead.

So here are my questions:

1. Does it matter that I don't have the Page File set to recommended figure? And if it doesn't is 3072 a good figure? What should I set it to instead?

No no and see below.

The recommended figure is exactly that - it does not *need* to be that value.

As for the 3072MB page file size - I'd say that was excessively big and will likely result in reduced performance. Creating a page file too large will result in disk thrashing.

If you have 1GB of RAM then I would only use a pagefile of 1GB + 11MB. So that is a pagefile of 1035MB. As you only have 1022MB of RAM (quite an odd figure by the way - any idea if the system uses sharded memory for graphics, etc...?) it'd be 1033MB. The 11MB extra allows the creation of a pagefile dump.

2. Can I put the Page File on the D: drive? Is that drive faster for Page Files since it is unused and blank?

Putting the page file on D: will certainly reduce the chances of a fragmented page file but as both partitions reside on the same disk there will be negligible performance increase. I'd defrag the drive first then create a fixed size page file of 1035MB on D: - remove the pagefile from C: and then reboot. Try defragging D: again and look at the report to make sure that the pagefile is not fragmented.

The questions aren't just for Civ IV and running it but for optimum general computing and I guess doing the right thing.

Thanks in advance. Please help me!

I hope I helped!

1GB of physical RAM and 1GB (+11MB) of virtual RAM should be more than suitable for anything you care to run from notepad to Halflife 2.

 

[Bast]

Q2: Yes you can put it on D: drive. Yes it will be faster since currently you do not have anything else on the drive. The swap file should end up as a single file fragment thus improving access speed.

Q1: Rule of thumb is usually 1.5 times physical memory. Setting to 3Gb is fine if that's what you want to do. Mine's set to 2Gb with 1Gb on board (mainly because I have some very big Excel spreadsheets I work on). Just make sure it's permanent. I've been playing Civ4 on Thinpad T40, mobile radeon 7500 32Mb. Civ4 appears to consume 500Mb+. And yes it does have all the graphics problems but I can just about to play it.

Ok thanks for your response. I never thought about putting it on the D: drive.

 

[Bast]

As for the 3072MB page file size - I'd say that was excessively big and will likely result in reduced performance. Creating a page file too large will result in disk thrashing.

I thought bigger was better?

 

[oldStatesman]

I thought bigger was better?

If you are running XP, don't sweat it too much. XP will just use what it needs. With 1GB physical RAM, I doubt it will ever access all of a 3GB page file, so no issues. As long as you make it a fixed size, you will be okay. (BTW, in the Memopry Leak thread in the Bug forum Harkonnen recommends a 2GB page file for best results. I believe you posted there so you probalby saw it...)

As a note, for better performance, if you can get a second physical HDD in the future, set the second drive up with it's first partition just slightly larger than the page file size you want. (And put it on the second controller on your Mainboard, not the same controller as the first drive). I.e. if you want a 3GB page file, make a 3.5 GB partition. Use that partition for your fixed page file...it can increase performance as HDD access on the second HDD will not interfere with the OS or application as it accesses the first HDD.

(If you want to do this and not spend a lot of money, you can pick up small, older HDD's at Computer shows and on eBay really cheap...and then just use the whole drive for your page file. I.e. get a 4GB HDD for a 3.5GB swap file.)

 

[lamaslany]

I thought bigger was better?

While this is true of physical memory it is not the case with virtual memory.

The reason we use physical memory rather than just virtual memory is speed - the only reason PCs ever used virtual memory because physical memory was far too expensive and the need for memory outweighed the slower performance. (And I believe virtual memory aids debugging but I can't remember the context in which I heard that)

A quick note on Windows only using what it needs - this is true but you may run programs that request memory based on how much free memory you have on your system (such as a program that wants to cache data).

 

[lifeaquatic]

How do I know if my pagefile is fragmented? And how come everyone says something different about sizing??????

For god sakes how much size of paging file for a gig of RAM?? Does anyone know for a fact?

 

[oldStatesman]

Here.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=3322499#post3322499

See post #11 - this link is included

http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm