Virtual Memory

[King PJ]

What is the best way to set your virtual memory? Should I just let XP do it automaticly? Or should I set it myself? I have 256MB RAM and currently my Virtual Memory is set to minimum 512 and maximan 512. I have an 80GB HD so if I should set it higher then space won't be a problem. I have a game (C&C: Generals) that slows down a whole lot when there is more than 3 other AI's. I'm trying to get more juice from my PC so it will run better.

 

[Jeratain]

I recommend putting your page file to a separate disk (or at least a different partition than your system partition) and leaving the original on the system partition for memory dumps. But that's only if you have partioned your hard drive or have another one to work with. Always keep the size at a static size as opposed to having a different minimum and maximum size - this is to prevent movement of the page file size and odd fragmenting of the disk.

 

[citizen001]

The optimal amount of virtual memory is x1.5 your real memory, so if your system has 128mb of ram, then set it to 192mb.



I think.

 

[MarineCorps]

Erm, what is virtual memory?

 

[bobgote]

virtual memory is your RAM plus some space on your hard drive that is used in the same manner as RAM - ie storing current running information etc that is used when you run out of RAM. obviously the stuff on the hard drive is going to be much slower to access.

the stuff on your hard drive will be stuff relating to non-running (blocked, suspended etc) processes. at least you'd want to hope so or else your application will take fricken ages to run (possibly what's going on with your game)

 

[Naked Paladin]

There really isn't a reason to limit the maximum size of your virtual memory. With only 256MB of RAM, the maximum size of 512MB is not leaving yourself with room to grow as most recent games will eat that for breakfast and prolly explains why you are having slowdowns with Generals. Leaving 512MB for the minimum is good as your pagefile is set to at least that so Windows doesn't need to take time out to resize it. With 80GB of HDD space, you could set the max to 1024MB if you really want to set it. While its true that setting your pagefile to a static size will help prevent odd fragmentation and movement, limiting it will prevent you from running some of the more memory hog programs and slowdown Windows as it attempts to flush the pagefile or gives you out of memory errors. If you want a static pagefile I'd set it to at least 1024MB.