# Should I enable paging file when I have 2GB of RAM?



## el_leumas (Oct 13, 2005)

I'm currently using a A64 3000 PC with 2GB of DDR400 RAM (2x1GB), Samsung-UCCC chips, and a 120GB hard-disk. I use Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop CS occasionally. I use my PC mostly for gaming and editting. My current paging file is 2048mb. Will it be faster if I disable Virtual Memory (paging file)?

If I disable it, how do I locate and find the page file on my hard-disk?


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## djbbenn (Oct 13, 2005)

Nope, leave it enabled. I believe that Photoshop requirers one to work properly anyways. It is said that your paging file should be twice the size of the amout of ram. But I think if you get to 2gb of ram, you don't need a 4gb paging file. I would just leave yours the way it is.

-Dan


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## thedivinehairband (Oct 13, 2005)

I asked the same question a while ago and did some testing of gaming framerates. Did notice a small drop but nothing massive.  
I don't use any editing software so decided for me would be best leaving it off. For you using editing software it would probably be best if you left it on like Dan said.


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## bobyjo (Oct 13, 2005)

el_leumas said:
			
		

> I'm currently using a A64 3000 PC with 2GB of DDR400 RAM (2x1GB), Samsung-UCCC chips, and a 120GB hard-disk. I use Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop CS occasionally. I use my PC mostly for gaming and editting. My current paging file is 2048mb. Will it be faster if I disable Virtual Memory (paging file)?
> 
> If I disable it, how do I locate and find the page file on my hard-disk?



How much room do you have on your hard drive?  
Windows will run much better and faster if the paging file is left active. 
You may adjust the size of the file if you wish. 
IMO::I would not do away with the paging file.


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## Deleted member 3 (Oct 13, 2005)

Search does wonders


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## thedivinehairband (Oct 13, 2005)

YAY my thread!! 

LOL


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## Bonami (Oct 28, 2005)

Set your Initial Size at 256,and your Maximum to 3056! That way your only using 256,but it can Expand if it needs too! The Less Pagefile Active the less chance for PAGE_FAULT in Non_PAGED  Area Errors! You only really need a Static Pagefile with 2gb of Ram,but there's alway's an Exception!!


Bonami’s System Specs: 

AMD64 3700+(San Diego Core)
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Gigabyte Cooler Pro CPU Cooler
Bonami Custom Built Case
Sound Blaster Audigy Sound 

3D Mark05 – 7867 1024x768 default
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## W1zzard (Oct 29, 2005)

any user should have a page file.. see the thread dan linked .. 

the drawback with dynamic pagefile sizes is that the pagefile gets fragemented easily, also the process of resizing costs some performance ... i suggest a 1gb fixed size page file, you may be fine with less, but who cares about a few hundred megs of disk space anyway.


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## Aevum (Oct 30, 2005)

some once told me that the windows swap file system was so poorly designed that the more memory you put on the machine, the bigger the swap file, and i also know that my swapfile grew from 2gb to 4gb when i moved from 512mb to 1gb of memory, 

i think that the solution proposed in this thread of a fixed size swapfile is the best option, the size is up to you depending on what software you run and how much memory it sucks up, 1gb seems like a good starting point


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## donny (Nov 9, 2005)

I have 1Gb of ram i i set my pagefile 384-768Mb  and it work juct fine!

If you disable it completly you may expirience problems 'cos some apps and some games require  pagefile for swap...


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## bim27142 (Nov 10, 2005)

mine is fixed at 768mb...


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## bim27142 (Nov 10, 2005)

oh by the way, my page file is located on my system partition (drive C and is found near the first tracks or maybe sectors (i dont know what you call them) of the drive... is this good or bad?

i mean, is this gonna be bad for my hard drive? since page file areas are written and re-written more oftenly...


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## zAAm (Nov 10, 2005)

No, if you put the pagefile in the first few sectors the read/write performance increases. That means your virtual memory is faster, which is a good thing.  And it wouldn't matter to the drive where it is stored. The first sectors are found on the edge of the platter where the data spins fastest ie. better performance. Also, if you have diskeeper you can defrag your paging file to a single file if it's not already.


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## Slayerstaps (Nov 10, 2005)

Your pagefile get's moved over sometime however when u defrag a lot that is. Atleast mine keeps moving after some defrags. Anyways i'm using a fixed 2048 pagefile and i have 2 gig ram too.


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## donny (Mar 13, 2006)

Look at this: http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/244/
I red that it is good for performance that you delete pagefile form time to time ...
At least once at mounth... link above tels you how to do it automaticly every time when you reboot.
Settings is tested by me and few of my friends... Shutdown sequence is much longer with this settings...


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## {JNT}Raptor (Mar 13, 2006)

Pagefile Is needed regardless of any one individuals preferences.
Ideally you would want the page file either In with Windows If you only have a Single drive system.......Or on the 1st partition of a Second drive on a 2 drive system.....this way Windows can access It from the Leading edge of the second drive.....which Is the fastest access point.

Windows Is coded to Utilize the pagefile regardless of the amount of Real memory you have....you could have 4gigs of memory and you would still need a pagefile In WinXP......Apps and even games Will "Demand" the presence of a pagefile.

If you want the Most performance you can get for your pagefile.....then slap a Ram Drive In there and alocate the pagefile to It......this way If Windows wants to use the pagefile......your forcing It to use the Real memory you've alocated for the ramdrive pagefile......of course only do this If you have the memory to spare.


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## trog100 (Mar 13, 2006)

page files where all about when windows didnt have enough real memory.. it might sound silly now but back then the page file did get used to supplement not enough real memory.. 

speeding it up made sense.. when windows 95 arrived machines had a max of 16 megs of real memory.. 95 took up 8 megs leaving just 8 for programs.. he he.. windows would just not have worked without the page file..

now if your page file is being used to suplement real memory its just a sign u dont have enough of the stuff.. speeding it up is meaningless.. the idea is not to use it by having enough real memory..

if u do set windows not to have a page file and something really does need that (pretend) memory the machine will just crash with an out of memory error..

its really not worth worrying about with todays systems.. if that page file really does get used (needed) u willl soon know.. your machine will pretty much grind to a halt with constant hardrive lights flashing.. when this happens its time to add more memory.. if it doesnt messing with the page file wont make any differences at all..

with 2 gigs of real memory the page file is pretty much redundant.. but getting rid of it wont gain anything.. just ignore it..

if u really want to find out what page files are about try running xp with just 128 of system memory.. it will work.. but not very well.. he he.. without the page file it would not work at all..

folks dont realise it in the days of cheap memory but windows was desigend to run on far less than we think of as the norm now.. when xp arrived 64 meg wasnt unusual..  2 gigs was unimaginable.. 

trog


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## Thermopylae_480 (Mar 13, 2006)

A page file is cheaper than memory   .  It gets used in gaming, and other applications other than Windows too.  So unless you have 4GB of memory, you better leave it on.  Plus if you need it, and don't have it at some point you will get a nice performance hit.  I have 2GB of memory, and I still get some use out of my page file.


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## trog100 (Mar 13, 2006)

what they do say about page files is that windows tends to stash away suff it dosnt need just in case it needs it.. this wastes memory.. 

the theory goes that cos it stashes stuff anyways if it cant find a page file it will stash its junk in your real memory thus wasting real memory.. better to give it a page file to stash its junk in than have it use the real memory..

the fact that windows uses a page file come what may.. isnt cos it needs to.. it just does it.. the more space real or fake u have the more windows will use it.. its just the nature of the beast.. limiting the amount of hardive space it can grab does just that.. saves hardrive space.. given enough real memory windows will run without a page file.. without a page file if the demands on real memory exceed the amount u have windows really will blue-screen crash with an out of memory error.. u dont get a performance hit u get a blue screen.. honest.. he he he

several years ago i ran 98se with just 512 megs of ram without one.. 512 was a lot at the time..  and hardive space or memory wasnt so cheap as it is now..  

i run a small 20 gig operating partition.. i have my page file on another drive.. i only do it to save hardive space on my small operating partition thow.. not as a general perfromance increase option..

page files really are relics of the past but windows is more happy if it has one.. it thinks it needs one even if it dosnt.. poor old thing.. he he

if u really want to dig into windows.. have a look at something called "pre-fetch".. another mysterious windows thing that much is wrongly written about..

trog


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## Rossp (Apr 6, 2007)

*Help...?*

I have just installed a game to my laptop and it says i need a page file of at least 2GB..:S and i was wondering what this is and how i go about sorting out getting more page file memory..!? so could any1 who knos more about this please email me with explanation or answer to this problem thnx 

Email to.. rossp_1990@hotmail.co.uk cheers


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## Jimmy 2004 (Apr 6, 2007)

Right click on "My Computer", click "Properties", chose the "Advanced" tab, click on "Settings" in the "Performance" section, click the "Advanced" tab and then "Change" under the "Virtual Memory" section. For 2GB you will need to set it to at least 2048MB (some people recommend that you make both the initial and maximum sizes the same to reduce fragmentation).

After that, click "Set" and then click "Ok" on everything you can and then restart your computer.


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## Rossp (Apr 7, 2007)

*Thanks*

Thanks mate! was about to return the game


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## partystar (May 15, 2007)

Hi! I'm having a problem with the pagefile on a Dell D510 running Windows 2000 Pro with 1GB RAM.On start-up I get a long winded error message telling me that I have no page file, or it's too small etc. and that a temp file of 20MB has been created. I've repeatedly checked on the page file size in the system properties, and it is correct. I've also searched for this so called pagefile.sys file without success. Is this file named something else in W2K, or is it hidden (I can't find it on my system, which works perfectly)? I've done much Googling on the subject, but find no clear-cut explanation. Anybody with some experience with this? Thanks


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## Ketxxx (May 15, 2007)

Keep the page file. For optimum performance you may want to manually edit its minimum and maxium size. For stuff like photoshop I'd say a minimum of 1024MB, maximum depends on what sort of work you use photoshop for.


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## Ketxxx (May 15, 2007)

partystar said:


> Hi! I'm having a problem with the pagefile on a Dell D510 running Windows 2000 Pro with 1GB RAM.On start-up I get a long winded error message telling me that I have no page file, or it's too small etc. and that a temp file of 20MB has been created. I've repeatedly checked on the page file size in the system properties, and it is correct. I've also searched for this so called pagefile.sys file without success. Is this file named something else in W2K, or is it hidden (I can't find it on my system, which works perfectly)? I've done much Googling on the subject, but find no clear-cut explanation. Anybody with some experience with this? Thanks



Disable the page file entirely. Run virus\malware\registry cleaners, defrag HDD with diskeeper, restart comp then try re-enabling the page file, only set the minimum and maximum values manually to 1024MB(min) and 2048MB(max).


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## partystar (May 15, 2007)

Thanks. I will do that.


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## ex_reven (May 15, 2007)

djbbenn said:


> Nope, leave it enabled. I believe that Photoshop requirers one to work properly anyways. It is said that your paging file should be twice the size of the amout of ram. But I think if you get to 2gb of ram, you don't need a 4gb paging file. I would just leave yours the way it is.
> 
> -Dan



I agree with dan totally.
I use photoshop alot, so my page file is set to minimum 6144 and maximum 12288.
Depending on what your doing really influences the amount of page file you'll need.

For basic 3800x2500 work, Minimum 1gb is plenty.
But if your working above and beyond the tens of thousands of pixels, a few more gigs will help.


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