# 16GB ram - pagefile size question



## twicksisted (Sep 30, 2011)

I have 16GB of ram and because of that my pagefile is also 16GB in size.
I would like to free up some space on my SSD drive but I'm not sure if its a good idea to make this pagefile smaller or completely disable it as I run some programs that require a lot of memory in 64bit (photoshop, premiere pro etc).

Any ideas? was thinking of eiher making it smaller, disabling it completely or moving it to my D drive which is a samsung F3 1TB raid setup but not sure if that will slow things down.


----------



## newtekie1 (Sep 30, 2011)

I'd make it smaller, shrinking it to 1GB should give enough for the few programs that need a page file.  But with 16GB of RAM, most programs shouldn't need to touch the page file.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Sep 30, 2011)

Page file is supposed to be double RAM.  I would change the page file to the HDD and set it to 32 GiB.  Page files are always bad for SSDs anyway (lots of writes).


----------



## twicksisted (Sep 30, 2011)

The main problem is a lot of conflicting information online with some saying to disable it, make it smaller, move it to another drive.

16GB ram isnt much for Adobe Premiere Pro 64bit and im using all of the ram easily specially with 1080p video and long edits. I think I will move the pagefile to another drive, the only other thing im wondering is how this will slow down or affect my computer running off a SATA mechanical disk instead of SSD?


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Sep 30, 2011)

You probably won't notice any difference at all.  You can always change it if you don't like it.


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Sep 30, 2011)

I shrink it to 1 GB. Nothing ever really uses it but there's a lot of programs that need it enabled to work correctly despite not using it.


----------



## slyfox2151 (Oct 1, 2011)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> I shrink it to 1 GB. Nothing ever really uses it but there's a lot of programs that need it enabled to work correctly despite not using it.



you will notice in his last post he said hes already maxing out the 16Gb... it would be a really bad idea to shrink it too much, and stupid to disable it.




best idea is to move it to another drive.


----------



## n-ster (Oct 1, 2011)

I'd shrink it to 1~4GB on your SSD (1 if you don't max out 16GB, 4 if you do) and add 32GB on your HDD


----------



## Jetster (Oct 1, 2011)

Just leave it alone


----------



## Asylum (Oct 1, 2011)

Set the pagefile to what windows ask for on custom tab and leave it alone.


----------



## n-ster (Oct 1, 2011)

He needs space on his SSD... Why would he leave it alone?


----------



## Jetster (Oct 1, 2011)

Its there for a reason. If there is a memory dump it will create a dump file. But im no expert on SSDs

A little information about page file on the SSD about 3/4 the way down

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives-and.aspx


----------



## purecain (Oct 1, 2011)

one thing is for certain, if it were me i would just move the page file to the samsung F3....

putting extra wear on an ssd id a bad idea....

there wont be a performance hit that you will notice...

let us know what happens... good luck..


----------



## GotNoRice (Oct 1, 2011)

Setting it to disabled is always bad advice, perpetuated by people who don't understand how the virtual memory subsystem in windows actually works.

An SSD is both the best place for a pagefile (in terms of performance) and the worst place for a pagefile (in terms of SSD longevity) so that will depend on the goals of your system.  If you have a well designed SSD, putting the pagefile on there shouldn't cause any serious issues at least not within a year or two.

Also, you can have a pagefile on multiple drives, so why not try for a "best of both worlds"?

Set a small 1-4GB pagefile on your SSD, and also create a pagefile on your mechanical drive and just set that to "system managed".


----------



## BababooeyHTJ (Oct 1, 2011)

I have owned a Intel 320 since release and have 8GB of ram. I leave the page file alone. If I'm not mistaken the page file is mostly random reads and large sequential writes which are handled very well by a ssd. 

In the past five months that I've had the drive its seen 1TB of host writes and no wear according to smart data.

Did you disable hibernation? That will free up quite a bit of drive space. 

You could limit the page file a bit if you really wanted to but I would keep it on the ssd personally.


----------



## Winston_008 (Oct 3, 2011)

Personally id move it to your f3 raid0 drives, and just disable the one on your ssd, you probably wont notice any difference either way, it will just be better for the ssd life.

For me, i have no pagefile at all and have seen no ill effects in 2 years, and havn't even needed to reinstall windows during that time. But i wouldnt recommend doing it unless your 100% sure you arent going to run out of ram.


----------



## n-ster (Oct 3, 2011)

I have 24GB of RAM, Vertex 2 RAID 0 array and 2x 1TB RAID 0... I leave the pagefile to 1GB on the SSD and 48GB on the HDDs... When I had 12GB, I would have at least 4GB of pagefile on the SSD, and 24GB on the HDD.

I believe my settings were optimal for my use.


----------



## Deleted member 24505 (Dec 19, 2011)

I have 8gb of ram and have disabled my pagefile with no discernible problem at all.


----------



## anoobarak (Dec 19, 2011)

Just move it to another drive.


----------



## Deleted member 24505 (Dec 19, 2011)

Do i actually need it on? windows is fine without it.


----------



## cadaveca (Dec 19, 2011)

tigger said:


> Do i actually need it on? windows is fine without it.



It depends on what apps you run. Some apps 100% require the pagefile. Others do not if there is enough ram. It's best to keep one available jsut in case.


If you have RAID'd HDDs of decent perforamcne, moving the page file there instead of SSD is perfectly fine, and will net about the same read/write speed as the SSD, just with higher latency. SSD is the BEST place for a pagefile, performance wise, and if you have worries about SSD lifespan, well, don't. 

I install OS to my F60 for testing nearly twice a week. I am well voer 2TB of data written now, cannot say I'm too worried about it.


----------



## GotNoRice (Dec 19, 2011)

Just set it to system managed size.  It won't use more than it needs and it definitely isn't slowing down ANYTHING by leaving it on.

To those who think they know more about Windows than the engineers who actually designed it:  You don't.  

Stop giving bad advice based on vague conjectural evidence.



tigger said:


> I have 8gb of ram and have disabled my pagefile with no discernible problem at all.


----------



## cadaveca (Dec 19, 2011)

GotNoRice said:


> Just set it to system managed size.



This is what I do, but I prefer to set it to the max system managed size permanently, so that there is less disk thrashing when the pagefile needs to be increased in size. It seems that ahving the pagefile as one continuous file, rather than broken up on the drive as space allows, is optimal.

laptops with SSDs-only, no HDD, come with the pagefile enabled. You'd think if there was any real issue with pagefiles and SSD's, these lappy makers wold do things differently.


----------



## Deleted member 24505 (Dec 19, 2011)

I run games mainly, bf3, serious sam 3 bfe, skyrim mainly. I turned it off on saturday and have had no problems at all.

until i get a problem with windows i think i will leave it off.


----------



## GotNoRice (Dec 19, 2011)

tigger said:


> I run games mainly, bf3, serious sam 3 bfe, skyrim mainly. I turned it off on saturday and have had no problems at all.
> 
> until i get a problem with windows i think i will leave it off.



I'm just wondering what sort of ideas you have about the pagefile that lead you to believe turning it off will result in an improvement.  What are you afraid of by leaving it enabled?  Share your reasoning with us.


----------



## Deleted member 24505 (Dec 19, 2011)

If windows "needs" it, then surely it will warn me about turning it off, or i will get errors by having it turned off. If i get no errors then why should i have/need it turned on? Also ram is faster than a hdd so if windows needs to use ram it can do without using my ssd for a pagefile.

I don't really care if it speeds up windows or not.


----------



## trickson (Dec 19, 2011)

I leave mine alone . I do not have an SSD drive just raid0 . But I never have messed with page filing .


----------



## erocker (Dec 19, 2011)

I'd leave it on "windows managed". Never had an issue this way.


----------



## GotNoRice (Dec 19, 2011)

tigger said:


> If windows "needs" it, then surely it will warn me about turning it off, or i will get errors by having it turned off. If i get no errors then why should i have/need it turned on? Also ram is faster than a hdd so if windows needs to use ram it can do without using my ssd for a pagefile.
> 
> I don't really care if it speeds up windows or not.



So basically you really don't know, and are just pushing buttons.  I appreciate the clarification.


----------



## Tatty_One (Dec 19, 2011)

I leave my pagefile on my SSD, dont care about the writes, care about the speed, I manually set mine to 6GB, I set it to start and max at the same 6GB, that way it's perminently fixed and instantly available, IMO dont set it high if you dont need it high, the more you give it the more it uses (thats not factual based, just my limited observations), don't disable it though, some Windows functions apparently require it..... a lot of debate about this, just go with your preference, rarely will you suffer for it.


----------



## trickson (Dec 19, 2011)

Tatty_One said:


> I leave my pagefile on my SSD, dont care about the writes, care about the speed, I manually set mine to 6GB, I set it to start and max at the same 6GB, that way it's perminently fixed and instantly available, IMO dont set it high if you dont need it high, the more you give it the more it uses (thats not factual based, just my limited observations), don't disable it though, some Windows functions apparently require it..... a lot of debate about this, just go with your preference, rarely will you suffer for it.



Can you tell me just how to set it up on a raid0 setup like mine ? I am at a loss here . I have it set to windows managed and well it seems fine but my page fire is only 4GB .
This is what it looks like .


----------



## Nordap (Dec 19, 2011)

You might want to consider moving the paging file to another drive. Most likely you wont notice any difference in even the most memory intensive programs. Another option would be a second ssd or hybrid drive and use it as a temp drive. SSD's now a days are built to last, unless you get a cheap off brand it should be fine.


----------



## cadaveca (Dec 19, 2011)

trickson said:


> Can you tell me just how to set it up on a raid0 setup like mine ? I am at a loss here . I have it set to windows managed and well it seems fine but my page fire is only 4GB .
> This is what it looks like .





Set the C; drive page file to "NONE", then set the other drive as having the page file.


This is what I have with 8Gb of ram:





To set it up on your raid is very simple, and easy. Once you make the changes on this panel, then reboot, and it's done.


----------



## Deleted member 24505 (Dec 19, 2011)

GotNoRice said:


> So basically you really don't know, and are just pushing buttons.  I appreciate the clarification.



I wouldn't say just pushing buttons, I am not a chimp and am not a pc noob either. 

I googled and did a lot of research on the subject and it is very debated. Lots of people say leave it on, and equally lots say turn it off with 6gb+ of ram. I just thought i would try it, and see what if any difference it makes to windows. It makes no differance it seems to the way windows runs or feels.

I understand the designers of windows designed it with the pagefile, but if it is so critical, why does turning it off have no detrimental effect on the way windows works?

Someone explain why windows "needs" the pagefile, and why is there no seeming downside to turning it off?


----------



## Tatty_One (Dec 19, 2011)

trickson said:


> Can you tell me just how to set it up on a raid0 setup like mine ? I am at a loss here . I have it set to windows managed and well it seems fine but my page fire is only 4GB .



If it's working fine do you really need to change it?  In a Raid 0 setup does it not physically share the pagefile across both drives?  I cannot remember, it's a while since I used Raid.  I do beleive though (and I admit again I might be wrong but I have looked at useage a lot) that the higher you set the pagefile, the more windows uses it and the less it uses physical Ram..... although that admittably might be just in certain apps, if however it is the case, seeing as theoretically Ram is faster, it "could" be beneficial to lower Pagefile size.


----------



## trickson (Dec 19, 2011)

Tatty_One said:


> If it's working fine do you really need to change it?  In a Raid 0 setup does it not physically share the pagefile across both drives?  I cannot remember, it's a while since I used Raid.



No not really . It works just fine . But if there is an advantage to using it , Then I would like to know .


----------



## trickson (Dec 19, 2011)

Tatty_One said:


> If it's working fine do you really need to change it?  In a Raid 0 setup does it not physically share the pagefile across both drives?  I cannot remember, it's a while since I used Raid.  I do beleive though (and I admit again I might be wrong but I have looked at useage a lot) that the higher you set the pagefile, the more windows uses it and the less it uses physical Ram..... although that admittably might be just in certain apps, if however it is the case, seeing as theoretically Ram is faster, it "could" be beneficial to lower Pagefile size.



Oh I get it now . RAM is faster than my HDD's unless I had SSD drivers . so page filing would be slowing down my system not speeding it up . I get it now . Thank you  .


----------



## Tatty_One (Dec 19, 2011)

trickson said:


> Oh I get it now . RAM is faster than my HDD's unless I had SSD drivers . so page filing would be slowing down my system not speeding it up . I get it now . Thank you  .



Not exactly, the pagefile has a wider purpose than simply that, it does by default get used in preference to physical memory with some apps/functions and of course defaults if more physical memory is needed, as I said in my first post, whichever you choose, you probably won't actually notice any difference and possibly those with just 4GB ram on a Win 7 x64 system would probably need a bigger pagefile!


----------



## qubit (Dec 19, 2011)

@twicksisted

You're getting lots of conflicting answers on how to set the pagefile, because there isnt' one definitive way it should be set. It all depends on your setup and what you're running.

I find what works best for me, is to have it just set to Auto and let Windows manage it - a true set it and forget it mode. However, as you have an SSD, I suggest setting to Auto on that drive and disabling it for the SSD. Again, it's not critical to set it this way, so you could play with other configurations.


----------



## trickson (Dec 19, 2011)

I just set mine to 6142 on both them windows just to see how it works so far so good .


----------



## scaminatrix (Dec 20, 2011)

Since your using a video editing rig, 95% of advice you'll get is going to be wrong. Video editing rigs are quite different to gaming rigs lol no offence to anyone else. Set the pagefile to 4GB and try your hardest to put it on an empty drive. If you're using a HDD for your source media, then you don't really want a pagefile on there. Ideally, it would be on a separate drive.

I have 8GB of RAM in my video editing rig plus 4 HDD's in RAID 0 and the pagefile obviously goes on the RAID array.

In order of importance:

MUST: Take pagefile off of SSD
IDEAL: Place pagefile on cheap, crappy, empty HDD (performance/size doesn't matter)
SETTLE FOR: Place pagefile on HDD with your source media.

To all the nay-sayers: No you may not get massive performance increase from sticking pf on empty drive instead of the source media drive; but in a video editing rig, you don't want a pagefile cluttering up your source drive. Even if it doesn't acccess it at all. 


If you're using your SSD as source media drive, then completely disregard my whole post  But still take the pagefile off there


----------

