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View Full Version : How important is the paging file that windows uses as RAM


iLLyriC
May 17, 2009, 06:47 AM
Hi everyone,

I would like to ask why is it important that windows uses a part of the hard disk memory as an additional RAM? I want to free up some space and I'm not sure if it is a good solution or not to modify the Page file.
I also looked up in "dxdiag" and it says that I have a total paging file of 1400 MB, and it is using only 460MB of it, so reducing it won't trouble much, will it?

And there's also another issue. I have a RAM 1 GB, and my PC uses approximately the half of it. Some people say that the more RAM you have the better, so can you advice me to buy more RAM or not?

Thanks a lot!

JBeaucaire
May 17, 2009, 09:41 PM
The more RAM the better. Period. That's my story, my experience... and if you're talking about a WINDOWS computer, I would max the memory my computer allows. I have in virtually every computer I have.

SWAP SPACE - I turn off "managed" swap space by "bricking" the swap file to 2.5 times the amount of physical memory that I have.

So, with 1GB real memory, I would set my swap file to a flat size of 2500MB. No resizing allowed.

This results in a significant improvement in performance. Windows NEVER spends any time trying to figure out how to utilize the existing swap space or resizing it, never. It always has a set amount.

Period.

In my personal and business computers I have followed those two practices staunchly and have had excellent results.