Turning off virtual memory.

[inertia]

How much memory is enough to turn off virtual memory. If I get 1GB of PC150 RAM, shouldn't that be enough? I don't mind so much *wasting* the HDD space, but it's also a performance hit. Why would I want a top end system slowed down by uselessly paging back and forth to the slow (expletive) hard drive? Sure it's a 10k RPM ATA 100 w/7ms seek time, but as you know it's orders of magnitude slower than RAM.

Aren't there progs out there that expect to see virtual mem? This would cause a problem I think. Anybody know what they are?

[Thelemac]

Depends what OS you're using. If you're using a win9x kernel, it's probably not the best idea cause it can't really address enough physical memory for you to put enough in (it can't get to more than, um, 512MB, I think and doesn't do a good job above 256 or so)

If you're using NT, go for it. Don't know how, though.

[BigJohn]

I heard, and this is just me, but don't turn it off, but multiply how much memory you have by 2.5 and put that in as your min and max and that forces it into your memory instead of the hard drive. That sounds right but I'm not sure. I remember getting that off of ocshoot at one point.

[Tbone1]

If vm is disabled you will be able to run the os but get many blue screens when your memory gets full.

[engjohn]

Windows NT/2000/XP will not let you disable virtual memory. If you do, when you reboot the sys says that no pagefile can be found and the system is creating a small page file... etc...

If you have enough ram, paging will not be an issue. It becomes an issue when there is too little ram.

Paging also removes from ram data that is not being used. So if you do not have a pagefile all this data would have to stay in ram, and that would fill up your ram pretty fast...

[Jason B]

I swear making the Virtual Memory settings LOW helped me tremendously!

I run ALOT of multilple programs on my PC. I made my Virtual memory settings very low and my computer runs 10 times better under load.

Some thoughts... I have 1 gig of ram on XP myself. For the longest time, if I had about 15 things open, multiple IE browsers, CuteFTP, paint program, IM, etc, and when I would try to open up anything else, I couldn't. When I would double click on another program, nothing would happen. Here is what I saw when hitting cntrl/alt/delete:

http://www.burtmanindustries.com/images/xyz/memory.jpg
At this point above ^^ I couldn't do much of anything else, unless I started closing out windows.

NOW, I went into Virtual memory settings, which WAS on "let windows manage" and I changed it to this:

http://www.burtmanindustries.com/images/xyz/virt_memory.jpg

Now, rebooted, and opened about 23+ programs, + adobe photoshop, tons of IE windows, tons of stuff and NO LAG and I could still open more programs! The pc runs 100% better when all these apps are open.

Here is what I had now when I hit cntrl/alt/delete:

http://www.burtmanindustries.com/images/xyz/memory_after.jpg
Remember, I opened many, many more programs that the last time.

For you gurus out there... How is this possible? How can my computer be running this much better, and why can I open twice as many programs than I could before I changed the virtual memory settings to those low #'s?

My computer feels twice as fast under load now.

[nikhsub1]

Holy thread resurrection! This thread from before I even joined :rolleyes:

[IAmMoen]

wow. that is all i can say. wow. older than most peoples' pets!

[meionm]

more responses now than back then

[Captain Newbie]

Holy thread resurrection! This thread from before I even joined :rolleyes:
Me too! :cool:

Yeah, uh, don't turn off paging, Windows doesn't react favorably to it, okay? :)

[Jason B]

Ok, I'm not the best with computers, but this is the main reason I want to tweak things.

Right, now, when my system is like when I hit cntl/alt/del:

http://www.burtmanindustries.com/images/xyz/mem3.jpg

Now, in this state, I CAN NO LONGER OPEN THNINGS! If I try to open CuteFTP, double click it, nothing happens, paintshop pro, same thing, double click, it just doesn't open or do anything. I can open smaller things without a problem.

What is wrong? What do I need to change? If I start closing windows, then I can open those other programs. I don't get it. Please help.

[Mr. Chambers]

Holy thread resurrection! This thread from before I even joined :rolleyes:

Not me but close! :bday:

As for the subject, I never bothered with turning it off - I did sometimes tweak the amount, but never really gained much performance. The latest OS's do a much better job handling VM.

[Jason B]

This ended up making the biggest difference!!!

http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=238&pgno=0