Virtual Memory settings for 1 Gig of RAM question?

[xXxDieselxXx]

Hi guys,

What would you recommend for 1 Gig of RAM.

I'll like to set the best VM settings.

I saw in one post that these settings will be good:

Min: 1024
Max: 1024

http://pub6.ezboard.com/fgamerszone64493pcgames.showMessage?topicID=734.topic

Would that work?

Thanks...

 

[strokeside]

I thought Virtual Memory was the portion of Hard drive that Windows used as a secondary memory storage area and it had nothing to do with the ram.
Is this not so?

 

[JohnnyTheRed]

I believe you're right Strokeside, but I believe it really only makes a difference when you don't have a lot of memory, or don't have a lot of spare memory. So, I think his settings should actually be lower.

But I could be wrong :/

 

[xXxDieselxXx]

I thought Virtual Memory was the portion of Hard drive that Windows used as a secondary memory storage area and it had nothing to do with the ram.
Is this not so?

Correct... but don't you have to set it up according to the RAM capacity?

I just want to make sure the system has an optimal use of the available RAM instead of using the HD when there is memory available in RAM.

 

[stan03]

Correct... but don't you have to set it up according to the RAM capacity?

I just want to make sure the system has an optimal use of the available RAM instead of using the HD when there is memory available in RAM.

Yes you have to set it up according to RAM. Its half of the RAM plus the total RAM you have, so for you it would be 1.5 gigs.

 

[xXxDieselxXx]

Yes you have to set it up according to RAM. Its half of the RAM plus the total RAM you have, so for you it would be 1.5 gigs.

Thanks Stan03,

Now I have a nOOb's question..

What would you put as :

Initial Size (MB): ?
Max Size (MB): ?

I know you said 1.5 gigs but I'm quite confused with what should go in the initial and max values. Should I add 1.5 for Init and Max?

Could you please help me?

Thanks in advance

 

[stan03]

I usually let windows specify mine. Im not sure about this one, but if I was you I would set the minimum at 1.5 gigs, and the max maybe 2 gigs. sorry I can't help you with this one.

 

[xXxDieselxXx]

Thanks for trying though..

 

[Supertrucker]

with a gig of real ram i would give windows 512-1024, you can do it one of two ways, make a small partition and let windows expand and contract the swap file there, or defrag your hdd and set a constant amount of virtual ram... ie 512min 512 max or 1024min 1024 max, thatway the file doesnt expand and contract and frag your hdd

 

[xXxDieselxXx]

Awesome.! thank you... I'll give it a try...

 

[stan03]

i have to differ, the min ought to be 1.5 gigs. i know that one

 

[-=TriX-R4-KidS=]

i always hear set it at 1.5...ive got 512 right now and that setting is fine...but for 1gb...i think that 1.5gb might be too much....

 

[stan03]

I emailed someone really good with computers, it might even have been microsoft, i can't remember, they said to set it at 1.5 * the amound of RAM you have.... but it really dosen't matter, if its not enough youll get a warning, and you can just set it higher

 

[stan03]

i always hear set it at 1.5...ive got 512 right now and that setting is fine...but for 1gb...i think that 1.5gb might be too much....

maybe i am misreading this, but i always believed the more the ram, the larger the virtual settings ought to be

 

[Supertrucker]

nobody at microsoft would make a statement as flawed as that. the very idea is flawed. if you only have 128mb of ram you will need way more vm than 192mb. and if you have 4gb of ram you just dont need a 6gb swap file. the more ram your computer has, the less virtual memory it will need.

 

[emericanchaos]

i thought virtual mem was also called the paging file that uses HD space as a little chunk of memory almost like swap in linux and unix filesystems. if that's the case than having that much regualr RAM would mean you could make your paging file smaller. if you have alot of fast RAM then why would you want to use more HD space for memory? you would be better off using all that memory that you paid for before you go to swap. with that much memory i'd set my swap as low as possible or even disable it. windows will still use a small amount of swap even with virtual mem disabled because for somethings it's recquired but for the most part you would be using your DDR RAM before your swap.

 

[JohnnyTheRed]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314482

Read this, good info provided directly from Microsoft.

 

[Crash893]

i would just get rid of virtual memory all together

with a gig i think your covered

 

[cozmo_d]

If you have a gig of ram then u need to set the vm very very low LIke 0 maybe for best preformance



This next tip is for Windows98/98SE only:

To disable the "PageFile_Call_Async_Manager" feature that allows the Memory Manager to asynchronously
write out swap file buffers during VFAT idle times. This reverts swap file usage back to Windows 95 style,
and forces the use of the computer's physical memory
first =(faster), before the use of the slower hard disk
virtual memory (swap file) and reduces hard drive thrashing.

You'll need to edit your system.ini file by selecting Start, Run and type in system.ini. press enter

Once open scroll down to the section entitled [386Enh]. Create an open line below the title

[386Enh]
and type the following:

ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1

Now save the file and reboot your system.


Exzample:

[386Enh]
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1

Then go get Casheman its free & helps win 98 allocate memory

http://www.outertech.com/ click downlodes & get the ziped version

 

[xXxDieselxXx]

If you have a gig of ram then u need to set the vm to 0

for best preformance

I already did that and ended up reinstalling Windows XP. Everything was running nice and smooth til I ran a Sandra Memory Bandwidth test and the computer crashed. After the PC was not able to boot. It gave me an error saying that some system files were lost or corrupted. I tried repair and it kept saying could not install some files... after all I ended up formating my HD last night....

I really saw the huge performance change when VM was Off but I wonder I had to reformat the HD cause my PC crashed having some critical files in RAM instead of HD (VM) and lost the system files... Now I'm scared of turning VM Off....