May 29th 2009 04:44 am
Optimum page file size for Windows XP
The prices of memory module is getting cheaper these days, it comes as no surprise for a budget PC to be equipped with 4GB of RAM. With this amount of RAM, XP will allocate few Gigs of hard disk space as page file upon installation. The size of page file as huge as few Gigs is not necessary for most users.
The page file or virtual memory, acts as a secondary memory repository for the currently opened programs or applications when the RAM in your system is not sufficiently available. In this scenario, the active programs will be given priority to use the RAM while minimized programs which idling in the background will be displaced to the virtual memory.
In the case of 4GB RAM, the above scenario is hardly realizable. If you’re not running your machine on heavy database, running multiple OS via virtual machine, or hosting your machine as email server, you probably wont need a big page file. I would recommend 1GB of page file for a 4GB RAM configuration. For others RAM configuration, please refer below:
- 1GB or less -> use the default 1.5X settings.
- 2GB -> 1.5GB page file size
- 3GB or more -> 1GB
You can’t disable the page file entirely, doing so might cause some applications failed to run. This is attributed to the fact that some programs were coded to take advantage of the page file. Therefore, it is best as a safe measure to have at least 1GB of page file for big RAM configuration.
For best page file performance, split the page file across to few hard disks. It is not wise to split page file to the same hard disk with different partition as you won’t get any performance benefit from it. There is an example of splitting page file at the last part of this article.
How to go to XP’s virtual memory settings.
Go to the Control Panel.
Double click System
Click on Settings under “Performance”
Under Advanced tab, click Change.
If you’ve got multiple hard disks in your machine, split the page file across them like the configuration as I have above(I’ve got 1.5GB RAM). Remember to click the Set button when you’ve done for each hard disk, click OK when you’ve finished setting the page file and restart Windows after that.
*As you can see, I didn’t set my page file in ranged value. This is to hinder the page file from fragment across your hard disk when Windows automatically re size it. Windows will re size your page file when you’re running out of memory(total memory including your page file as well). If your page file is in fixed value, Windows won’t re size it but you will still get the Virtual Memory resizing pop out on the task bar.
2 Comments »
miko on 22 Jun 2009 at 4:41 am #
hi,
i cannot run many applications at a time allthough my computer is so new. the right click even wont work at times.
my comp is running on a 4gb ram (2×2) corsair.
asus motherboard
core 2 quad Q9650 3.00ghz
i have only one c drive.
my virtual memory settings are as such, are these ok ???
drive space available. 213538mb
initial size: 4990mb
max size: 100000mb
recomended: 4990mb
currently allocated: 4990mb
pls help
thanks, amit
admin on 22 Jun 2009 at 1:11 pm #
as you have 4gb ram, u should set your pagefile to 1GB.
of your question of why your computer cant run many applications at a time, i dont know how to answer this, i need more info from you, like when it happens? what OS u using, vista, xp, linux? what kind of applications you oppened? and i need to know your cpu usage when it was slow also.