Disabling Virtual Memory in Win7... bad idea?

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gcaver2

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I just built a new system with 6gb of DDR3 and 2x 32gb SSD in RAID0.

I disabled virtual memory in win7 x64 (i.e. set page file to none) because I want to optimize the limited free space on my RAID array. I plan on getting a large HDD to store random stuff on later, but for now, I need to save space on my SSD RAID.

So... the question is - is this a bad idea for any reasons? I am curious if I am going to see any performance hits from turning off the use of VRAM - anyone know? My system should never even come close to using 6gb of RAM (probably never even 4gb), so I figured this would be a good idea, but I'd like to hear from the pros ;)
 
Turn it back on and set it to something low like 32MB. I have a small SSD (single 80GB) and I just leave it alone. Microsoft is smarter then me.
 
Let me ask you a question gcaver2. When your computer has a lot of unused data in ram that it wants to free up so that it can use ram for applications that are running, where is it going to put it? OK Space is tight on an SSD, I understand that. You probably don't need 6GB of page file space. You need at least 512MB though. With 4GB of ram, 7 is often paging a few hundred MB of data. I want that data paged so my ram is free for applications.

A lot of people with large ram immediately think they have outsmarted Microsoft but they are only shooting themselves in the foot. Sure, you have more memory but now you're also forcing windows to hold a lot of unused or rarely used data in memory, rather than allowing that to be freed up. How is that a good thing? The page file is absolutely, positively not a bottleneck on 99.99% of computers. The only time I've ever seen the page file slow down a computer is with machine that have very low amounts of memory and data is constantly being paged because it has to in order to free up ram. That's the exact opposite of your situation.
 
bigdogchris said:
A lot of people with large ram immediately think they have outsmarted Microsoft but they are only shooting themselves in the foot. Sure, you have more memory but now you're also forcing windows to hold a lot of unused or rarely used data in memory, rather than allowing that to be freed up. How is that a good thing? The page file is absolutely, positively not a bottleneck on 99.99% of computers. The only time I've ever seen the page file slow down a computer is with machine that have very low amounts of memory and data is constantly being paged because it has to in order to free up ram. That's the exact opposite of your situation.
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I think a lot of this attitude is due to the fact that XP does a horrible job and pages out stuff you need for file cache (or whatever other stupid thing it's doing, does it even when there's plenty of 'free' RAM). 7 is much better, and I agree, just leave it to its own devices unless you find restoring an app you used an hour ago takes 5 minutes like happened often in XP, but I haven't seen this myself.

Though I wouldn't call it a bad idea, it probably won't make any difference to performance at all, especially with an SSD.
 
Hi guys,

On(end-user) large memory configurations...

-W7 does an amazing job managing RAM....while disabled, you barely notice a change and increase posibilities of an memory-aggressive application filling up your memory and end up with a unusuable UI, leaving it on is a smart choice

otherwise, on xp, memory management sucks and disabling vm greatly improves performance but you'd still be vulnerable of a large memory application messing up with your system....

so..imho....first evaluate your real memory requirements and make a smart decision...
 
what if i have 16gb of ram? i have 16gb of ram and the page file windows uses is a huge 16gb sob. should i turn it down to 1gb or less? and how do i move the page file from my ssd to my hdd?
 
I have had it off since WinXP. With 6 gigs of ram you will be absolutely fine with it off.
 
Dion said:
I have had it off since WinXP. With 6 gigs of ram you will be absolutely fine with it off.
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Good for you, but Win7 is not XP, its better a small fixed size one instead of not having PF at all.
 
8 gig of ram.. leave PF turned off.. rarely go over 60% ram usage even gaming..
 
12 gigs here, off since day one, never a problem. Plus you get all that space back.
 
12 GB of RAM here with paging file disabled, never had a problem. The paging file debate has been discussed to death in the past.
 
Since this thread has risen from the dead, I'll update it. Tom's did a study a few months ago and found that even with 8GB of ram, you do not want to shut off your page-file.

Since my last post I have found that IMO on SSD's the best method to handle the page file is to use the min/max method. Set the minimal to 430MB (or whatever the minimal Win allows) and the maximum to what your memory is. What this does is create a page file that is the minimal size, but it has the ability to grow in size if needed. Since SSD's do not suffer from fragmentation at the level that rotational media does, that concern is now null. You gain the benefit of having the page file that is proper for your memory, but also the small footprint that we all want on our SSDs. I've done this, and with 8GB my page file has not grown over 430MB to my knowledge. So really, there is no downside.
 
Depending on what you're using your machine for, certain games and applications require the presence of a page file even if it's not necessarily being used.
 
I'm using a 20 MB swap file on my SSD. I don't care about losing such a small amount of space.
 
It totally depends on how you use your computer. I have my page file off with 8GB of RAM in my computer and I may have come across a low memory warning maybe three times in the couple of years that I've been running SSDs in my computer. I haven't crashed yet or lost any data. This is a computer that isn't rebooted regularly.
 
bigdogchris said:
Since this thread has risen from the dead, I'll update it. Tom's did a study a few months ago and found that even with 8GB of ram, you do not want to shut off your page-file.
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How about a link, or why you shouldn't shut it off?

FWIW, I have 6GB RAM on Win7 and I have had my PF off for over a year without any issues.
 
Shutting off the page file gives you no benefits in Windows 7. Somebody please show me where you can tell it has improved anything other than "Ooooh look I have umpteen GB's of ram so I don't need this, this or this turned on? I guess people here know a lot more than MS does. The only reason to ever lower (not turn off) the PF size is if you have an SSD running out of room. If you get ANY low memory/out of memory errors "ever" then you need to turn the Pf back on. Don't be stupid, it's there for a reason. Anybody using professional apps or certain games knows this...
 
fps4ever said:
Shutting off the page file gives you no benefits in Windows 7. Somebody please show me where you can tell it has improved anything other than "Ooooh look I have umpteen GB's of ram so I don't need this, this or this turned on? I guess people here know a lot more than MS does. The only reason to ever lower (not turn off) the PF size is if you have an SSD running out of room. If you get ANY low memory/out of memory errors "ever" then you need to turn the Pf back on. Don't be stupid, it's there for a reason. Anybody using professional apps or certain games knows this...
Click to expand...

You lose Hard Drive space. There is no benefit with it on and off. Not unless you break your memory limit. But Window7 handles memory much better this never happens.
 
Think both sides of the argument have been mentioned so not going to add except don't expect any crash dumps or trouble shooting with BSODs. Coz there won't be any
 
bigdogchris said:
Let me ask you a question gcaver2. When your computer has a lot of unused data in ram that it wants to free up so that it can use ram for applications that are running, where is it going to put it? OK Space is tight on an SSD, I understand that. You probably don't need 6GB of page file space. You need at least 512MB though. With 4GB of ram, 7 is often paging a few hundred MB of data. I want that data paged so my ram is free for applications.

A lot of people with large ram immediately think they have outsmarted Microsoft but they are only shooting themselves in the foot. Sure, you have more memory but now you're also forcing windows to hold a lot of unused or rarely used data in memory, rather than allowing that to be freed up. How is that a good thing? The page file is absolutely, positively not a bottleneck on 99.99% of computers. The only time I've ever seen the page file slow down a computer is with machine that have very low amounts of memory and data is constantly being paged because it has to in order to free up ram. That's the exact opposite of your situation.
Click to expand...

Theoretically its better because its much faster to run apps out of ram than it is to have to spin up a hard drive and transfer to ram and THEN run it out of ram. You are of the old school "more free ram is better" mentality which is stifling progress. Android for instance runs best when the memory is nearly full if it is implemented properly with correct memory tweaks and whatnot. Your apps will always run quicker if they are already in faster ram than if they are on some other storage like a hard drive or external memory. Free ram doesn't do anything but take up space. If you want more free ram buy a couple sticks and set them on your desktop as a paperweight. There. Free memory for your peace of mind.
 
Windows doesn't page the applications in use it will use all the available ram. When the apps that's currently in use is using the page then your running on 512mb ram.
 
fps4ever said:
Shutting off the page file gives you no benefits in Windows 7. Somebody please show me where you can tell it has improved anything other than "Ooooh look I have umpteen GB's of ram so I don't need this, this or this turned on? I guess people here know a lot more than MS does. The only reason to ever lower (not turn off) the PF size is if you have an SSD running out of room. If you get ANY low memory/out of memory errors "ever" then you need to turn the Pf back on. Don't be stupid, it's there for a reason. Anybody using professional apps or certain games knows this...
Click to expand...

And, at least for XP, people that ran tests found that performance was sometimes worse with it off. The pagefile pretty much almost always benefits you, or at least does not harm.

Turning it off gains you nothing. And you're going against every recommendation made by Microsoft, software vendors, and everyone else knowledgeable. For what? A chance to decrease your performance.

Smart.

If you are really low on space (SSD), on a desktop, put a Windows managed pagefile on a HDD and a small one on the SSD (whatever you want to have awesome performance - SSDs are supposed to be fantastic for paging).

If you really have low, low space on a 1-SSD system (like a laptop)...at minimum crank down the size a significant amount. But realize you may be getting worse performance than Microsoft's recommendation of an O.S.-managed pagefile.
 
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