Virtual Memory Setting In XP 32bit With 4GB Ram?

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Vezra

Limp Gawd
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Jul 14, 2004
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What should I set my Initial Size and Maximum Size Paging file size to in Windows XP Home Edition 32bit? I have 4GB of ram installed but since it's 32bit Windows only shows 3.25.
 
I'd set 200mb just to be safe. Ideally, with that much RAM, you don't even need any page files. But, some applications require it so setting 200mb is a safe number.
 
You're supposed to set it 1.5 min to 3 times max the size of your physical RAM. I would probably set it to around 2GB first and test the waters to see how things go incase you might need to in/decrease it. For some reason 12GB page files just don't sound right to me on a desktop (and neither do 200MB page files).
 
just leave it alone let it auto manage, either way you wont notice it, period.


gone more or less are the days of 98 / 2k where settings it to 1.5 x and all that did something.
 
Auto manage is a really good way to trash your hd. Set your pagefile to 1 gigs and force it to a specific size. The last thing you want is having the system resize the swap (will slow you down and trash your harddrive).
 
DragonNOA1 said:
You're supposed to set it 1.5 min to 3 times max the size of your physical RAM. I would probably set it to around 2GB first and test the waters to see how things go incase you might need to in/decrease it. For some reason 12GB page files just don't sound right to me on a desktop (and neither do 200MB page files).
Click to expand...

A calculation that went out of date years ago. When the average RAM size was 64Mb, it made sense to set the PF to maybe 3x. Nowadays with 1-2Gb being the norm, a 2Gb PF should easily suffice. More physical RAM, smaller PF.

Don't disable the PageFile either, even if you've 4+Gb of RAM, Windows requires at least a small area available to it.
 
i have vista 64 with 4gb and just saw my pagefile limit is 8330 MB with 1334 MB being used. is this normal or what???????
 
With 2Gb of ram, I've seen my page file grow up to 1.8Gb of size while gaming, so i set mine to 3GB min/max and never had a single issue this way
 
the calculated page file size is more of a guideline. i happen to use 1.5x my physical ram with 1 gig installed. i used to have a 2 gig swap file, but was never using it, so i downsized it. no performance change at all.

if you want to get the best size at the least HDD consumption keep an eye on your task manager and if you are using a lot of memory and windows pops up alerts saying your page file is full, then increase it, if not, decrease it. with my current setup, when i use memory demanding apps like games or image editing i use about 1/2 of my total physical/virtual memory.

as was stated before, some programs require virtual memory, so having some there is required.
 
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