Windows Swap File Question plus tweak for XP64

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Ingonuts13

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jun 9, 2003
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So I was reading a tweak guide a while back that told me to move my swap file to a second drive for improved performance. (I cannot remember the site but if someone has a link that would be great)

What I am wondering is how much the swap is actually hit on a 2GB system these days?

Also are there any tweak guides for XP64 at this point for a gaming rig?

Does XP64 use a swap file as the 32-bit version?
 
Ingonuts13 said:
What I am wondering is how much the swap is actually hit on a 2GB system these days?
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Good question, I would say it probably depends on what you're doing. If it's a gaming rig, I can load up FEAR if you'd like and see what my vmem usage is
 
Yeah, there's no way to answer that question, because each system is different. You can check yourself by firing up your normal tasks, and then checking the task manager.
 
Gambit said:
Good question, I would say it probably depends on what you're doing. If it's a gaming rig, I can load up FEAR if you'd like and see what my vmem usage is
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Well I am not asking the question in that sense. Of course a game loaded will not fill up 2GB of memory. But it is my understanding that the swap file is much more complicated than only being used when the system runs out of RAM.

So I was wondering if available RAM has any effect on swap usage.
 
The more RAM you have, the less the swap file will be used....to a point. You will eventually get to the point where adding more memory (if the board can handle it) won't give you any performance increases.
 
djnes said:
The more RAM you have, the less the swap file will be used....to a point. You will eventually get to the point where adding more memory (if the board can handle it) won't give you any performance increases.
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Ok then what about moving it to a second drive?

Do you know of any tweaks out there for XP64?
 
You may want to download that patcher program to remove the xp tcp connection limit. (It works on x64 dont worrry)
 
Lord of Shadows said:
You may want to download that patcher program to remove the xp tcp connection limit. (It works on x64 dont worrry)
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You lost me on that one...what program and from where to download?

XP pro has a limit of 10 simultaneous connections. Is that what you are referring to?
 
Ingonuts13 said:
What I am wondering is how much the swap is actually hit on a 2GB system these days?
Click to expand...
Excellent question so many people don't bother asking when it comes to this!

It depends on memory usage. If you aren't using more memory than RAM the page file is not being used much at all. This is why tweaking the pagefile is kinda an "outdated" tweak.

Also are there any tweak guides for XP64 at this point for a gaming rig?
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Not that I'm aware of, also with any given tweak make sure to test it's benefit. For every 10 tweaks I see, 1 is helpfull in some cases.

Does XP64 use a swap file as the 32-bit version?
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Yes.

Here's another link on virtual memory. I'll have to read the wiki link later, hopefully it's not riddled with errors. :)
 
Yeah, there's no way to answer that question, because each system is different. You can check yourself by firing up your normal tasks, and then checking the task manager.
Click to expand...

The task manager does not tell you your pagefile usage. Thew only way to tell with tools built into Windows is using the "%usage" counter in perfmon. The optimal pagefile should be determined by running your most intensive applications and then checking your PF usage. You should set the initial 4x the observed usage and the max should be 2x the initial.

Also are there any tweak guides for XP64 at this point for a gaming rig?
Click to expand...

I would just ignore tweaking guides. They are all full of poor advice and false information.

You may want to download that patcher program to remove the xp tcp connection limit. (It works on x64 dont worrry)
Click to expand...

Which doesn't effect any legitimate traffic anyway, thus making this "tweak" a waste of time.
 
I've also read that putting the page file on a different hard drive than the OS improves performance. I did that with my old setup, had two 7200 rpm drives and just put the page file on my storage drive but I did not notice much. Not saying it doesn't help though.
Also on my new system I have a 74gb raptor, so I just keep the page file on that one since it's 10000 rpm.
 
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