Disable page file?

[shovenose]

So I've got a Lenovo IdeaPad V570. I accidentally wiped out my Windows install and all my data (oops) while installing Fedora. Unforuntunately some of my things (wireless, etc) don't work under Linux. So I reinstalled Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, blah blah blah...

Anyway, since it was ridiculously slow for a computer with 6GB of RAM and a Core i5 CPU, I've decided to do whatever I can to make it faster. And since the 5400rpm hard drive is by far the bottleneck, I figured I should disable the pagefile... I've got 6GB of RAM, is it safe to do?

Any other performance tips that I may not have thought of, please post

[joshnz]

Re: Disable page file?

It is about 70% safe if you somehow manage to run out of ram hell breaks loose i"ve had it happen a few times.

[shovenose]

Re: Disable page file?

Lol. Like what sort of hell? Demons coming out of the fan vents?
just kidding; seriously what happens?

[joshnz]

Re: Disable page file?

Windows starts stopping it's applications turns off themes and recommends you close the application using the most memory. if it fails to free enough memory the system crashes.

[mariushm]

Re: Disable page file?

Don't disable it. Set it to fixed size, minimum 64 MB, maximum 64 MB, reboot the system.

There's still lots of stuff in the Windows kernel that behaves differently if there's a page file or not, making some parts drop in performance when there's no page file even though you have lots of ram.
There's also lots of programs out there that do stupid things by assuming there is a page file present and windows itself likes to use the page file for some tricks.

But the very least, you're forcing the memory manager of Windows to assume you're always running out of memory.

If you already have 6 gigabytes of memory, windows 7 is already smart enough not to touch the page file so often. You can see the frequency with SysInternals Process Monitor / File Monitor.

If you have little ram and disable the page file and you fill the memory, it's possible to get corrupted windows (sections of windows only white or black), fonts could dissapear from the screen and you'd see all the text on screen like the font in the command line, could lose the internet connection as the network driver/tcp ip stack can't create memory buffers for new connections , the video card's driver could crash, blue screens etc

Since you have six gigs but you're probably using mostly 32 bit apps which are by the design of the 32 bit architecture limited to using a maximum of 2 GB per process, so no single 32 bit app could fill the whole 6 GB of memory and cause you issues.

[c_hegge]

Re: Disable page file?

only 5400rpm? most new laptops have 7200RPM drives (at least most of the ones we sell at work do)

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Disable page file?

http://lifehacker.com/5426041/unders...dnt-disable-it
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I'd set min and max to about 2GB and try it for a while there.
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.... And get a faster drive.
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[mariushm]

Re: Disable page file?

I agree with everything in that article except the idea of setting the size variable (showing 2GB - 8 GB in picture and mentioning 1 GB - 2 GB in the text).

Set it fixed size, it gives you the benefit that after restart, Windows will erase the previous variable pagefile and attempt to create the new pagefile in a location that's only free space and therefore the page file won't be fragmented. But even if it doesn't manage to do that, you can later on use a good defragger like O&O Defrag to move the page file at the beginning of the drive and get the lowest access times to it.

Set it to whatever you want but a fixed size. Fixed 64 MB - 256 MB should be enough if you have six GB of RAM but you can also go for 1-2 GB, it doesn't really matter. Windows won't page more just because the page file is big.

Just a note: don't set the page files bigger than 4 GB - if the OS is 32 bit, it won't be able to use memory mapping to map the page file to memory so seeking data into the page file will be slower.
With 64 bit operating systems, this shouldn't be an issue anymore but then again, 4 GB makes no sense anymore.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Disable page file?

I agree. - Good article except for that.
Setting the min-max to the same size is proven to help....
... And the author didn't know the reason for it so his objection is invalid.
.

[Sudum Gumudu]

Re: Disable page file?

You can put the pagefile in a RAM disk. Did that in my main rig with 8GB of RAM using a RAM disk program available for free at http://memory.dataram.com/products-a...ftware/ramdisk.
Works like a charm.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Disable page file?

That's an interesting idea but doesn't in take away from RAM available for active programs?
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[mariushm]

Re: Disable page file?

As most programs are still 32 bit, they won't use more than 2 GB of memory each. So with 8 GB of memory installed, a 2-4 GB disk won't make much difference.

[Sudum Gumudu]

Re: Disable page file?

That's an interesting idea but doesn't in take away from RAM available for active programs?
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It does, but with lots of installed RAM, 6 - 8 GB or more, you can easily allocate say 500-1000 MB of it for the RAM disk, to put a small swap file and windows temp files, and still have plenty left for programs. Haven't run out of RAM yet.

[Old Thrashbarg]

Re: Disable page file?

That's an interesting idea but doesn't in take away from RAM available for active programs?

Yes. The only instance where it would make any sense whatsoever is if you have a 32-bit OS on a machine with >4GB RAM installed, and use a ramdisk program that can create a ramdisk above the OS's addressing limit.

Unless you happen to have a setup like that for whatever strange reason, running the pagefile in a ramdisk is absolutely counterproductive.

edit: Come to think of it, there is one other case where it could be useful, not for performance but for reliability/longevity in systems with SSDs... putting the pagefile in memory would save write cycles, which could be a good thing if you have a lower-end drive without good wear-leveling.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Disable page file?

Not a good option with a 32-bit OS with max of 4GB RAM then.
OS is already hogging some RAM.
Add that with too big RAM-Disk and you could easily have less than 2GB left for programs.
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I've set up some servers using smaller Raptor drives as dedicated Page/Swap File drives.
Heads on the OS drive don't have collateral duties that way. - Works pretty well.
Works well with Dual/Multi-Boot set-ups too.
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[mariushm]

Re: Disable page file?

Yes. The only instance where it would make any sense whatsoever is if you have a 32-bit OS on a machine with >4GB RAM installed, and use a ramdisk program that can create a ramdisk above the OS's addressing limit.

Even on 64bit operating systems, the 32 bit applications aren't magically able to use more than 2 GB of memory each. So it works the same way.

But it's a bit pointless, since 64 bit operating systems use as much memory as possible to cache recently accessed files in memory and other things, so page file latency is no longer such a big issue.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Disable page file?

Yes. The only instance where it would make any sense whatsoever is if you have a 32-bit OS on a machine with >4GB RAM installed, and use a ramdisk program that can create a ramdisk above the OS's addressing limit.

Yes except the program runs -IN- the Windows OS.
Not so sure going above the Windows addressing limit is possible from inside Windows.
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[Sudum Gumudu]

Re: Disable page file?

The RAM disk program I mentioned can utilize RAM above 4GB for use as a RAM disk on 32-bit OS:es (!) Can be quite useful.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Disable page file?

You would have to have a system with a 32-bit OS that has more than 4GB of PHYSICAL RAM to do that.
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That's rather weird way to build a system.
You'd be building it just to run that program.
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