What should my pagefile size be?

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sdd

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I have 2 x 250GB HDD's.

C:drive XP SP2 installed
D:drive containing games and photos.

What pagefile should I be using. PC is used mainly for gaming.

Currently, I have both drives set on system managed. Should I just leave it at that?
 
Yes, system managed is best, but the rough rule of thumb is 1.5 times the size of your RAM
 
I usually take the amount of system RAM and multiply it by 3.8, take that value and place it as the page file size, you do it as both minimum and maximum, or you could half it again and place it as minimum and place the unhalved as maximum.

Some people multiply it by 1.5, but I prefer a higher amount, so that Windows won't moan about a small pagefile size.

You can disable the pagefile for your D drive (if you aren't playing games off it) and just enable it on the C drive. ;)
 
I find xp and vista flies without page file, obviously if you dont have alot of memory you need a page file but 3 gigs or more you should not need one.
 
killadoob said:
I find xp and vista flies without page file, obviously if you dont have alot of memory you need a page file but 3 gigs or more you should not need one.
Click to expand...

I think with XP, you need to have kernel paging turned off before you switch off your page file though as Kernel paging is on by default. If you don't you actually get a bit of a performance hit....
 
leelo said:
I wrote an article on improving paging in XP once, posted on the grrr site:
(may be of use to you)
http://www.grrr.co.za/index.php/tips-menu/41-win-tips/58-win-page
Click to expand...

Nice article.

But I found that if your games are on the same drive as your pagefile, then your performance will still suffer (reading huge files while trying to put them into memory). For optimal performance its best to find a drive which is used for storage (eg. pron :p) and put your pagefile there instead. Otherwise leave it on your windows drive.

Also, it doesn't really help putting your pagefile on another partition either.
 
LaRoosTa said:
Nice article.
But I found that if your games are on the same drive as your pagefile, then your performance will still suffer (reading huge files while trying to put them into memory). For optimal performance its best to find a drive which is used for storage (eg. pron :p) and put your pagefile there instead. Otherwise leave it on your windows drive.
Also, it doesn't really help putting your pagefile on another partition either.
Click to expand...

Zackly - pr0n drive is usually the fastest.....lolz
Yeah, the logic is there, the separation of the page file is to move it to an inactive drive, not a drive where you're loading the proggies, to give it faster access....
 
On my [hardly ever used] Vista partition I don't even have a pagefile. I have 2GB RAM and simply use a Readyboost enabled flashdrive. It's a little faster than using a pagefile [on your computer], in general.
 
I've always heard 1.5 times how much RAM you have and to set the min and max to the same so it doesn't change size and get fragmented. Don't know how true that is but anyway.
 
froot how are you microsoft free since 1969 yet you use ready boost?

ready boost is slower than your hdd BTW
 
sdd said:
I have 2 x 250GB HDD's.

C:drive XP SP2 installed
D:drive containing games and photos.

What pagefile should I be using. PC is used mainly for gaming.

Currently, I have both drives set on system managed. Should I just leave it at that?
Click to expand...

AUTO

YES!
 
1.5X times for anything below 4GB, and 1X or less for anything above 4GB.

Use a fast drive (preferably not system drive) or separate partition if you want to keep it intact.
 
I sincerely mean no offence to anyone here, but this one really gets me.

That rumour about setting a pagefile to X times RAM (or something to that effect) is one of the biggest loads of manure I've heard, it's shocking how long this wife's tale has lasted. If the moron who first started this actually put some thought into it the logic would have jumped up and bitten him.

By that logic the less RAM a PC has the smaller the pagefile should be, though since the pagefile (basically) is used when there's not enough RAM the less RAM a PC has the bigger the pagefile should be but even if you have loads of RAM you shouldn't disable it as some applications might try to use it regardless of free RAM.

Letting the system manage it is fine but it will become fragmented when it expands which isn't serious but it's not ideal either. To stop it becoming fragmented set the maximum and minimum size to the same value, 2000MB is normally a safe size on a newer PC and you can always increase it if you need to. If you're doing CAD or modelling you will want more.

To help performance you could put the pagefile onto a hard drive that is least used (and always connected). Try to avoid putting the pagefile onto the same drive where hard drive hogging applications are going to be reading and writing files to and from (games HDD for example) if possible.


(edit)
When I say Hard Drive or HDD I mean a physical one, not a partition. If you only have one hard drive putting it onto partition D instead of C won't affect anything other than it's location.
 
Last edited:
Do not turn off the PF either, since Windows uses it to write crash-related information as well. I dislike a system-managed PF simply because almost guarantees that your PF will become fragmented over time. I have a 128Mb PF on my OS drive and a dedicated 2Gb partition at the start of my 2nd drive.
 
Windows does not need a page file if you have alot of memory.

Photoshop, corel draw all my games work, windows does not need a page file if you have enough memory.

Yes i know 32 bit xp does not see all 4 gig.

I find that on vista 64 bit both corel draw and photoshop open and run faster with it off.
 
What about assigning the pagefile to a flash drive? Perhaps I should get a flash drive just for the pagefile.
 
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