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Member
 
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 8/16/2008 6:07 PM
Posts: 14,
Visits: 17
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I've done this along time, turning it off stops memory going to the pagefile, which is much slower since it's accessing the HDD.
I've never had any problems with it off, i can play Crysis pretty good with 2GB of ram on Vista. 
I looked up for some instructions on howto do it, saves me writing it =P
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000422.html
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ELN Board Member, Bigfoot Networks CEO
Group: Administrators
Last Login: 9/8/2008 7:13 PM
Posts: 266,
Visits: 636
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Good thoughts! Pagefiles are slower...
Especially big games.
One caution. Page Files may be needed by games that are big.. (like Supreme Commander).
Tytus
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[ELN]Tytus - EndLagNow.ORG
Member of the Board of Directors of ELN
CEO + Mad Scientist of Bigfoot Networks, Inc.
http://www.bigfootnetworks.com
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Member
Group: Administrators
Last Login: 7/22/2008 10:01 AM
Posts: 11,
Visits: 11
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it shouldnt be using the pagefile unless it needs it anyway
thing is, if you hit a situation where you need the page file, your gonna lag even worse with it turned off
the best thing to do is actually defrag it
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1. first clean up your harddrive as much as possible, uninstall crap you no longer use. delete old stored junk you no longer need and run a disk cleanup
1.5 run a registry cleaner if you have one
2. defrag your harddrive
3. turn off your pagefile and reboot your PC
4. defrag AGAIN (first defrag didnt touch your previously active pagefile area)
5. reboot and defrag AGAIN (yea, that sounds redundant, but this time should go super fast and catch any tiny pieces missed up till now)
6. turn on your pagefile, set it to "custom size". now set the initial size AND the maximum size to match one of your RAM sticks x 3
7. reboot your PC, double check that the virtual memory settings "stuck" and did not revert to defaults (if the settings did not stay, change them again, now power off the PC and count to 30 before turning it on again, or power off the PC first, than do the settings, you basically need to clear the cache file and ensure the settings arent getting overwritten with backup "safe" files)
7.5 run your registry cleaner again if you have one
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Why do you have to go through all this?
1. the default "automatically manage page file size" is really bad at optimization. it basically tosses pieces of files all over your harddrive instead of putting them in one contiguous block. by defining both the initial and the max size to be identical you create a smaller area for your harddrive to "search" when it actually does eventually use the page file
2. normal defrags do not touch the random bits of page file scattered all over your harddrive, this not only slows down page file speed, but your overall harddrive speed as well as over time you end up with tons of fragments that can never be defragged. so, by having shut off your pagefile and defragged, you ensure that your newly created block of custom size page file is already defragged (you may want to repeat this procedure once or twice a year to keep it defragged)
3. why 3 times one stick? the max amount of contiguous memory that can ever be moved in a single lump is the size of one stick; even with more mem sticks your just creating multiple paths of movement, not larger singular blocks of movement (like with dual channel, you have one stick reading and one writing). by having triple the size of a single stick you ensure you have the ability to swap out entire sticks worth of memory in sequence
so, 2gb of memory in a dual channel set up? (two sticks of 1024 ram each) you would set your custom initial and maximum page file size to: 3072mb
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seriously, consider using this procedure to optomize page file usage rather than doing without it, if you ever start playing a game where you need the page file, you will regret having it off, things will slow to a crawl if not crash entirely
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