Do I let windows98 handle my virtual Mem or should I??

[ThomasT]

Hi There,
My virtual mem uses my free 4gig HD but currantly I'm letting windows handle it. Should I let it be or can I optimize it better by setting it my self? What should the min and max mem levels be?

Anybody with suggestions?

Thanks,
Tom T

[Nathan]

How much ram do you have?

What are your system specs?

How much free hard drive space do you have?

[Gorx]

Virtual Memory:

A swapfile (or Virtual Memory) is important to run programs that use more RAM than we have.
Set the size of the virtual memory (swap file) to an constant optimal size.
Lessen the amount of virtual memory re-sizing, disk swapping and constant hard disk access.
(Thrashing and stop it from becoming fragmented).
1. Right click My Computer or click on System in your Control Panel.
2. Click Properties.
3. The System Properties window lists the amount of RAM in your PC remember this for step#8.
4. Click Performance.
5. Click Virtual Memory.
6. Click Let me specify my own virtual memory settings.
7. Click the arrow next to the hard disk.
8. Here are some guidelines to choose the best location for your virtual memory file.
A} Select the quickest hard disk.
B} If you have, two hard disks that are similar in performance select the hard disk that
does not contain Windows 95 system files.
C} Make sure the drive has free space equal to at least twice the size of the recommended swap file size.
D} If necessary, select the partition in alphabetical order. For example, if you have one 2GB hard disk and you partition it into two 1GB partitions drive C & D)
You should pick Drive C over Drive D if meets all the guidelines of A}, B}, & C}
9. Set the Minimum and Maximum to:
With hard drives being so large these days settings a 128mb swap file should cover almost every situation.

Note: The amount of RAM plus the size of the virtual memory file is the maximum amount of RAM you can use at once. Win386.swp is the filename used for the swap file. The file is quite large don't delete it.

10. Click OK.
11. After setting the size of the virtual memory file windows will display the following message. You have chosen not to let windows manage virtual memory automatically. Click Yes.
11. You must restart your computer before the new settings will take effect. Do you want to restart your computer now? Click Yes
12. Sometimes Windows 95 takes a long time to shut down. During this time, it is doing necessary system maintenance. You must wait while the computer shuts down.
13. Use Disk Defragmenter after reboot (I use Nuts&Bolts Disk Tune Recorder
Unfragment Advance File Placement to move Win386.swp to the front of my C:\ drive).
14. I've tried Norton Swap file optimizer, but it did not set the file to one size so file can become fragmented .And it placed my Win386.swp file on my D:\ drive partition.
(Maybe I missed some Advanced Setting)

[gak]

Tom,

I have my virtual memory min and max set to the same thing which is 200meg. This creates a permanent swapfile that seems to work best on my system to keep Win from constantly resizing it, hence wasting time. Of course you may need to adjust this somewhat depending on the size of your hd and amount of mem you have. I read somewhere that if you can spare the hd space, the settings should be at least 2x amount of ram for min and as much as you can spare for max. In my case I have an 8gig hd and 64meg ram.

[f r e d]

Hi all,
Lots of good advice above!
Fixing the size of the VM yourself is a good idea. Also setting the min and max the same increases performance.
Virtual memory is intended for when you run out of ordinary memory (Ram). Most rules apply to days gone by when RAM was very expensive and folk never had enough.
The more RAM you have, the less need there is for Virtual Memory. Except in very rare circumstances, I see no reason to have your RAM+VM add up to more than 256Mb. In most cases a total of 128Mb is just fine - but experiment! If you run out Windows will tell you!
I run my system on 256Mb of RAM and a fixed VM of 10Mb.
Oh, and Don't get rid of the VM altogether!

[BC_1]

I just let Win98 handle my VM needs. Have never seen a difference either way, but then again, I have 192mb of RAM. For a system with less then 96mb of memory or so I can see the need, but anything over than that, you probably don't need it. Then again, it also depends on what apps you run also. Some really memory intensive CAD/CAM apps comes to mind. There's a pretty good online article about this subject here: http://epsilon.silicon.net.my/adrian/


[This message has been edited by BC_1 (edited 03-27-99).]

[ThomasT]

Nath, I have 196megs of ram. Thanks for all the good info.

TomT

[Bleeding Edge]

Set the virtual memory between 100 and 200.
If you have more than 128+, go for a smaller number. The only people who need a large VM size are those of us who manipulate extremely large CAD (over a GIG at times,) and Image and Similar files.

Like Gak, I keep the MIN and Max the same.

[oldbe]

Thomas T, a small performance boost from setting your vcache in c:\windows\system.ini.
I also have 196 mb and app/windows seem to "snap" along for me this way. There is a freeware called 'Cacheman' if you are interested, a simple interface and easy to do/undo.

[RyanVM]

Here's an idea if you've got a lot of RAM. Due to the fact that I've only got 64MB, I've never actually tried it, but it's cool in theory. My swap file on my hard drive is constantly around 80MB, and I would love to have that 80MB back (especially when I've got Netscape, Photoshop 5, CuteFTP, and FrontPage open at the same time - usually a 120MB swap file...). Enough rambling, on to the point:

What if you were to set up a RAM disk with maybe 128MB of 256MB of RAM. So, you've got 128MB of RAM and a 128MB RAM disk. You could then set up VM to use the RAM disk for your swap file. Imagine having the swap file off your hard drive and being used at the speed of RAM when needed!

Ryan VanderMeulen
rvand@sirus.com

[LiquidIQ]

RyanVM - You have an interesting theory, but do the math quickly, 128Meg Ram + 128Meg Swap = 256Meg Ram, but it's still divided between ram and disk. In order to make a ram disk, you are using your physical ram. say you make a 128Meg ram disk using your RAM, 256Meg-128Meg=128Meg Swap, you've already got your swap file on HD, you'd have to move it to the ramdisk taking away 128Meg of ram.
So you'd have 0 free ram and 128Meg Swap stored in ram... leaving you with only 128Meg of ram. It cancels itself out. It was a good theory though.

[Nathan]

At 196 MB, I would set it to permanent at 100 MB minimum & maximum. Unless your doing very high end graphics or some of these memory intensive games, I doubt you will use the swap file at all. At 128 MB, it's rarely used.

[Rick W]

RyanVM -

Sounds good, but what would be the advantage of this set up over setting the swap file to 0 and letting Windows use all 256 megs freely? Seems like that would req less overhead unless there is some fluke or bug in Windows (HARDLY seems likely, do it??? http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif).

[kwai]

setting the swap file to a large permanent file means that windows doesn't have to bother with dynamically changing the size as needed.

you'll especially notice this if when you quit a whole bunch of apps (or a game) and then hear your hd chug away for a bit as windows reduces your swap file size.

[augidog]

a common guideline i see many places is to set VM to 2-2.5X the amount of physical RAM.
FYI-i have 128, my VM is set to 256, i have never actually used more than 32.

another good program that helps is Swapmon.

[This message has been edited by augidog (edited 04-12-99).]

[Nathan]

To RickW,

1. Some programs still place a file or two in the swap file. If they don't, they don't work properly.

2. Windows automatically uses most of the ram first before it starts using the swap file, which is only what I call trick memory. The swap file is used because we don't install enough ram to not need it. This came from the days with 3.1 and memory was $60.00 a meg.

[cpt puget]

read virtual memory and disk cache articles at Adrian's. you will not have any questions when you are done. many popular opinions on any BBS might not be the best for you. supposedly w98 does a much better job handling both of these than w95 did.


epsilon.silicon.net.my/adrian/ (http://epsilon.silicon.net.my/adrian/)

[This message has been edited by cpt puget (edited 04-12-99).]

[Nathan]

Thanks for the article. Some of the info I read is good, very good, and some I can pick apart. They pick some info from some sources and disregard info on another subject from that same source. But I did find some of it very well written and right on the money as far as accuracy goes.

[augidog]

boy, does that site look GOOD...better warm up the printer.

thanks cpt puget

augidog