Win98 swap file: what is the best size?

[Machamix]

hi friends, i just installed a software called "sisoft sandra 99", after a few systems checks it says that is better to use a fixed size swap file. The question is: what is the best size?. i have a quantum fireball 5.1Gb with two partition c: (2 gb), and d: (3 gb).
my system is a pII350, 64ram, rivatnt 16mb, 32x teac cdrom, hp4020i cd recorder.
i would appreciate any replies. Thanks.

[Dominus]

Some people might think I'm nuts here, but I use a 400 MB fixed swap file. Any less and I run out of resources.

[Jackal]

It fully depends on which apps you use, and how many you use simultaneously.

Here's a quick way to check: leave the virtual mem on windows automatic, then open up the apps you normally use and normally have open at the same time. Then work for a while. Then, do a file find the win386.swp file on your disk, and do a properties on it. It will be a certain size - not the size.

Then, if you want, set the virtual memory to that size PLUS about 40MB (for "unforseen future need").

This is of course not an exacting science, and it varies greatly from system-to-system, but you can try it.

Just note that if you don't have Norton Speeddisk (in Utilites Suite), if you set a static swapfile now it will be placed on a much slower portion of your HDD, and performance of the system will suffer anyway.

If you do have NU and SpeedDisk, go ahead, and then do a full SpeedDisk defrag - it will not only defragment the swapfile (good), but will also move it to the very beginning of the HDD, where it can be accessed the fastest (very good).

[BBA]

I have 192M ram on one PC with a swap file of 250M. On the other I have 96M ram and 150M swap file.

The rule is to go your ram plus 32, but dont go below 100M.

The benefit is that your PC wont stop responding every once in a while when windows spontaneously decides to readjust the swap file.

This makes a major difference if you play Internet games or watch DVD's or such.

Along these lines, if you have MS Office installed, disable the FindFast tasks in Control Panel's FindFast icon and remove MS office from the startup group, because it defaults to catalog everything on your hard drive every 2 hours, and it will stop other apps while it does this.


BBA

[This message has been edited by BBA (edited 05-24-99).]

[pray59]

I use 128M on my both my systems...1 with 128M ram and the other with 64M ram. It seems to be enough, cause I never have out of memory errors.

[philipg]

What I did and this may sound strange but I have a 3.2 GB Harddrive with a second physical 540MB drive as a slave dedicated as the swap file. The System run 20% faster and I don't have to Defrag the 3.2 as much. And it takes less time when I do. The 540 is the minimal size you can have for 32 bit disk access and it works I have tried it on a 486(66) and it benchmark at 150 my AMD k6-2/333 now benchmarks as a PII-388 hands down.

[This message has been edited by philipg (edited 05-25-99).]

[BBA]

^^^^ I think he's lost! ^^^

BBA

[This message has been edited by BBA (edited 05-25-99).]

[Jackal]

The rule is to go your ram plus 32, but dont go below 100M.

There is no "rule" - in fact, this suggestion is opposite to what is true.

As you add more physical ram, virtual memory becomes less used and less is therefore required.

Of course, MS products suck **** for memory management, but it still holds true that as you add RAM, you can start "pruning" the swap file (for most users).

BUT - if you work with large video, sound or graphics files, windows may need the swap space anyway.

I have only 128MB of main memory, and my computer was fully usable with 150Mb of swap file. However, when I started using Corel Draw and Photshop a lot more, it started complaining pretty quickly http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif. Now I have my swap set to 250MB, and I'm not hurting for disk space anyway, but when I add another 128 RAM stick I'll drop the swap down 50 or 100MB.

[socalgal]

what jackal said.

i have 80mgs of RAM, no intense games/apps to speak of, and swap set at 100mgs min/max. Works for me!

there's a gadzillion articles on the subject, but this one's pretty good:

http://epsilon.silicon.net.my/adrian/
Optimize the Swap File article

[Blade Runner]

Gee, all this helpful advise.... If there was only a program that would tell you how much you needed. So that we could stop having this be a "well this works for me..or I saw this here". Oh ya thats right there is a program..

http://www.pinoyware.com/swapmon/

Blade Runner :-ޮ

[Machamix]

Thanks for all your comments and helpful experiences and links.
Finally i decided to use a 120 Mb fixed swap file and it's working great.
I have monitored de swap usage with the ms system monitor and connecting my pc to internet an opening at the same time: icq, outlook express, excel 97 with a big file on it, word 97, paint shop pro 5, autocad r14, 3 copies of windows explorer, 5 copies of iexplore, mirc and cute ftp.
System monitor showed that i used 97 mb of swap file for all these applications opened and working at the same time, so i decided to use the 120 mb fixed size.

Thanks for your help.

[socalgal]

did you tweak your [vcache]?

ouch guys quit throwing those vegetables at me http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[Machamix]

socalgal: oops what's that??

sorry for my ignorance...

[MrEd]

Well, here's my two cents worth. (If event that)

I heard twice your RAM, since I have 160MB Ram, I use 320MB for swap.
"Works good for me."

http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

-MrEd
egander@uswest.com

[socalgal]

Machamix ~ here's some more info:

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

"A disk cache (also called Virtual Cache or just simply vcache in Win95/98) is important for improving hard disk performance. This is because the disk cache caches or stores data from the hard disk in the much faster RAM so that if a program requires that piece of data, it can just access the disk cache for it, instead of loading from the hard disk. The disk cache can also read ahead by copying more data than what the program asked for in the assumption that the following consecutive data segment will be needed next. These are some of the methods employed by the disk cache to improve your hard disk's performance.

By default, Win95 grabs most of the unused RAM at bootup to use as disk cache. Then, it is supposed to release the RAM used for the dynamic disk cache when a program requires it. This is a rather fine idea as the unused RAM is better utilized as a disk cache rather than just left there. However, the problem with Win95's newfound affinity for disk cache is that it refuses to free up the RAM when you run a memory intensive program. Instead of releasing the RAM it grabbed at bootup for the program to use, it releases some and forces the program to use the swapfile for the rest of its memory requirement instead.

Naturally, this degrades performance as the program now has to use the much slower swapfile, instead of the RAM. Also, it was found that increasing disk cache had diminishing gains. That means that increasing your disk cache from 32MB to 64MB of RAM won't boost overall hard disk performance as much as an increase from 4MB to 8MB of RAM. On the other hand, many programs' performance are degraded when deprived of RAM by the disk cache and forced to run using the swapfile. Hence, it is now important for us to control how much RAM is allocated to the disk cache so that there is a balance between hard disk and program performance."

Adrian's site (above)has step by step instructions for tweaking the vcache.
Your optimal settings may vary.

In 'Run' type: sysedit. Look for [vcache](if it's not there, type in exactly as below).
Example:

[vcache]
MinFileCache=10240
MaxFileCache=10240
ChunkSize=256


ripped from www.geocities.com/~budallen/ (http://www.geocities.com/~budallen/)


Here's another tweak:

"You can likely increase your Hard Drive or CD ROM performance by:

1.Opening up the Device Manager
2.Double click on the CD or Hard Drive
3.Click on the Settings tab
4.If you have a DMA box that is not grayed out, check that box
5.Reboot when prompted
6.When Win98 starts again, see if that box is still checked.
7.This is especially beneficial with the newer UDMA drives which are supported by Win98
8.This will also greatly reduce CPU utilization during hard drive activity."

If you have problems then go back and check it.

Happy Tweaking! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

ps: BBA's right - FindFast should be the first thing to lose!



[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 05-27-99).]