Ok....this swap file.......

[RataToo]

Twice now I have read that you can increase your computers performance by making a set swap file about twice the size of the amount of ram you have.....so......if I have 256 mb ram, i should make a swap file that half a gig? Do I really need it that big? WISDOM...COME DOWN FROM THE MOINTAIN.

[grunt]

It does increase performance to set a min and max of the same value - that way Windows is not constantly taking up time resizing it. No need to make it quite that big - if you have that much memory, just set it around 350MB. I've got 128 and mine is set at 345.

It won't make a HUGE diff with 256MB, but after a couple hrs of UT you would see a difference (I do.)

[Biff]

I think that reasoning of it being twice the size of your ram goes back to the days when 8meg or 16 was a lot. Myself I got 256meg of ram & swap file set at 220meg (falcon4 insists on at least 200)
The best set up is then to defrag with a program (like nortons) that will move the file to the outside of the disk for quicker access time.

[cranberry]

Biff,

That's always puzzled me too. They say that you should have a swap file that is some multiple of your physical memory - I've heard 2x 3x the amount of RAM. What if you have 256 or 512Mb of ram? Do you really get any benefit from having a 512MB or 1024MB swap file.

I have 256MB installed so that I *hopefully* never need to swap to disk (checking mem usage normally shows 130MB RAM in use under W2k, or 50MB under OS/2).

So, is this basic 2x/3x physical memory rule really any good?

Does anyone know if there are any tools for Win9x/NT/Win2K to monitor what is happening to the swap file - if it is being used, and if so how much - I guess that whould show us on a machine by machine basis how big our swap files should be.

Regards,

Cranberry

[cyclone2]

If you have NT or 2000 you will have performance monitor to check out page file performance. As NT has min. req. of 12-16 meg ram if you double it you get much better performance, with 256 I doubt you will see any performance difference if you double it unless you are running a heavily loaded server.

[chipbgt]

Thanks cyclone2, now I have somethign to play around with in the admin tools =)

[Techie Dude]

IF you have 128mb of ram, dounle that for the swap file......

Around 350 sounds like a good setting to me. Just ignore anyonen who say`s double your ram for a swap file size.....

I have 640mb ram, and somehow, I don`t think 1280mb for a swap file is very practical!

If you have say 128mb of ram, make your swap file around 300-350mb, if you have less ram, try increasing it a little. If you have 128mb or more, don`t just double it......

Best way is to just experiment !

[qball]

I doubt anyone will benefit form a swap file being any larger than 300 Meg.

The double your RAM was back in the day (32-64M RAM standard).

In some cases, if one has enough RAM, you can even disable the swap file and force winders to use the RAM. How this affects stability over each session is an exercise for the reader.

[chipbgt]

I have 192 mb of ram and win2k suggests I have a page file of 286.

[qball]

I stand corrected.

I forgot there are NEW sucky OSes that are replacing the old sucky OSes. I should have qualified with Winders9X.

What does the swap file do again?, lol.