swap file usage

[stu]

can anyone tell me why when i have 128 mb
RAM my swap file is still being used when my
RAM is only 50% utilised. I thought swap file was only accessed when RAM was full ?? or am i stupid?

[a Bill]

Many programs just like to use a swap file. I know that sounds silly, but it's true http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Andre]

The swapfile size should be around 2.5xram-amount.
Personally i keep mine at 225MB, good for Unreal and so on...

[BBA]

The swap file gets used if its there! No matter what, it just does. If you have 128M ram, use 200M min/max swap file size.

BBA

[Nathan]

That's strange you would say that BBA. I have 128 MB and rarely does it use the swap file at all. Well that it's not showing being used. Norton Utilities System Doctor reports it not being used. If I have 5 or 6 apps up, it might use say 5 or 10 MB, but that's it.

So what's different about this?

[socalgal]

Now that I am running a different system and will be putting in 128mb sdram myself soon, I am curious about this also. I thought with that much RAM a fixed swap wasn't needed. Ahh, here we go again lol

[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 06-12-99).]

[a Bill]

I'm running 320 megs of RAM in my game machine and I really couldn't tell you if it's using swap or not, but I have it in there for those programs that do. You need a fast HDD a fast CPU and lots of RAM if you want to play games http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif My game system yawns when running business apps http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif

[stu]

tks everyone for your comments n help

[nk4]

I havent tried this but is it possible to assign a ram drive as a swap file?
For those of you with huge ram, like that 320 or 512, assigning 64 to be a ramdrive and used for swaps should help more than the 64 you "lose" as ram, especially for games.

But then again I dont know if its even possible.

[raihanan]

A RAM drive as a swap partition?!? That's really funny!

No sane person would ever do this. If you have enough RAM, simply do not use a swap file.

-- Jeff

[MadMax]

That sounds like some new innovation from a bloatware company we all know. FOTFL http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif

I think that the swap file usage strangness is from lazy coding. Just like the Y2K prob. Coders recycle old code to save time with new apps and in the process they import code that is no longer needed/necessary/efficient. Older apps had to use the swap file so that code is still imported into new apps.

[nk4]

Believe me, I understand how stupid it sounds. I am not saying it will definately help, but if programs *like to use swap files*, by fooling them, you might get better results. And of course I know you can disable the swap file completely, but thats not something I would feel comfortable with even on 512Mb ram.
Perhaps its better for the system to know that a part of memory is dedicated to swapping rather than treating it all the same.
If I ever get so much ram, I'll try it. At the very least, it will not help.

[Mike H.]

With 128 Mb of ram
you should never use the swapfile, except Program's with large data files (50+ MB). The swapfile size should be 2.5 times the system ram, Min & Max. The thing most people don't know is that windows has disk cache sort of like Smartdrive, that will take up all available ram, unless it is manual set to one size like the swapfile. Try adding this in your system.ini file.

[vcache]
MinFileCache=16384
MaxFileCache=16384
(optionally)ChunkSize=512

If you change the size, remember that it must be a divisible of 1024, 16 Mb is 16*1024=16384

Use "System monitor" to verify.

Here's a picture of mine

http://home.att.net/~m.holdcraft/System_moniter.jpg

Mike H.

Watercooled AMD K6-2 525 (95*5.5)Epox EP-MVP3G Rev. 1.0 Bios 3-01-99 128 Meg PC100 Matrox Marvel G-200 TV 16MB 4.51 Drivers SB Live! Retail (currently Awe 64 for Win2000 B3 Compatibility)




[This message has been edited by Mike H. (edited 06-15-99).]

[stu]

tks Mike I'll have a look at that.....

[stu]

just an update on my swap file dilema....

I now have 256 ram and still use the swap file after making many adjustments. I dont use it as much but quite ofet I get 180 mb ram free and swap file usage of 60 mb.

Oh well one of those things.
tks everyone for your help