Does no Swap File Equal better Performance?

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Since swapping files to virtual memory on the hard drive has the single largest impact on system performance, we asked ourselves what would happen if we deactivated Windows’ paging file completely.

Microsoft does not recommend this course of action as demonstrated in the following popup message.

Windows Vista 8GB

We were not deterred by this warning, though. Interestingly, we were unable to delete the pagefile.sys even when Windows was no longer using it. Since it retains its last allocated size, you should set it to the smallest possible value (16 MB) before deactivating it.

Windows Vista 8GBWindows Vista 8GB

Again, we conducted this test with RAM sizes ranging from 8 GB to 512 MB. While working without a paging file was possible without any problems with 8 GB, the situation quickly became critical with less memory installed.

With 8 GB and no swap file, the system was fine. Even in some memory intensive scenarios such as opening files in Photoshop CS3 with a total file size of 3 GB, the system remained very responsive and even snappy, never writing to disk once.

If the memory size is reduced to 2 GB, applications immediately crash as soon as the system runs out of RAM and Windows is unable to write the files to virtual memory on the hard drive. This situation is especially critical if the memory shortage hits one of the Windows system components. This may quickly result in the Windows Aero turning itself off as a result of the graphics driver crashing. The only remedy in such a situation is rebooting the system.

Windows Vista 8GB

With only 512 MB of RAM installed, it is no longer possible to open even small Windows applications such as Notepad. After a short while, the system will crash all by itself, even when sitting idle.

Therefore, we would recommend never deactivating the swapping file with small memory sizes installed.


Talkback
leexgx 11/02/2008 07:43
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leexgx
if you have an Vista Key just get an Vista 32 dvd or an vista 64 dvd
tstebbens 12/02/2008 12:45
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tstebbens
I've been using 8GB with Vista for a while now. I can play Crysis or CoD4 whilst simultaeneoulsy video encoding in the background without a single stutter... very smooth. Well worth the money IMHO.
davedrave 12/02/2008 11:52
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davedrave
so the essence of the story is, 8gigs of ram makes your computer run faster. theres a surprise
joedastudd 12/02/2008 01:24
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joedastudd
There should be a bench marks showing how big a performance increase you get as opposed to 1gb, 2gb and 4gb. Sure it might be cheap to do, but is it worth the hassle of spending the money, waiting for the order, installing the ram and doing the necessary tweaks?
I like the charts on the max supported ram per OS, but you need to show the user why they may need 8gb of ram, instead of "because you can" being the reason.
Coren 13/02/2008 02:36
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Coren
I agree with joedastuff, what I'd like to know is why getting 8GB is worth it when compared to 4GB, not 2GB or less. 4GB has been proclaimed the "sweet spot" for Vista a while ago, so why would we go for the extra 4GB, especially considering we'll have to re-spend our money on DDR3 if we decide to upgrade a year or two from now?

tsebbens' comment is pretty encouraging though. Encoding and gaming are two things I do quite often. But the fact that you can do both at the same time really a consequence of the 8GB or RAM or is it due to the processor (I'm guessing it's a quad?)?
Coren 13/02/2008 03:05
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Coren
(It's joedastudd, obviously. Sorry, Joe, this was not intended as a low blow to your masculinity :P)
JohnRG 13/02/2008 09:51
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JohnRG
Hello, I'm new to the forum but have read articles on this board for years.

My question is, where does readyboost fit in. I have vista home premium 32bit with a Q6600, and a 2 GB USB for ready boost. About to swap it with a 4 GB readyboost stick, will an 8 GB USB make a difference??
leexgx 14/02/2008 04:24
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leexgx
there be no speed boost haveing more ram

what more ram does is prevent Slow downs due to running low on ram so pageing happens

allso one other Point that is an small error about going past 4gb on an 32bit program it cant happen
if it gets correted an 32Bit program can only allocate 4gb of VM space even with 8gb of ram No page file would be used at all as the program can only use 4gb of space (in games i have only seen this happen on Supreme commander when there is an High amount of units on the map can use quite alot of ram or allacate alot of Vm space taht can be fixed by patching the game.exe file to make it support Large mode so it can use upto 4gb {default is norm only 2gb})
leexgx 14/02/2008 04:27
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leexgx
readyboost sucks once you got more then 1gb of ram (2gb installed or more) as it does nothing to speed things up as ram is faster then Flash and allways will be the Readyboost can give slower performace

as an test on my pc readyboost makes my games judder when ever the flash drive is accessed
leexgx 14/02/2008 04:31
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leexgx
note for toms Please add an edit button, you gone as far as make this look an little more usefull with quotes and reporting bad posts but Cant you Re link this to the fourms agane as no one realy uses this comment system much, allso some USA content is missing on the UK web site as well i have to switch between USA and UK to get both content

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