Virtual Memory Recommendations On Older HP Desktop


Best to just let Windows manage the page file.
Ughh - it talks about pagefiles executing things more slowly than if run in native RAM as a reason to use auto. What a load of twaddle.

Whole point of a pagefile is it is in use when RAM has run out. That is independent of using auto or setting a pagefile.

Rest of article is just typical rehashing other websites with no substance. It does state that the size of a manual pagefile depends on other factors (as discussed earlier).

I bet this article was written by Dave from down the pub.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro + Win11 Canary VM.
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Zenbook 14
    CPU
    I9 13th gen i9-13900H 2.60 GHZ
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    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB soldered
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    TPM 2.0, 2xUSB4 thunderbolt, 1xUsb3 (usb a), 1xUsb-c, hdmi out, 3.5 mm audio out/in combo, ASUS backlit trackpad (inc. switchable number pad)

    Macrium Reflect Home V8
    Office 365 Family (6 users each 1TB onedrive space)
    Hyper-V (a vm runs almost as fast as my older laptop)
@cereberus

100 agree -- that article was certainly written by a snake oil salesman.

To others confused about Windows page files :

Do you mean paging in a Virtual Machine or do you mean managing the Windows paging file on the HOST. The principle is the same though.

If you are in a VM most modern VM systems now provide all sorts of decent dynamic memory allocation and shared memory too so provided your HOST system has enough RAM and CPU power for running the VM's of your choice then just set the VM Max RAM to the largest amount of RAM it *CAN* (not necessarily *WILL*) use. Memory from the VM will be returned to the storage pool dynamically when no longer required.


Just leave the Virtual Windows system to manage its own paging. There's all sorts of highly complex algorithms in page management -- and it's probably 99.9999% likely that you won't do better than Windows itself in managing that resource.

This also applies to Windows HOST systems too.

For those really interested you need to learn about LRU algorithms, complex task management processes, hardware interrupts etc etc. Much too complex for study over this holiday period.Just leave well alone.

Note also if you use LINUX VM's note the difference between paging and swapping -- as Linux is a multi-user system a user that is currently inactive can be "swapped out" entirely to disk freeing up the whole of that users space -- e.g applications, temporary data etc. So if using Linux VM's it's always a good idea to provide space for a swap partition -- around 30% of the RAM space dedicated to the VM should be more than sufficient.

Meanwhile let's hope everybody has a better 2023 !! -- I think the late HMQ EII had the correct expression a few years ago "Anus Horibilis" !!!. (Not sure if my Latin spelling is correct though).

Cheers
jimbo
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows XP,7,10,11 Linux Arch Linux
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    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    2 X Intel i7
@cereberus

100 agree -- that article was certainly written by a snake oil salesman.

To others confused about Windows page files :

Do you mean paging in a Virtual Machine or do you mean managing the Windows paging file on the HOST. The principle is the same though.

If you are in a VM most modern VM systems now provide all sorts of decent dynamic memory allocation and shared memory too so provided your HOST system has enough RAM and CPU power for running the VM's of your choice then just set the VM Max RAM to the largest amount of RAM it *CAN* (not necessarily *WILL*) use. Memory from the VM will be returned to the storage pool dynamically when no longer required.


Just leave the Virtual Windows system to manage its own paging. There's all sorts of highly complex algorithms in page management -- and it's probably 99.9999% likely that you won't do better than Windows itself in managing that resource.

This also applies to Windows HOST systems too.

For those really interested you need to learn about LRU algorithms, complex task management processes, hardware interrupts etc etc. Much too complex for study over this holiday period.Just leave well alone.

Note also if you use LINUX VM's note the difference between paging and swapping -- as Linux is a multi-user system a user that is currently inactive can be "swapped out" entirely to disk freeing up the whole of that users space -- e.g applications, temporary data etc. So if using Linux VM's it's always a good idea to provide space for a swap partition -- around 30% of the RAM space dedicated to the VM should be more than sufficient.

Meanwhile let's hope everybody has a better 2023 !! -- I think the late HMQ EII had the correct expression a few years ago "Anus Horibilis" !!!. (Not sure if my Latin spelling is correct though).

Cheers
jimbo
Hi jimbo,
Even though in this reply it's address to jimbo, I'd like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone that replied to the question that I posted ! As I previously stated since the computer I'm typing this reply on isn't my primary one I'm thinking that if I want to continue experimenting with the page file as well as any additional settings I'll probably do just that, as long as I don't change any major settings that would possibly cause me to have any major issues with my computer overall I don't see where it would actually hurt anything. There are two separate settings that I did change for a bit that I actually couldn't see made much of any difference that I'm including as screenshots in this reply. Also I changed my power option scheme from 'recommended' to 'performance' to see if that might help.
David
 

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My Computer

System One

  • OS
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    Manufacturer/Model
    HP/HP8300EliteSFF
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3470 CPU @ 3.20GHz 3.20 GHz
    Memory
    8.00 GB (7.88 GB usable)
If you really want to speed up performance simply put the OS on an SSD. Easily less than $100 upgrade and you will realize a performance increase many times that you would see with any virtual memory adjustment.
 

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System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Homebuilt
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Crosshair VII Hero (WiFi)
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Education
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 7773
    CPU
    Intel i7-8550U
    Memory
    32GB
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    Nvidia Geforce MX150
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    Realtek
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    17"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
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    Toshiba 512GB NVMe SSD
    SK Hynix 512GB SATA SSD
    Internet Speed
    Fast!
If you really want to speed up performance simply put the OS on an SSD. Easily less than $100 upgrade and you will realize a performance increase many times that you would see with any virtual memory adjustment.
Plus add more RAM to avoid excessive paging.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro + Win11 Canary VM.
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Zenbook 14
    CPU
    I9 13th gen i9-13900H 2.60 GHZ
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB soldered
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    laptop OLED screen
    Screen Resolution
    2880x1800 touchscreen
    Hard Drives
    1 TB NVME SSD (only weakness is only one slot)
    PSU
    Internal + 65W thunderbolt USB4 charger
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois (UK pint cans - 568 ml) - extra cost.
    Keyboard
    Built in UK keybd
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wireless dongled, wired
    Internet Speed
    900 mbs (ethernet), wifi 6 typical 350-450 mb/s both up and down
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0, 2xUSB4 thunderbolt, 1xUsb3 (usb a), 1xUsb-c, hdmi out, 3.5 mm audio out/in combo, ASUS backlit trackpad (inc. switchable number pad)

    Macrium Reflect Home V8
    Office 365 Family (6 users each 1TB onedrive space)
    Hyper-V (a vm runs almost as fast as my older laptop)
As far as the OP is concerned do we even know if excessive paging is taking place? What is the workload they regularly apply to the machine, have they done any monitoring of pagefile useage?
An SSD is the most effecient and probably cheapest upgrade for an ageing machine, agreed, but unless the OP in particular NEEDS extra RAM then they could fit it and it never be touched.
Even with Windows grabbing as much as it needs for caching, another method to speed up PC operations, unless the OP is suffering excess pagefile useage the speed increase vs cost for extra RAM may well not be worth it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro 22H2, build: 22621.521
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Scan 3XS Custom 1700
    CPU
    Intel i7-12700K 3.6GHz Base (5.0GHz Turbo)
    Motherboard
    Asus ProArt Creator B660 D4
    Memory
    64GB DDR 3600Mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus Tuff RTX 3080 10GB OC
    Sound Card
    Onboard Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Gigabyte G32QC 32inch 16:9 curved @2560 x 1440p 165Hz Freesync Premium Pro/ Dell SE2422H 24inch 16:9 1920 x 1080p 75Hz Freesync
    Screen Resolution
    2560 x 1440p & 1920 x 1080p
    Hard Drives
    WD SN570 1TB NVME (Boot), Samsung 870QVO 1TB (SSD), SanDisk 3D Ultra 500Gb (SSD) x2, Seagate 3Tb Expansion Desk (Ext HDD), 2x Toshiba 1Tb P300 (Ext HDD)
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    Corsair RM1000X Modular
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    Corsair 4000D Airflow Desktop
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    Corsair Hydro H150i RGB Pro XT 360mm Liquid Cooler, 3 x 120mm fans, 1x Exhaust
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    Microsoft Ergonomic
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    Logitech G402
    Internet Speed
    800Mbs
    Browser
    Edge Chromium
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    Defender, Malwarebytes
As far as the OP is concerned do we even know if excessive paging is taking place? What is the workload they regularly apply to the machine, have they done any monitoring of pagefile useage?
An SSD is the most effecient and probably cheapest upgrade for an ageing machine, agreed, but unless the OP in particular NEEDS extra RAM then they could fit it and it never be touched.
Even with Windows grabbing as much as it needs for caching, another method to speed up PC operations, unless the OP is suffering excess pagefile useage the speed increase vs cost for extra RAM may well not be worth it.

Sure, but as I said earlier, you have to monitor pagefiling to decide if you really need more RAM.

However, as a rule of thumb upgrading RAM to at least 4GB (if possible) is very likely going to be a benefit.

Upgrading to 8 GB is a reasonably optimum amount of RAM for average use.

If a heavy memory user e.g. running virtual machines, 16GB is better.

Few people will need more than 16GB but those that do will be aware of why anyway.

I would advise any user to have an SSD and at least 4GB RAM (preferably 8GB if possible) and leave pagefiling on auto.

Thereafter monitor pagefiling and decide if even more RAM is needed.

It is a judgement if you only occasionally exceed RAM availability - in the end that is what pagefiling is intended to do - it is not intended to be a substitute for inadequate RAM in normal use.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro + Win11 Canary VM.
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Zenbook 14
    CPU
    I9 13th gen i9-13900H 2.60 GHZ
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB soldered
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    laptop OLED screen
    Screen Resolution
    2880x1800 touchscreen
    Hard Drives
    1 TB NVME SSD (only weakness is only one slot)
    PSU
    Internal + 65W thunderbolt USB4 charger
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois (UK pint cans - 568 ml) - extra cost.
    Keyboard
    Built in UK keybd
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wireless dongled, wired
    Internet Speed
    900 mbs (ethernet), wifi 6 typical 350-450 mb/s both up and down
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0, 2xUSB4 thunderbolt, 1xUsb3 (usb a), 1xUsb-c, hdmi out, 3.5 mm audio out/in combo, ASUS backlit trackpad (inc. switchable number pad)

    Macrium Reflect Home V8
    Office 365 Family (6 users each 1TB onedrive space)
    Hyper-V (a vm runs almost as fast as my older laptop)
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