Increasing Your Virtual Memory

imported_krish · 11-17-2005, 10:14 AM

1. Hold down the Windows Key and press the Pause/Break button at the top right of your keyboard (another way is right-clicking your computer and clicking Properties).
2. Click on the Advanced tab.
3. Under Performance, click Settings.
4. Then click the Advanced tab on the button that pops up.
5. Under Virtual Memory at the bottom, click Change.
6. Click the Custom Size button.
7. For the initial size (depending on your HD space), type in anywhere from 1000-1500 (although i use 4000), and for the Maximum size type in anywhere from 2000-2500 (although i use 6000).
8. Click Set, and then exit out of all of the windows.
9. Finally, restart your computer.
10. You now have a faster computer and 1-2gb of virtual RAM!

Rob · 11-21-2005, 06:05 PM

Is it good to have that much virtual memory?

Isn't it supposed to be a certain percentage of what your physical RAM is?

kidiotb · 11-21-2005, 11:52 PM

It is usally suggested to have virtual memory twice that of your physical RAM. Virtual memory is just a swap place like thing to enable paging and other issues. So its no use even if you have 2 gb of virtual memory for a 128mb ram. For a 128 MB ram just 300 to 400 mb of virtual memory is more than enough. More than the recommended virtual memory doesnt improve the performance.

infinitomagazine · 12-04-2005, 10:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by krish

1. Hold down the Windows Key and press the Pause/Break button at the top right of your keyboard (another way is right-clicking your computer and clicking Properties).
2. Click on the Advanced tab.
3. Under Performance, click Settings.
4. Then click the Advanced tab on the button that pops up.
5. Under Virtual Memory at the bottom, click Change.
6. Click the Custom Size button.
7. For the initial size (depending on your HD space), type in anywhere from 1000-1500 (although i use 4000), and for the Maximum size type in anywhere from 2000-2500 (although i use 6000).
8. Click Set, and then exit out of all of the windows.
9. Finally, restart your computer.
10. You now have a faster computer and 1-2gb of virtual RAM!

I followed these instructions. Why do I have the same performance? My PC has 256 megabytes of RAM and a 40GB HD.

I think I need more RAM. Thanks for this info anyway!

CaitSith4343 · 12-04-2005, 10:30 PM

Yeah, you probably just need more RAM. Plus, if you aren't having any problems with your virtual memory then it probably won't improve speeds just by increasing it.

compnut · 12-17-2005, 11:26 AM

That's a great tip and one I've never thought of. I have a 160GIG HD with 1 GIG of RAM or 1024MB. So what would I set that setting to? You said yours is at 4,000, but I don't know what your stats are. What would you recommend the setting to be at?

jess · 12-18-2005, 02:20 AM

I thought virtual RAM should be set at 1/2 of what your physical RAM is, is this right?

So if you have 1GB RAM, set virtual RAM to 512MB
I could be wrong though...

MT400 · 01-02-2006, 06:22 AM

What about external hard drives? It said there wasn't a page file. So if I had two hard drives would it help me in anyway? For HD1 I have it set to 1000-1500 and the external HD set to 2000-2500 (100GB hard drive). I haven't saved this since I don't want to make a mistake.

Any ideas?

Will.Spencer · 01-02-2006, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jess

I thought virtual RAM should be set at 1/2 of what your physical RAM is, is this right?

So if you have 1GB RAM, set virtual RAM to 512MB
I could be wrong though...

That was the rule of thumb a few years ago.

Now there is no rule of thumb, it depends upon the applications which each system runs, how much RAM each system has, how much "spare" drive space each system has, and the performance of that drive space.

Will.Spencer · 01-02-2006, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MT400

What about external hard drives?

In most cases, an external drive will be connected through a much slower communications channel (USB, Firewire, etc...).

This will have very negative impact on paging performance.

Plus, if you disconnect your external drive, it's just like suddenly removing a huge chunk of RAM from your running PC. Not recommended. 8)

MT400 · 01-02-2006, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Will.Spencer

Plus, if you disconnect your external drive, it's just like suddenly removing a huge chunk of RAM from your running PC. Not recommended. 8)

Yea, that would be bad. Thanks for telling me before I saved it.

XxEtrnlDeathXx · 01-08-2006, 03:53 AM

what should I put as my settings?

I have 1.5GIg of RAM

Feety · 01-12-2006, 05:19 PM

I followed every step up to the part where you change the settings ect. Dont really feel like restarting now, but later on i'll try this and post on how well it worked for me.

zeroth · 03-10-2006, 05:42 AM

Increasing your virtual memory is usually a good thing. Often times I would get an error that says virtual memory is low.

hughali · 03-15-2006, 09:12 AM

Hi,

I have a toshiba laptop p30

I added extra RAM. so now i have one 1G and one 512MB.

So now my virtual memory recommends 2301MB but it only allocates 1534MB...the original number.

Even when I put a custom size it will not change it. The only thing that works is putting no paging file, resetting and then putting the custom size.

However anytime the computer turns off or resets its back to 1534! Sometimes I think even when I'm changing it that is all that it is recognizing.

In the control panel the system does see that I have 1.5G of RAM.

So I have no idea what to do. And I have googled this forever!

Any suggestions?

mike17 · 04-05-2006, 02:49 AM

I wonder how much virtual memory is sufficient for those with 512 MB of RAM.

Will.Spencer · 04-05-2006, 04:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike17

I wonder how much virtual memory is sufficient for those with 512 MB of RAM.

That depends upon how many programs you run simultaneously, and how much RAM each of those programs utilize.