Technical question: Page file vs RAM?

[ryanbatc 12,836]

Why is my page file the same size as my RAM?  Does it need to be?  REason I ask is because I've got a small 120GB SSD (funny 120GB is small lol) and it's been filling up.  I use it for Windows 7 but you know how extra word not allowed gets installed there by default (I'm not the best with organizing and sym links etc).  Anyway would it be bad to cut it in half?  I have 16GB RAM.

[vortex681 806]

Is your pagefile set to automatic or is it a fixed size? If automatic, then it should be dynamically adjusted as required - if you start to run out of usable disk space, Windows should reduce the pagefile size appropriately.

[Gary A 8]

 

Hi Ryan, back when Page File size was all the craze, and the internet abounded with all kinds of advice on the matter, I followed Mark Russinovich's advice.  Basically Mark preached to leave the Page File alone.  However, in the link below (if you must play) he says to set it at twice the commit charge less the amount of Ram installed, if negative, pick a minimum size to allow a crash dump.  Good or bad?  I do not understand and just let Windows manage it.

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/markrussinovich/2008/11/17/pushing-the-limits-of-windows-virtual-memory/

 

Wishing you good success.

Edited April 10, 2019 by Gary A

[pgde 571]

You can always move the swap file to another drive....

[Mace 1,909]

If I recall correctly -- in the old days it was advisable to have the page file large enough to hold a crash dump of the entire memory contents -- so yeah, it was best to have it at least as large as your physically installed mem.  When it was set to system-managed the OS changed it as it saw fit.

Of course all of that is probably not useful info anymore as Win10 or Win7 or whatever probably behave differently.  I know today I run Win10Ultimate-64 and have never messed with the page file settings.  I assume it has those settings somewhere, lol.