Virtual memory enable or disable?

[Steffan]

Is there any benefits with enabling or disabling virtual memory with Windows 7 or 8 with computers having 8GB+ memory?  With XP, Microsoft recommended 1.5x the physical memory.  So if you have 8GB of memory, you would use 12GB of HDD space for the virtual memory.  I'm not looking to disable virtual memory on gaming systems.  I'm looking to disable virtual memory on computers that do word processing, web searching, and spreadsheets. These computers are corporate/enterprise systems.

[+Red King Subscriber²]

I have it disabled... 32GB RAM here.

[ToneKnee]

Even if you disable it, Windows will make one anyway, the best way you should probably handle it is either set it quite small like less than a gig or move it to another drive.

[+Red King Subscriber²]

  On 19/05/2015 at 14:31, Tony. said:

Even if you disable it, Windows will make one anyway, the best way you should probably handle it is either set it quite small like less than a gig or move it to another drive.

Thats a lie.

[TPreston]

If you are low on space like with a SSD it can be worth it.

[gameboy1977]

  Quote

 

The primary benefit of moving to 64-bit is the increase in the maximum allocatable random access memory (RAM). Windows XP 32-bit is limited to a total of 4 gigabytes. Although the theoretical memory limit of a 64-bit computer is about 16 exabytes (16 billion gigabytes), Windows XP x64 is limited to 128 GB of physical memory and 16 terabytes of virtual memory.

 

Wiki of Windows XP Professional 64-bit edition

[Jase]

I leave it on for my main SSD (256 GB) which has the OS on it.. but I disable the other Hard drives.

[Astra.Xtreme]

If you have a SSD, there's no harm in disabling it.  I've had it disabled on all my PCs for years and years and have had zero problems.  Waste of space, imo.

[+Red King Subscriber²]

  On 19/05/2015 at 15:00, Astra.Xtreme said:

If you have a SSD, there's no harm in disabling it.  I've had it disabled on all my PCs for years and years and have had zero problems.  Waste of space, imo.

It is quite a legacy feature. It should be removed alltogether. IMO.

[PsYcHoKiLLa]

  On 19/05/2015 at 14:47, Jase said:

I leave it on for my main SSD (256 GB) which has the OS on it.. but I disable the other Hard drives.

 

If you use an SSD you're supposed to disable virtual memory on it or it will get hammered, just move the virtual memory to another drive.

 

http://www.maketecheasier.com/12-things-you-must-do-when-running-a-solid-state-drive-in-windows-7/

[+BudMan MVC]

Disabling your page file is pointless.. If your trying to save space on a limited ssd, then set it smaller using the correct size for your system.  Or run it on another disk if you must.
 
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2860880
How to determine the appropriate page file size for 64-bit versions of Windows

 

As to not putting in on your SSD because of life of the ssd - nonsense.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives-and.aspx

 

Should the pagefile be placed on SSDs?

Yes. Most pagefile operations are small random reads or larger sequential writes, both of which are types of operations that SSDs handle well.

In looking at telemetry data from thousands of traces and focusing on pagefile reads and writes, we find that

• Pagefile.sys reads outnumber pagefile.sys writes by about 40 to 1,
• Pagefile.sys read sizes are typically quite small, with 67% less than or equal to 4 KB, and 88% less than 16 KB.
• Pagefile.sys writes are relatively large, with 62% greater than or equal to 128 KB and 45% being exactly 1 MB in size.

In fact, given typical pagefile reference patterns and the favorable performance characteristics SSDs have on those patterns, there are few files better than the pagefile to place on an SSD.

[Jase]

  On 19/05/2015 at 15:18, PsYcHoKiLLa said:

If you use an SSD you're supposed to disable virtual memory on it or it will get hammered, just move the virtual memory to another drive.

 

http://www.maketecheasier.com/12-things-you-must-do-when-running-a-solid-state-drive-in-windows-7/

 

Really? well, thundering typhoons and blistering barnacles.. I had no clue.

[binaryzero]

lol this debate, still going after all these years. Follow Budman's post and read the MS article.

 

As I say to people in the IT industry - we're exactly like the automotive industry, every mechanic thinks he's right and knows better than the last mechanic you went too. 

 

I'd leave it system managed, or 1.5x - 3.0x memory. 

[Raa]

Leave it alone and don't touch it. Windows knows what it's doing.