How can I make the most of my 2Gb RAM?

[viper_larry]

When I spec'd my PC last year, I installed 2GB of PC3200 RAM. In general running with email, IE, MSN Messenger running (as now) I have 1620Mb free. Even with loads of apps running, I've never seen it dip below 1Gb free.

How can I make better use of the 2GB RAM? Currently it seems pointless having more that 1Gb.

[slapmatt]

Set the size of your pagefile to zero, so that everything is held in memory! That'll soon eat it up.

[GregE240]

To be honest, unless you've got some resource hungry apps (Photoshop can be a culprit here), I would say that 1GB is probably a good compromise. If anything, you've future proofed your PC, which ain't a bad thing.

Aside from Photoshop, I've only seen a migration application REALLY test a PC with 2GB RAM installed, and this was making 20 MAPI connections simultaneously. Thats like having 20 copies of Outlook running, and each one migrating data.

I wouldn't worry - at least memory (or lack thereof) isn't going to be a bottleneck!

[viper_larry]

Interesting thought, I have just increased it today to be 3072 min - 6144 max. Didn't think you could have a zero page file size?

[GregE240]

Actually, try this:

If you have more than 256MB of RAM this tweak will considerably improve your performance. It basically makes sure that your PC uses every last drop of memory (faster than swap file) before it starts using the swap file.

Go to Start then Run
Type "msconfig.exe" then ok
Click on the System.ini tab
Expand the 386enh tab by clicking on the plus sign
Click on new then in the blank box type"ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1"
Click OK
Restart PC


Give that a go?

Greg

[GregE240]

viper_larry said:

Interesting thought, I have just increased it today to be 3072 min - 6144 max. Didn't think you could have a zero page file size?

You can't, just use my tip above and then set the pagefile to be something like 50 min 75 max.

[jimmyjimjim]

GregE240 said:

You can't.

Really? Riight click on my computer, properties, advanced, click settings in the performance section, then Advanced, Change, No paging file, Set? This would appear to do the job - or is it another misleading microsoft thing which doesn't really do the job?

[viper_larry]

jimmyjimjim said:

GregE240 said: You can't. Really? Riight click on my computer, properties, advanced, click settings in the performance section, then Advanced, Change, No paging file, Set? This would appear to do the job - or is it another misleading microsoft thing which doesn't really do the job?

Must look harder next time!

Right, No page file and switch added. We'll see how it goes...

[pdV6]

GregE240 said:

viper_larry said: Interesting thought, I have just increased it today to be 3072 min - 6144 max. Didn't think you could have a zero page file size? You can't, just use my tip above and then set the pagefile to be something like 50 min 75 max.

Another tip is to not set min/max parameters but to set min and max to be the same, i.e. a fixed size. Stops Windoze having to think too hard about what the best size should be at any given moment...

[jamieboy]

GregE240 said:

Click on new then in the blank box type"ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1"

I didn't think that worked for XP? I don't think it'll error, but I also don't think it'll make a difference.

[GregE240]

jimmyjimjim said:

GregE240 said: You can't. Really? Riight click on my computer, properties, advanced, click settings in the performance section, then Advanced, Change, No paging file, Set? This would appear to do the job - or is it another misleading microsoft thing which doesn't really do the job?

Sorry, you're right, you can, however, Microsoft do not recommend it. I think its due to BSOD reporting, and you need a minimum of 15MB pagefile to be able to do this.

In my experience, if I've got a system with enough memory, I'll set the page file to be about 100MB or so. Because even if you have a huge amount of RAM installed, as soon as it becomes inactive, XP will page the RAM taken by the app to disk.

By "enough", I would recommend 1GB RAM as a minimum for XP these days. There is a noticeable difference going from 512 to 1GB; less so from going 1GB -> 2GB, unless you have got some seriously memory hungry apps.

[chris watton]

slapmatt said:

Set the size of your pagefile to zero, so that everything is held in memory! That'll soon eat it up.

In theory, it should work, in practise however, it just doesn't, XP will throw a wobbly ebery time when you specify no page file allocation. No matter what you do, how you teak the setting, setting the pagefile to zero will cause XP all kinds of probs, no matter how much installed memory you have, I know!

[chris watton]

GregE240 said:

By "enough", I would recommend 1GB RAM as a minimum for XP these days. There is a noticeable difference going from 512 to 1GB; less so from going 1GB -> 2GB, unless you have got some seriously memory hungry apps.

IMHO, 2GB of ram is just not worth it, I have just got another pair of 512MB Corsair stick to bring it up to 2GB, as some applications I use have used memory up to 1.8GB! Unfortunately, even with the 2GB of RAM, I still need the page file (I also set it to 20MB initially, and the BSOD followed swiftly afterwards), some apps insist on using the pagefile, and not the installed memory! Very annoying!
If you have 2GB installed mostly for use with Office applications, thats a bit like using a nuke to swat a fly!

[scorp]

Can't you get a ram-disk program and install your page-file to the ram disk ?

[mattley]

scorp said:

Can't you get a ram-disk program and install your page-file to the ram disk ?

apparently so....

www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/7663/


there was a time when I'd have tried that, just because.

[deckster]

chris watton said:

slapmatt said: Set the size of your pagefile to zero, so that everything is held in memory! That'll soon eat it up. In theory, it should work, in practise however, it just doesn't, XP will throw a wobbly ebery time when you specify no page file allocation. No matter what you do, how you teak the setting, setting the pagefile to zero will cause XP all kinds of probs, no matter how much installed memory you have, I know!

In what way doesn't it work? I have 'only' 1.25 gig of RAM (XP Pro SP2) and turned off my swapfile ages ago - it made a massive difference to the responsiveness of my machine. I haven't got a pagefile.sys or anything so I'm pretty damn sure it's off.

[robdickinson]

You could make a RAM drive, copy a boatload of stuff into it on startup (make startup slower) and then run stuff from there.

Not sure what is best but there will be guides out there somewhere.

[UpTheIron]

I've run countless XP machines (laptops, desktops, MCE PC's) without page file...much better, assuming you have sufficient RAM.

I've comfortably done it on machines with as little as 1Gb RAM, when used for basic Office/E-mail and the like.

I've even run scalability tests (including some with live users!) on Terminal Servers without a paging file, so it definitely can be done.

[ultimasimon]

I have the opposite problem:

I have just built a new PC and Windows is saying that it can only use 2.5 gig of the 3 gig installed RAM due to software limitations on the 32bit platform.

I have a few copies of 64bit Windows knocking about, so tonight I am going to try that.

I am still awaiting the general release of the Abit iRam which was supposed to be hitting our shores anytime after Christmas.

That IS the way to go

[mattley]

GregE240 said:

jimmyjimjim said: GregE240 said: You can't. Really? Riight click on my computer, properties, advanced, click settings in the performance section, then Advanced, Change, No paging file, Set? This would appear to do the job - or is it another misleading microsoft thing which doesn't really do the job? Sorry, you're right, you can, however, Microsoft do not recommend it. I think its due to BSOD reporting, and you need a minimum of 15MB pagefile to be able to do this. .

I've just done that. I've got a 2.8 P4 and a gig of RAM, and I've had this machine (self build) well over a year, and it's never dumped or BSOD'd on me, so I don't care if that doesn't work properly


It all seems OK so far, the HDD is much less busy, and I must say, things feel a little quicker, This might be a top tip.

I'll report back if anything breaks.