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Ideal size for the swap file of the virtual memory

ST Dragon - Oct 9, 2005

		ST Dragon		Oct 9, 2005
			My system: WinXP PRO SP-2 P4 2.4GHZ 400MHZ FSB 768MB RDRAM (Rambus) 400MHZ GeForce4 Ti 4200 128MB AGP 8X Seagate IDE 120GB + 200GB HD 7200RPM Whatâs the ideal size for the swap file of the virtual memory for my rig? Should I set it to âSystem Managedâ�, or 1536MB â 2304MB & why? Also, should I place the swap file into the âC:â� partition where the OS is, or should I place it into one of the âouterâ� partitions? Primary Master 120GB HD is divided Into: C:\ 15GB (OS WinXP partition) D:\ 40GB E:\ 65GB Secondary Master 200GB HD is divided Into: H:\ 100GB I:\ 100GB Thanks in advance.

		schi0249		Oct 9, 2005
			Ideally, you want it on either the same partition as your OS, or a seperate harddrive. For optimum perfromance, you want to minimize your hard drive having to seek for it. I personally use a 5 GB drive just for this. As for size, you want it fixed. Usually between 1.5-2.5 x your amount of memory.

		it290		Oct 10, 2005
			Or a seperate dedicated partition. Not as much of a benefit as having it on its own drive, but at least then the partition won't get fragmented by the page file if you're messing with it. I will never understand why windows doesn't support using a seperate swap partition... too complicated for the average user I suppose, but OEMs could make it invisible if they wanted to. Anyway, I agree with schi0249. Make the thing fixed and in that range. The size rule kind of scales with memory. With 768m, I'd go for about 1.2-1.5 gigs.

		ST Dragon		Oct 11, 2005
			So if the physical RAM is 256MB, the ideal swap file should be 1.5 X 256 = 384MB, fixed for both initial size & Max size? Or 2.5 X 256 = 768MB fixed for both Min & Max?

		schi0249		Oct 11, 2005
			yeah, somewhere between 384 and 768 MB for your min and max. Kind of depends what you are doing. Personally, I think you are better to go with the higher end.

		it290		Oct 11, 2005
			It really does depend on what you're doing and how much memory you already have. If you have a lot of RAM, you won't need as much swap. Although with 256M, you're not going to have a fun time doing a whole lot anyway.

		CrazyGoon		Oct 15, 2005
			Short version... Long version... Re: Best location for pagefile: The benefits obtained with optimal pagefile placement is reduced harddrive seek-time. Placing the pagefile on a phyical drive which contains nothing but the pagefile would provide optimal pagefile placement, since the heads won't need to move away from the file. Though most are unlikey to waste an entire drive for the pagefile alone.. unless the drive is incredibly old and small, it may justify the small performance increase.