Optimal Swap File Size

[Mecurio]

I'm about to stick another 256Mb of RAM into my machine which will bring it up to 640Mb (£20 for 256 - you cant really complain.)

What I want to know is what's the optimal size for Win2k virtual memory with this amount of RAM. I've always used 2*physical as a general rule but this seems a bit excessive.

TIA

Rowan

 

[CitrixEngineer]

Have a look at my FAQ on Virtual Memory

http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?spid=602&sfid=815&CFID=15897601&CFTOKEN=94902153

It should give you some insight as to why your Virtual Memory should be at least the same size as your physical RAM, plus enough for the operating system's files.

It's not absolutely necessary - you could set it to 2Mb if you wanted. However, for optimal performance, this is what I recommend.

If you set it too small, Windows will run out of resources farily quickly - especially if you use leaky apps like Internet Explorer.

PS, Please give my FAQ a nice high score (if you think it deserves it!) - the first person to review it gave me a 9, then the second person gave me 2. Maybe that person really hated it, found it too dry, or just mistook 2 for being nearly at the top!

 

[Mecurio]

Hmm the good old traditional 1.5*physical. Thats the old linux bible method ;-)

Was wondering about your FAQ where you say to put the pagefile on the root partition. Any real reason for this apart from dump checking? I've got mine on a separate partition (which is why i wanted some advice before resizing.)

 

[polymath5]

There really isn't much of an advantage to having it on a different partition if that partition lives on the same physical disk as the system partition.

Sort of like in RAID 5, you aren't going to get a performance gain by moving the pagefile anywhere in the array. Moving it to a separate physical drive is the best option.

But, all this aside, with todays high speed drives and controllers, I don't think you'll see any huge gain in performance by moving the pagefile around. Though in SQL server moving the transaction log to its own drive controller Will give you a boost.

Just my thoughts. BTW: Citrixengineer I think your FAQ was an excellent presentation.