RAM - Page File
RAM - Page File
(OP)
I dont really know much about the way RAM and the hard drive (page file) get used by SW, but recently I ran an experiment by taking 1 GB from another guy's computer and put it into mine (went from 1 GB to 2) hoping it might speed up working with some of the larger files. But it really did seem to, at least nothing noticable. Now, I really dont understand the page file, but the little I thought I did understand was that once RAM fills up, the page file it used as somewhat of an "overflow" for the memory usage. But when I did this little experiment with the RAM, based on my thought for how page file worked, I would have expected the page file size to go down since I had doubled the RAM. But it didnt, at least no by much. Can anyone clarify any of this for me? Is it just that 2 really doenst make much diff in this case? Any settings that need to be changed? ?? ??? ???? Thanks for any enlightenment.






RE: RAM - Page File
If you aren't using large enough files (or running enough applications) to use up all your RAM, you'll not notice any difference in performance by adding more RAM. However, if you're already using your available RAM, adding more (up to 2GB, unless you enable the 3GB switch) will help speed and system stability.
Are you already using your available RAM?
As for the pagefile itself, you can set the size limit within Windows properties--I don't remember exactly where. However, I'm not convinced the pagefile size is the most relevant way to understand what's really happening within your system, so I posted the comments above.
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.
RE: RAM - Page File
Basically Windows (32 bit) can only address 4GB ... 2GB for the OS & 2GB for applications. The 3GB switch allows aplications to address 3GB, but this restricts the OS to 1GB. This is usually not a problem but it can be.
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RE: RAM - Page File
But the thing that gets me is that the available RAM (under Task Mgr) goes up and the PF size stays the same after I add the gig. Now in trying to understand the cryptic Microsoft world, I looked up the definition of Available Physical Memory, and this is what it says, less the elaborations:
The "Available Memory" counter in Task Manager is actually the sum of the following three internal memory lists:
• The Standby list.
• The Free list.
• The Zero list.
... and blah blah blah ... the site is: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=312628
It is a fairly large assy but SW handles assy fine, it's the dwg, and I do get into quite a bit of detail with sections, details, etc (which I know is hard on SW), is it pretty much a limitation of the software and computer?
Is my system seem adequate.
My system is (I dont understand implications of most of it, so including as much as I can):
Dell Precision PWS380
1GB RAM
Pent 4, 3GHz
XP SP2
RAM speed 667MHz
Proc Bus Speed 800 MHz
L2 Cache 2GB
Thanks again, I dont mean to dump too much out, but the SW performance optimization thing is really a thorn in my side in terms of what to do and then know that is is running as smoothly as possible with current resources.
Thanks,
I really appreciate your time and input,
Mike
RE: RAM - Page File
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
What is the 3GB switch? Is it some that is controllable, or is it an MS automatic feature?
RE: RAM - Page File
Check the links I posted.
RE: RAM - Page File
It is not surprising that you did not see a decrease in the size of the page file when you increased the amount of RAM in the system, as the size of the page file is just how much space has been reserved for paging out RAM. What you should see is an increase in available physical memory and or a decrease in page file usage, as seen on the task manager.
Windows tries to balance keeping physical RAM available with minimizing access to the page file. This means it will generally have some stuff in the page file even when there would be room in RAM for everything. This makes it difficult to have cut and dried rules for when adding RAM will help performance. I would guess that if your page file usage while working on your assemblies or drawings is more than 800MB or so, adding RAM is likely to help. The dead give away is when you do something that does not directly involve disk access and you have to wait while the hard drive grinds away.
RE: RAM - Page File
Does my system seem adequate based on specs I gave up there?
Some stuff I read of SW site said 1GB min if dealing with assy's >1000 components. Mine is more, so I am assuming that even if adequate I'm kind of marginal with it. Most assy's are not this large, but some. And again, it seems to handle assy quite well, just the dwg when I start adding all the detail.
Thanks All
RE: RAM - Page File
If you are always going to be dealing with large assy files, then you might want to consider upgrading to XPx64 and SWx64 so that even more RAM can be used. The /3GB switch would then be unnecessary ... in fact it would be detrimental as it would restrict the x64 systems.
RE: RAM - Page File
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.
RE: RAM - Page File
Before open SW 776800 K 316MB n/a
After open SW 565700 K 502MB 195256 K
After open slddwg 41488 K 1.25GB 490000 K
That's with 1G RAM, but when I added the additional Gig it pretty much added it to the existing available. I see what you mean in that there is some RAM left, but not much and with how slow it's running, I hoped it was a matter of getting more RAM. I would assume that Avail RAM is never brought down too close to 0 for stability reasons and with how large the PF got, I assumed it was part of the overflow. I really dont know how all the memory gets allocated and utilized though so I guess that's where it is.
Thanks,
Mike
RE: RAM - Page File
RE: RAM - Page File
During one of my naptimes I mean processing times, SW data is:
Mem Usage: 335 MB
VM Size: 1.5 GB
RE: RAM - Page File
RE: RAM - Page File
1st - I assume this is based on what SW is asking of the processor based on need (ie memory availability/speed and software operation), and if so, is there a way to optimize this
2nd - Is there a CHANCE this indicates a level of corruption?
If I take off in the wrong direction with any of that just yell at me.
Thanks,
Mike
RE: RAM - Page File
Eric
RE: RAM - Page File
RE: RAM - Page File
I did go and disable, and in some very small ways it was faster, but it was definitely more stable. For whatever it means, the CPU usage got up to some very high levels too. I will stick with that setting to see how it goes. It is definitely not worse.
I really appreciate all the input. Seems like I'm about as good as I can be short of improving system, improving my SW practices, and having someone come in and make sure everything is optimally set.
I think I learned a lot on this one.
Thanks,
Mike
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