**Best** settings for Virtual Memory?

[cwsink]

Hello,

I've heard about everything in the book concerning the best settings for virtual memory. All of them adamantly supported and with reasonable arguments. I'm not an IT guy, so I can't really choose the best option. What are suggestions & opinions and any other relevant advice?

Also, SW2007sp2.0, Win.XP sp2.0, 3Gb mode, 4Gb RAM

Craig Sink
Mechanical Engineer
Force Design, Inc.

http://www.forcedesign.biz

 

[PDMAdmin]

That depends on if you're running x32 or x64. I have always had good results with VM on my x32 machine by following these general rules:

1) Set the swapfile size at or around 2X the amount of physical RAM you have.

2) If you have multiple hard drives, put your swapfile on the drive that tends to be accessed the least.

3) If you're using memory-intensive apps (such as loading large assy's in SolidWorks), consider activating the 3GB switch.

Are you running WinXP x32? I ask because it's unusual to see 4GB of RAM on a 32-bit machine. I don't think Windows can even access all of it, even with the 3GB switch enabled.

 

[smcadman]

Computer and Software Requirements: RAM

Virtual memory recommended to 2X the amount of RAM

http://www.solidworks.com/pages/services/SystemRequirements.html

SW07 SP2.0

Flores

 

[cwsink]

Yes, I'm running x32. It seems that memory is usually the holdup, so we decided to go with 4G where we could.


Craig Sink
Mechanical Engineer
Force Design, Inc.

http://www.forcedesign.biz

 

[cwsink]

Should the min and max be the same? I've heard both on this. I've also heard both sides of the argument on whether or not Windows should control the page file size...both from seemingly knowledgeable SW user/CAD Managers.

I might extend this conversation...

The real reason I was checking this is because a user is having issues with a large assembly. He's running out of memory and crashing. I assumed he was running 4Gb, but he's only got 2Gb (Sorry). I assume there are no benefits to activating the 3Gb switch?

Craig Sink
Mechanical Engineer
Force Design, Inc.

http://www.forcedesign.biz

 

[StefanHamminga]

As I wrote before in this forum, for windows 32 bit I like to do the following:

Partition 1 (about 20GB) - NTFS: Main OS
Partition 2 (about 20GB) - NTFS: Spare OS
Partition 3 (about 4.5GB) - FAT32: Swap space
Partition 4 (remaining space) - NTFS: Dynamic storage

I then set my swap file to 4GB on partition 3. The FAT filesystems keep their MFT at the start of the partition, instead of in the middle (as NTFS does), this keeps your swap file from being cut in pieces (fragmetation).

4GB is enough to run one huge process in RAM and one in SWAP. If you run more than 2 of those demanding apps you are running the wrong OS. I've never ran out of swap space this way (neither have clients, they all use my setup).

I also change all temp file locations to Partition 4\Temp\
This almost completely eliminates fragmentation on the OS partition (eg your programs load faster).

Also don't make your Partitions 1 and 2 too large, as the extra hard drive head movement (when loading data from the beginning of the drive and writing it to swap) will undo the performance benefit from having non fragmented swap and programs.

For windows x64 it is roughly the same, the only exeption being the size of the swap partition and file.


Stefan Hamminga
EngIT Solutions
CSWP/Mechanical designer

 

[StefanHamminga]

Min and max should always be the same, it is an option that should have been removed from windows long time ago...
It causes swap file fragmentation.

You should try the 3GB switch, it works the same with 1/2/3/4/etc GB RAM (for reasons mentioned in other threads on the 3GB switch).

Stefan Hamminga
EngIT Solutions
CSWP/Mechanical designer

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

cwsink ... Benefits can be had when using the /3GB switch with any amount of RAM. I have seen improvements on systems with only 512MB.

PDMAdmin ... Windows will access 4GB of RAM, but not for a single process or application. Each application being run is limited to 2GB RAM.
Physical and Virtual Memory by default are split 2GB for system use and 2GB for an application. The /3GB switch allows an application to use 3GB (almost) and/but limits the system to use only 1GB.

Stefan ... would it not be better to have 4 separate drives instead of 4 partitions on one drive?

 

[StefanHamminga]

nope, if you fork out the cash for 4 drives get a proper raid controller to match (for windows the Areca ARC PCIe cards are really great performers).

That way you get to let the raid controller do what it does best (sorting and caching your pc's IO and making sure that what gets written fast stays alive).


Stefan Hamminga
EngIT Solutions
CSWP/Mechanical designer

 

[SBaugh]

From the SW help on 4GB and the 3GB Switch.

A 32-bit Microsoft Windows NT-based operating system allows a maximum of 4GB of RAM. By default, 2GB is allocated to the operating system and 2GB is allocated to applications. Microsoft has created a switch (/3GB) to allow you to allocate 3GB of RAM to applications by decreasing the amount allocated to the operating system. The SolidWorks software is written to take advantage of the extra RAM available to applications when the /3GB switch is activated. The ability to increase the amount of RAM available to the SolidWorks application might benefit users with very large assemblies. For more information about the /3GB switch, see the Microsoft design article Memory Support and Windows Operating Systems.

IMPORTANT! Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) has known problems in which Windows might not start or might send a "Stop" error message if you activate the /3GB switch. Contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fixes. For more information, see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base at

http://support.microsoft.com:

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[frankhale]

Stefan, I run SW and Photoshop CS2 a lot. Using your setup, can I use the same 4 gb swap file space for Photoshop also?
(Photoshop allows you to designate a separate swap file space.)

Frank

 

[StefanHamminga]

You could make the swap partition larger, so you can store both swap files there (been a while since I used photoshop, they do still use their own virtual memory, don't they?).

BTW. The setup I posted is NOT SW specific, we use it for all PCs here, even servers (abeit with some minor changes). I actually came up with this method during beta testing for MS for Windows 2000 Server.

PS. A very interesting new product line from SanDisk:

http://www.sandisk.com/Assets/File/pdf/oem/SanDisk SSD UATA 5000 1.8.pdf

a couple of those 2.5" flash drives @ RAID 0 or 5 would make me throw my WD Raptors out of the window! No more fragmentation performance drops (that means your system performance stays closer to max over the months/years), no more heat problems and no more messing around with optimizing file placement.

Stefan Hamminga
EngIT Solutions
CSWP/Mechanical designer

 

[frankhale]

WOW
this is a quantum shift in the limitations of having a laptop.

I recently gave up my pc for a dell M90 and was very impressed with the centrino duo technology in regard to rendering speed.
Used AMD up till now.

Is lusting after a little flat piece of metal un natural for a guy in his fifties?