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What should Virtual Memory be set to?


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I've had this question for a long time. What should virtual memory be set to? Windows recommends 1.5 times the amount of ram you have installed, but I've heard others say that for 3D work it should be more like 3 times as much. Also, do these numbers apply to the min, or the max settings? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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the importance of virtual memory settings is overrated. if your program crashes because it runs out of memory, increase it. i always use a 'fixed' size (min=max). the page file can't be too large...i usually set it to 1 or 2GB, depending on the apps i want to run. (rendering large pics takes a lot of memory, for example)

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I have a partition that I keep my temporary files in and I use the rest a scratch disk. It seems to work, but I have had problems rendering images larger than 5200 pxs wide, anyone know why?

This area is still not clear to me, either.

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"I think 4000MB is the limit for W2K."

 

The architectural limit of the 32 bit process is 4 gigs of ram per processor, or 2 gigs per process/thread.

 

However due to some coding issues, usually a single processor can only utilize 3.5 gigs of 4 available. If you notice the quad xeon boards have 16 gigs of ram max, its a reflection of this limitation, 4 per processor, 2 per any given thread.

 

This is in addition to any limitations the os might add to the mix.

 

This is also one of the main reasons the 64 chips are being shoved into the market. Hows a film editing rig with 64 gigs of ram sound? :)

 

As for virtual ram...I usually set it to the same size as my physical memory...that is unless I need more. Remember that the most important setting for vm is just to match the two numbers, so windows doesn't increase/decrease the pagefile during use, as this slows down performance.

 

Other than that, there are literarly THOUSANDS of pages of info on optimizing page files. And all of them are opposite of each other.

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I set the min and max to the same #. The amount to set the total page file to is a debatable topic. Since i rarely exceed 1.0 gigs of ram in use, I set my page file to 1024 megs.

 

Aka my system....

Dual Athlon 1900+ MP

1024 Megs of Mushkin PC2100 Registered DDR

 

Min: 1024

Max: 1024

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