Turn Of Paging File For Performance Boost

Well as my laptop ages i try and find more ways to increase performance,and i tried to turn of the paging file,and the results are impressive everything is snapy.Even my games run that much smoother.
So what do u guys think have you done this and is it wise?

 

The only need for a paging file is for programs that specifically request hard drive swap space, or you run out of RAM on your system. Turning in off should have very little, if any, impact on performance.

All it means is that if your computer runs out of RAM, it will crash instead of starting to use the pagefile.

 

Obvious placebo effect is obvious.

 

placebo effect or not i can see a change in start up shut down and programs even my games,however i will investigate with a benchmark or two,thanx for the heads up on the crash thing.Just trying to find a free performance boost.

 

Oh no, another page file thread.

If you need me I will be in the <s>bomb</s> flame shelter.

 

When I used XP I turned off page file also. Though this debate is pretty old as just about everyone I knew using XP did the same for many years.

 

No it's not wise, and I seriously doubt you are gaining the performance you think you are. Like someone said, it's a placebo.

 

It will crash? Last I checked, modern OSs just kill applications, telling them they can't allocate more memory.

If you have 4GB+ of RAM, it's likely that you can turn off your paging file, or turn it down to the Microsoft recommended 400MB so that it can store crash data.

And if you run Linux, you can just configure the behavior of the kernel to resist swapping out, so it doesn't swap until it absolutely has to

 

An M571 with your specs and your complaining about aging and performance? My M1530 runs great. Maybe upgrade your OS or reformat if you are getting really sluggish and general maintenance isn't doing it for ya.

 

Right. You're better off doing a ccleaner, glary utilities, and Malwarebytes anti-malware run on your machine, as well as a defrag. Also depending on how much stuff is on your hard drive, by removing the pagefile, perhaps it freed up enough space that it isn't running so sluggish. I wouldn't turn it off completely, just set it to range from 500MB to 1GB.

 

Never turn it off completely, just leave it absurdly tiny. Some applications act funny when it's off. Same in any linux variants re:swap file

 

Linux apps don't act funny. The only Windows app I know of that did was old versions of Photoshop. I have mine turned off, and everything seems to be fine.

 

Just one question.. my page file use is more than 1.4GB when not gaming and just having firefox and few tabs open.. what should i limit the page file to? I have a screenshot of amount used and available and RAM being used...

 

"Some" should really have been "a handful of terribly coded programs. The vast majority are well-coded. However, I recall a few years ago I was testing out a driver that stored values in the swap and only the swap, and refused to work properly unless i gave it the 32kb it was demanding, and occasionally took down the OS with it.. Needless to say I dropped it pretty quickly, but I always leave at least 100mb now just out of paranoia.

 

That sysinfo screen scares me. I wouldn't trust it... cached files are using -1% of the RAM?

What does the actual Windows task manager performance tab say, or the resource monitor?

 

I remember a few older games (forget the exact titles) not playing ball if the OS page file isn't available, however that really shouldn't be the case nowadays with the different memory management model in place.

My system has 4GB RAM but I just let Windows do the work for me.

 

ok, ask yourself this. why would microsoft put the pagefile system on every operating system since windows 2000 if it was pointless and reduced performance?

leave it the hell alone. its there for a reason.

 

well it could be there for compatibility reasons and for those with a minimum of RAM (<3gig) but not really for performance.

 

I benchmarked just cause 2 with different page file settings on the most difficult benchmark. It was always 17.07 fps average. The same with no page file, half ram page file, equal ram page file and then 1.5 to ram size page file.

No difference...

to the tune of a famous Michael Jackson song... 'JUST LEAVE IT... JUST LEAVE-LEAVE IT UUUUUM!' <insert aerial fist punch and parachute pants spin here>

 

it doesn't help in games but supposed to make system slower so i want to reduce it..

anyways , Pitabred , i have posted a pic of my task manager .

 

Obvious placebo.

I've tried this a long time ago, with a very crappy PC, there were no performance boost.

The system will use the page file only if requested.


The only thing I do is to fix the "Final size" as same as "Initial size".

 

If Windows always uses virtual addresses and a paging table when paging is enabled, then theoretically there could be some sort of delay (what 0.1ms?) for look-ups (assuming no page faults). It's possible they switch to virtual addresses only when paging is required, but I'm not sure how they would translate physical addresses to virtual for running applications.

Either way it's an interesting matter for OS developers, but as everyone else here states, if there's provable perceivable effect then leave it alone.

 

Are ya sellin' tickets? I want to get in early.

 

Bump.. any help for me plz?

 

Well, in last SS, your CPU usage is 7%, and processes is 72%, if you want to increase performance, i think you need to disable useless services running in background.

 

well , i only have essential stuff and services but its always been 70 odd.. it was 90-100ish at 1 point... so would a 2GB page file be enough?