How many of you use a swap file (page file)?

On my desktop system I have 768MB of RAM (Windows XP) and do not use a swap file (page file). I have not experienced any problems or slow downs. I do not however do any video editing and do not play the latest games (like BF2).

I was wondering if one was to turn off the swap file on a notebook computer, would this increase battery life since you are not writing to the hard drive as often. Would the increase be significant (if any) or negligible?

Also what amount of RAM do you think would be adequate to turn off the swap file (page file)? 1GB? ... 768MB? ... 512MB?.....

Just curious as to what everyone's opinions are.

 

You can easily use more than 768MB AT ANY ONE POINT even not doing anything too strenuous. It will cause it to crash. I have tRIed it both with 2GB ram and there is no noticeable increase in perfomance with it off. Also I noticed some anomalaties... Like the odd occasion crash every month of so with it turned off.

I highly do not recommend people to have it off.

 

Logically the more RAM you have the less virtual memory you need. But since windows isn't a normal OS, it is the other way around. Default is 1.5x your total RAM no matter how much you have 128MB - 4GB.

I just don't mess with it, cause windows is not that stable to start with. I don't want to push it over the edge. So I just keep it at default setting (I have 1GB RAM). But I do apply the performance setting found in some tweakers that forces the kernel to remain in RAM.

As to how much I have used at one time. I think around 2GB total between RAM and virtual, and that was during some modeling applications

 

Since I only have 512MB ram I need it. I wouldnt think about disabling it without having at least 1g to 1.5g ram.

 

I've started to research this question a bit more on google and have found this a rather "controversial" subject. I've even seen someone get mercilessly flamed for asking whether to use a page file or not. Thanks to all here on this board who have patience with my stupid questions.

It appears that perhaps using a page file is a good idea and does not seem to degrade performance and supposedly adds to system stability. Still learning all this stuff....

 

Hi bluesboy,
Try google XP myth site. There is one part about pagefiles and other interesting stuff. I guess that could have solved some of those arguing you were reading.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

With 2GB of Ram I don't bother the main difference I notice is on shutdown time (and of course no 3GB pagefile hanging around wasting space).