Maximizing My Ram Performance/Usage. Virtual Memory Settings.

Just upgraded my memory from 4GB to 8GB. I don't want to pressure my CPU too much.

1. Is it possible to run my computer putting more work on my memory? (Maximizing the performance: Not really sure what I'm asking or saying)

2. Also what should my virtual memory (total paging file size for all drives) be set to?

3. I am also wondering what is virtual memory and how would it affect your CPU usage or computer performance in anyway?

So here's my computer specs right now:
Processor (CPU) : AMD Phenom(tm) II N660 Dual-Core Processor (3Ghz Each Core)
Current Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600)
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition (build 7600), 64-bit
Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 6650M 1GB DDR3

I use my computer for gaming, surfing the web, running heavy applications like Adobe software's, and rendering videos.

Thanks And Please Help, Leave A Comment.
I Am A Complete Noob To Computers. Sorry

 

1. That will be automatic. Windows will utilize RAM to its fullest first before other storage
2. Unless you're running low on storage space, leave virtual memory settings to default
3. Virtual memory is a temporary file staging area. With more RAM it likely will never be used, but it's best to leave it alone.

Only thing I can say is if you have an SSD and don't want a lot of space reserved for virtual memory (it will automatically reserve as much space as you have RAM), is to set it to a range of minimum size of like 256MB and max of 4GB. That way it won't reserve more than 256GB and will expand as needed, which will likely be almost never.

Otherwise, just leave it alone.

 

Hmm I was under the impression that Windows would expand the pagefile when needed and that this could cause fragmentation of the file therefore making it slower if it would ever occur that you fill the ram or in case some program really wants to use the pagefile.
I've also seen it dial in some silly settings on stock like an 11GB pagefile on a system with 8GB ram and a 128GB HDD.

It should work perfectly fine though so I'd agree, keep it on stock. Personally I've set it to 512MB fixed size and haven't run into any trouble (yet).

~Aeny

PS: I hope me mentioning pagefile doesn't start some sort of war, I know some people can be quite passionate about turning the pagefile on/off.

 

In my experience, Windows will always set the pagefile to the same amount of space as the amount of RAM you have by default when you have 4GB or more. If you don't tweak anything, it will increase in size as needed though, but i have never ever seen a 11GB page file on a brand new install with GB of RAM, it was always the same as RAM. That is counting about 7 clean installs where i either disabled or changed the size fo the page file altogether.

I keep a 1.5GB page file myself because of some picky program that freaks out if i don't have a page file of that size. Yes, I'm looking at you Dawn of War II!