I have 3GB of ram, do I need a swap partition ?

I have 3GB of ram, do I need a swap partition ? This is for a 32bit OS.
If more than 3GB of ram cant be addressed by the OS, is there any use for swap ?

 

I don't actually know for sure, but would guess probably not. Because most of the distros people use install so easily and almost automatically, I'd use it anyway unless hdd space is short, just to make sure the install goes smoothly.

 

no matter how much ram you have, windows xp/vista still need a swap file to run properly. here is a good article http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/vista-workshop,1775-6.html Even though it's geared towards vista, the section on swap file will apply to xp also.

 

Um, but isn't the OP referring to Linux?

@theborg:

A swap partition is necessary if you are using Suspend to Disk. In such a case, it has to be at least the size of your RAM. Otherwise, you could do without it in theory, but I usually keep aside a 1GB swap partition anyways.

 

Yeah.. Like sesshomaru said. I have 2Gb of RAM, and just assigned the minimum 256Mb to swap, thinking that my RAM will more than handle it. But if you want to hibernate, you need swap >= your RAM. In your case, 3Gb of swap or more.
If you don't use hibernate, then the minimum 256Mb is good enough.

 

The general rule has always been to have 2x as much RAM as swap. But if you have 2GB+ of RAM, you're probably fine with the same amount.

 

2x more swap? Why so much?

 

This is the default general rule and has worked well for me for the past 15 years or so.

If you profile your memory usage, you can certainly decide to use less or even no swap at all (on Linux anyway). In the past, I've equipped servers with enough RAM that swap was unnecessary. That was the whole point: give enough RAM so that the server would do everything it needs to without having to swap: better performance overall.

I have 2GB in my current laptop with a 4GB swap... and I've used the swap sometimes. It all depends on how much you use your computer. For my wife's laptop, which has 4GB RAM (she does not need 4GB but the laptop came with it), I've created 4GB swap so that she could hibernate the laptop if she wants. She does not use her laptop in such a way that 4GB will ever be fully used so more swap would not make any sense.

 

If you are planning to use hibernation then you would need a swap equal to your ram. Or, if you know that you will never exceed x amount of ram than use x.

 

Well, I guess I nailed it right on.

 

Just make a 256MB one, it really improves performance(I noticed, even if I didn't touch the swap).

 

I have two gig swap with 3 gigs ram. I monitor swap usage with conky, and I do hit the swap file during large file transfers, for example I copied over 9 gigs of music and photos/videos and it hit the swap file. You don't want to go without one.