Vista 4GB RAM, is Pagefile needed?

Ok, i have 4GB of RAM. I used the Tweak Vista program from total idea and did all the little tweaks to optimize my system as its seeming to work i've never used more than 43% of my RAM even with Superfetch enabled so do i really need to even use page file? Windows is apparently using ~1693-1700MB of PF for some reason i don't know why it'd even use it if i've got 4GB of RAM. Now i have a 320GB 7,200 RPM HDD. Is pagefile really necessary? or is it just there to slow down my system?

 

Hi.

I use to turn it off all the time and still have over 2gb of free memory out 4gb, I dont think it causes any problems, but others might think different.

John.

 

The page file will not slow your system down in any noticeable way. You will notice increased RAM usage with it disabled, though. It's best to leave it on.

 

It's good to have a pagefile if you ever plan on using close to 4GB of RAM. If you expect to never use more than say... 2GB, then it's fine. But if you plan on using 3+ GB, leave it. If you disable the pagefile and ever need more than 4GB of memory, applications, or possibly even Windows will crash.

 

Some programs require the pagefile to work. There is no harm in having it, leave it on.

 

Leave it on only If u play games (COD4, crysis etc) . It will turn blue screen & a message "insufficient memory" after half hour into the game. U may also lost your work if u have a power failure. All your data will be gone when u restart. As a security leave your batt on all the time.

If u leave your pagefile to your memory, there will be an increase in speed (opening and closing apps) . Words and excel will launch at lightning speed. The longer u use without restarting the faster is your notebook.

i normally turn page file off for office computers (with APC backup) and leave it on if I play 3d games.

 

I always disable the pagefile on any OS, be it XP or Vista or win 7!

Never had a problem

 

ok this is off topic and thanks for the help now was it a good idea to enable the cpu thermal monitor thing from the BIOS on my asus laptop? Also is there any reason to ever enable the VT-d. And one last question if i enable the Turbo Extreme how much exactly does it oc? is it even noticable?

edit:sorry i just didn't wnat to create multiple threads since i had these questions all at once...

 

If you're virtualizing on your laptop, then enabling VT does help.

 

What kind of programs these days still require the page-file to run? I can't think of any these days that even use it.

 

Last I checked, Photoshop was a good candidate.

 

Isn't the page-file only accessed by the OS only? And aren't applications oblivious to the fact that they might be sitting in the page-file and not in RAM?

 

Yes, but the operating system will place those programs into the page file. If it doesn't exist, and the program needs a lot of memory space, it will be a problem.

 

pagefile was turned off on my comp by the OS ? I did not touch it ,when I checked it was turned off , I have 6 gb of me with xp-64 , if that matters . Hve yet to run nto problems , runs CAD , video encoding and photoshop .

 

even with plenty of memory the OS will still use the pagefile, all you gain by turning it off is that you loose your ability to manage it but the OS will still create a small pagefile. just leave it at default and let the system manage it.

 

yes, very much needed unless you only run windows
to check emails.

 

I've played around with the pagefile. Noticed no speed increase by disabling it. So just leave it on, just in case.

 

I have 4GB and experienced a crash when I turned it off. I turned it back on and I've been running rock solid ever since.