RAM - Paging file useage....?

Question

If my PC is using some of the paging file does this mean ideally i need more RAM?? Because i read that paging file is used if there is not enough RAM space. Although when my paging file is being used Task manager shows that 400mb + RAM is still free. But what the PF is using is more then what could fit into the free RAM. So im guessing it goes into the PF instead?? So does this mean ideally i should have more RAM? Sorry if that doesnt make sence lol...

Answer 1

Not necessarily.  The system will always page out data that hasn't been accessed for a while to keep some RAM free for quick access.  It makes things a bit more efficient to do it this way.  More than 3.2GB of RAM is a waste on a 32 bit OS, and you'd be hard pressed to make use of much more than 8GB anyway, even if you are using a 64 bit OS.

 

Answer 2

When the demand for memory i.e. RAM, exceeds the RAM installed, the computer will write to the hard drive. this is known as paging.

You will find your hard drive light flashing on and off as the computer writes to and reads from the page file.

A page file is normally 1.5 x the value of the ram, so if you have 1gb of RAM, the page file (pagefile.sys) will be 1.5gb. The page file will still exist whether it is being used or not - it is a 'reserved' area of the hard drive for memory operations.

Answer 3

if you find your computer becomes unresponsive while its paging then thats when you think about more RAM but as the first answerer says you can really only take it up to 3Gb on a 32-bit machine, anything more than that is a bit of a waste of time on 32-bit.



If your computer is still responsive while it's paging then it's fine.

Answer 4

hi, first thing is DONT change the setting for paging file, leave it at default setting ( let windows run paging file setting ) if you have xp it cant use more than four gigs of ram, if you have vista or windows 7 then you can put six gig or more of ram in, but there will still be times that your computer will still use paging ram.---cheers--