For those who run without a pagefile

[metamorphosis]

This is the most definitive, detailed, and accurate article on the subject:
http://www.tweakhound.com/2011/10/10/th ... thout-one/

*Spoiler* Results: Running without a pagefile has no impact on performance. Can also make some applications not run.
Cheers-

[codec_spurt]

Thanks - will swot up.

As we know a page file is different to a swap file is different to virtual RAM.


On my latest and greatest Linux install of LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition), I kind of half-neglected to create a swap partition. It's all good. I got 8 big ones of RAM so if anything it runs faster. So some say.

Ho ho ho.


Hark, is that Dorothy clicking her heels?

No. It's my f**king hard drive parking its heads and giving me 'Head Retract Cycle Counts' or is that 'Power Off Retract Counts', otherwise known as 'Unsafe Shutdown Counts'?

Swapping, parking. I don't know wtf is going on. Is it my install without a swap/page/file?

I really don't know.

I've gone too far with it all and just need to re-install Windows XP. A man knew where he was with Windows XP.


And the funny thing is, no one else knows either...

[bensw]

Results: Running without a pagefile has no impact on performance.

Well, not quite. According to the test, at least the boot/shutdown and gaming performance were improved slightly without a pagefile. Although probably not enough to matter to most people.
Also, IIRC Microsoft's Mark Russinovich wrote in one of the articles that using a pagefile could in some cases make resuming minimized programs take slightly longer.

From what I see the article didn't specify if, when used, the pagefile was left at default or set to a fixed size, which I'm guessing could make a small difference in theory.

It's true that some programs might not run without one, but IME those are extremely rare. I encountered exactly one such program so far and while it didn't run by default, just changing a setting manually (in the config file) made it run without a pagefile.
YMMV, of course.

[Burillo]

while everything in that article is true, the author stated many times that these advices are given with average user in mind. average users generally don't run a DAW full of samples and FX, so for them, having or not having page file is of little importance. for us audio folk, running everything *with* a pagefile is advisable, if not required (especially if you don't have lots of RAM).

[Spiritos]

Thanks for the article!

I'm running Win7 64x and had some bad experience messing around with the pagefile in the past. Once I removed it and my whole OS crashed. However just recently I moved my pagefile from my primairy (5400 RPM) disk to my secundairy (7200 RPM) disk and have noticed some performance increases.

I let Windows decide on the filesize as of since Win7 (2008R2) no pagefile backing is needed anymore and it handles it so well I don't feel messsing with it is gonna give me more headroom. Only advantage I see in setting it to a fixed amount is that you'll avoid fragmentation.

Even though when you turn off your pagefile, windows will still be swapping .exe and .dll files as these are all virtual memory and will be loaded into RAM if necessary and unloaded when RAM is needed for something else.

Also when running 32-bit don't bother to use a pagefile larger than 3,5 GB as the OS is unable to adress more anyway.

[camsr]

I have noticed problems without a paging file, I think they are due to some programs assuming it exists. It is a good idea to use one, but if the system runs better without it then sure. If you don't have a second drive, you can partition one and set the paging file to exist there, which can help performance a lot.

[Optomadic]

*Spoiler* Results: Running without a pagefile has no impact on performance. Can also make some applications not run.
Cheers-

thanks for getting right to the point