Setting my own virtual memory.

[montofri]

Any advice appreciate... I've got a 120 Gigabyte disk. My Windows ME system seems to select about 230Mb of Virtual memory. Can I safely select to increase it to 700Mb's without any other system problems?

 

[wolluf]

Yes - but do you need to? How much RAM have you?

Whatever you want to set it at, generally reckoned best to set to & from values the same - so its always the same size & therefore doesn't fragment.

 

[skyman43]

I read somewhere that a good rule of thumb is to set the virtual memory to 1 1/2 times the ammount of RAM installed.

 

[franklin97355]

The more RAM you have the less VM you need.

 

[cdogg]

1 1/2, 2 1/2, 3 1/2 times the amount of RAM........those were just guidelines in the past to make sure you had enough virtual memory. However, those times are long gone. We're no longer using 16MB or 32MB of RAM.

In the days of 256MB and 512MB, you'll rarely need more than 256MB for your swap file in Win9x/ME. Everyone will still have their own opinion though.

Bottom line: If you're not sure, let Windows handle the swap file ~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein

 

[montofri]

I've got a small program called FreeRam and it seems to indicate that I'm regularly running at 100%. I've got 384Mb of RAM

 

[cdogg]

When you say 'running at 100%', are you talking about the RAM, Virtual Memory, or swap file?

I have used that program before, and like other similar programs, they tell you what Windows is reporting. It may report that your memory is 100% in use, but that's not entirely true.

Take this for example:

- Let's say you had 256MB of RAM. You take out 128MB (taking you down to half of what you just had). You make no other changes to your system. Upon booting, you notice that Freemem still reports that you are using 100%.

In this example, you can see that 100% is misleading. How can the same # of apps/programs use up 100% regardless of how much memory I put in? Well, it doesn't in either case. What's happening is that Windows is caching, or setting aside resources in case they're needed. So, Freemem might think 100% is in use when actually only 30-40% is being used.

Hope this paints a better picture of what's actually going on...


~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein