Virtual Memory Recommendations On Older HP Desktop

Hi,
At this point in time I've read so many articles concerning virtual memory I'm totally confused about the subject. I'm just seeking some positive feedback as to what I might be able to possibly change in the advanced system settings that might possibly improve the overall performance of my older desktop. I'm including a screenshot of how I have the virtual setting currently set, thanks in advance for any positive suggestions that might be provided.
David

I've always been of the conviction, if you've got 8GB of RAM or more, just let Windows manage it.

To improve performance make sure you have static virtual memory multiply size of Ram x with 1.5 times.

It's good idea to first delete pagefile and defragment free space before setting the pagefile 1.5 times of installed RAM size.

1. Disable PageFile by clicking “No Paging file”.

2. Click Set button and click OK.

3. Open Command Prompt as administrator.

4. Type Defrag C: /x /h to perform free space consolidation on the specified volume.

5. After free space consolidation, finish.

6. Set paging file to a fixed size.

7. Click “Custom size”

8. Type 1.5 times of RAM installed on PC so if you PC has 500 MB RAM type 750 into “Initial size (MB)” and “Maximum size (MB)” fields.

9. Click Set and OK button in the Virtual Memory window to accept changes.

Edwin said:

I've always been of the conviction, if you've got 8GB of RAM or more, just let Windows manage it.

Click to expand...

Hi Edwin,
I realize that 8 gb of ram is very very low especially when trying to run windows 11 pro / 64-bit on what's considered as a 'unsupported system'. Windows 11 has actually been running what I consider remarkably well, and due to the age of my computer I surely don't see any reason to spend any huge amount of money on it unless I absolutely would have to.

FreeBooter said:

To improve performance make sure you have static virtual memory multiply size of Ram x with 1.5 times.

It's good idea to first delete pagefile and defragment free space before setting the pagefile 1.5 times of installed RAM size.

1. Disable PageFile by clicking “No Paging file”.

2. Click Set button and click OK.

3. Open Command Prompt as administrator.

4. Type Defrag C: /x /h to perform free space consolidation on the specified volume.

5. After free space consolidation, finish.

6. Set paging file to a fixed size.

7. Click “Custom size”

8. Type 1.5 times of RAM installed on PC so if you PC has 500 MB RAM type 750 into “Initial size (MB)” and “Maximum size (MB)” fields.

9. Click Set and OK button in the Virtual Memory window to accept changes.

Click to expand...

I've read this same post (or similar) here in this forum, being honest I'm just glad that my computer performs as well as it currently does. Thanks

FreeBooter said:

To improve performance make sure you have static virtual memory multiply size of Ram x with 1.5 times.

It's good idea to first delete pagefile and defragment free space before setting the pagefile 1.5 times of installed RAM size.

1. Disable PageFile by clicking “No Paging file”.

2. Click Set button and click OK.

3. Open Command Prompt as administrator.

4. Type Defrag C: /x /h to perform free space consolidation on the specified volume.

5. After free space consolidation, finish.

6. Set paging file to a fixed size.

7. Click “Custom size”

8. Type 1.5 times of RAM installed on PC so if you PC has 500 MB RAM type 750 into “Initial size (MB)” and “Maximum size (MB)” fields.

9. Click Set and OK button in the Virtual Memory window to accept changes.

Click to expand...

Since I've gotten older (I'm 73+) I will surely attest that my brain no longer functions like it once did, of course surviving cancer twice as well as having a very bad case of shingles (or herpes zoster which is the same thing) that entirely covered the complete right side of the top of my head doesn't help matters either. So since my computer currently has 8gb of ram, I'd multiply 8000 MB x 1.5 = 12000 MB correct? Since 1 gb = 1000 MB

Davy49 said:

... since my computer currently has 8gb of ram, I'd multiply 8000 MB x 1.5 = 12000 MB correct? Since 1 gb = 1000 MB

Click to expand...

Actually, it's recommended you multiply it by 1024 X 1.5 for a total of 12288

Edwin said:

Actually, it's recommended you multiply it by 1024 X 1.5 for a total of 12288

Click to expand...

I actually thought about posting my original question in the category that my question has been moved to, sometime I don't make proper decisions. It does seem as though I do remember seeing the proper multiplying # as being 1024 instead of 1000, so just for clarification, should I enter the same amount (in my case 12288) in both boxes ? Thanks

Davy49 said:

should I enter the same amount (in my case 12288) in both boxes ?

Click to expand...

Yup!
(It's the same for Windows 11)

@Brink
If you have a tutorial for this, my apologies!!!

Edwin said:

@Brink
If you have a tutorial for this, my apologies!!!

Click to expand...

You are probably wasting your time trying to tweak the VM settings. You must accept that running Windows 10 or 11 on such an old computer is going to be slow at best. Hopefully, you have an SSD in this computer instead of a hard drive.

BTW, I replaced the 3.5-inch boot hard drive in one of my old desktop computers with a 2.5-inch SSD. I was surprised how much faster it was.

That arbitrary 1.5x rule of thumb was never based on any real science.

This rule of thumb predates modern windows 10/11 compressed memory management It is really an urban myth these days.

The only way to optimise the correct amount is to properly monitor performance under different stress conditions.

Modern apps are much more memory efficient anyway.

In the end, if you ever need a pagefile anywhere as near as big as that, then your pc will be running like a dog, and long overdue a RAM upgrade to at least 16 GB.

People blindly perpetuate all these sorts of pagefile urban myths - largely these are from wannabe tech journalists who just rehash stuff from other web sites. Read this as an example from one of the more respected sites and even then no real substance!.


Even this perpetuates the 1.5x rule of thumb, and goes as far as saying 3x for maximum.

These articles always say "it is recommended" - who recommended this? Most of these rules of thumb date back 20 years or more. I think it was Dave from the pub who first wrote an article for the Beano LOL.

See extract from MS themselves:


"Page file sizing depends on the system crash dump setting requirements and the peak usage or expected peak usage of the system commit charge. Both considerations are unique to each system, even for systems that are identical. This uniqueness means that page file sizing is also unique to each system and can't be generalized."

In other words, these 1.5x guidelines are meaningless and nobody can recommend anything without being over conservative, and wasting space. Face it guys, these 1.5x guidelines are just bollix!

So I agree with @Edwin - leave it on auto (and ONLY change it manually if you run into issues).

I have 16 GB RAM, with pagefile set on auto, and my largest pagefile is around 3 GB. Of course, other users will get different results.

Honestly I am amazed that people go to google first instead of MS for this sort of information, as Cereberus intimated this is like asking Dave down the pub for tech, life and financial advice.
My main PC is used for 3D rendering, image manipulation and gaming, it has 64GB physical RAM and has a 9.5GB pagefile set to let Windows manage.
Going by the constantly promoted garbage about this setting I should set a 96GB - 192GB pagefile, even under max load with a huge render scene, several images open for texture creation, several web tabs open and watching a video the pagefile never increases from the 9.5 it is normally.
The amount of starting memory the system has fitted is not the guiding factor in pagefile size, the way it is utilised during use is and as the developers of the Windows memory management state it is machine dependent.
Set it to auto and only make changes if you get notifications from your OS or apps about not enough virtual memory (but this could mean too many commits as well, so not as simple as it appears).

DigitalGoat said:

Honestly I am amazed that people go to google first instead of MS for this sort of information, as Cereberus intimated this is like asking Dave down the pub for tech, life and financial advice.
My main PC is used for 3D rendering, image manipulation and gaming, it has 64GB physical RAM and has a 9.5GB pagefile set to let Windows manage.
Going by the constantly promoted garbage about this setting I should set a 96GB - 192GB pagefile, even under max load with a huge render scene, several images open for texture creation, several web tabs open and watching a video the pagefile never increases from the 9.5 it is normally.
The amount of starting memory the system has fitted is not the guiding factor in pagefile size, the way it is utilised during use is and as the developers of the Windows memory management state it is machine dependent.
Set it to auto and only make changes if you get notifications from your OS or apps about not enough virtual memory (but this could mean too many commits as well, so not as simple as it appears).

Click to expand...

Hi DigitalGoat (Such A Unique Name !)
Ideally an easy 'fix' would be to add some additional memory, but since this particular desktop has the following memory requirements:
Memory:
Supports un-buffered non-ECC DDR3 SDRAM The Intel Q43 Express chipset supports un-buffered non-ECC DDR3 SDRAM (synchronous dynamic random access memory) of up to 16GB total memory, and at a frequency of up to 1066MHz. NOTE: 1066MHz system memory frequency of operation requires at least PC3-8500 (DDR3-1066) memory type for all populated memory modules, and an Intel processor with FSB (front side bus) of at least 1066MHz. System Memory upgrades are accomplished by adding DDR3 SDRAM module(s) to empty DIMM slots on the System Board. Considering the age of my computer as well as the limited amount of total memory capacity it has I guess I'll just leave everything like it is as this desktop isn't my main computer anyway.
David

I have a 10 year old computer with a AMD FX8350 (4-core) CPU. This CPU is a little faster than your CPU. It also has 8GB of DDR3 RAM. I replaced its 3.5-inch 1TB SATA HDD boot drive with a 2.5-inch 1TB SATA SSD. That alone made it work a lot better.

That computer will continue to run Windows 7 with a dual-boot with Windows 10. I have no intentions of trying to run Windows 11 on it.

Even though that computer runs better with Windows 7 I will continue to have Windows 10 as its main operating system. In this case it was for practical reasons not technical ones.

All this says is that is best if you run a computer with the operating system current when it was bought or built. If you try to run a much newer operating system expect much slower performance. More RAM or a faster drive might help but don't expect more than that.

The only reason you will make the pagefile static, so it will not fragment when it does it will cause slow access to data store on pagefile.

FreeBooter said:

The only reason you will make the pagefile static, so it will not fragment when it does it will cause slow access to data store on pagefile.

Click to expand...

This only applies to old HDDs of course. If you are using an HDD with 8 GB RAM and need a 12 GB pagefile, the performance will be terrible - I seriously doubt fragmentation will make that much difference.

cereberus said:

This only applies to old HDDs of course. If you are using an HDD with 8 GB RAM and need a 12 GB pagefile, the performance will be terrible - I seriously doubt fragmentation will make that much difference.

Click to expand...

Yes only apply to HDD not to SSD drive.

Best to just let Windows manage the page file.