I have 24 GB RAM Windows 8 automatically allocated 6 GB as a page file In the past, on Windows 7, I had 16 GB RAM and I always disabled the page file with 0 problems what do you guys think of Windows 8 now? I dont play games, just surfing and watching movies Shall I disable the page file or set it to a fixed 1 GB Min / Max or leave it as it is? Bear in mind that I am upgrading to 32 GB RAM next week to to have dual channel in all RAM slots because now 1 slot is empty making the second RAM slot run on a single channel
Why not, I have 16 gb and I have it disabled. I use an 80 GB SSD so space is a premium and I have had no performance/stability problems with it disabled and I play games.
Why set the min/max to the same value, if you have it enabled it needs to be dynamic, not locked to one size. As for the rest, try it. Every system is different but my guess is with the amount of ram you have/will have it isn't going to cause any problems for you.
Because, if a minimum is set windows will fill it, whether it is needed or not. If it is already filled to 1gb and windows does run low on physical ram and looks to the swap file it will not be allowed to fill it because it is locked at 1gb. Having it locked is the same as having it disabled except that you lose that 1 gb of space and it takes time to fill the file on start up. This is all just a matter of opinion, use what works for you.
Well my system came with 24 GB RAM so Im not gonna toss them away just because I dont need them I want to upgrade to 32 GB RAM not to have more RAM but in fact, to have dual channel across all slots rather than have 2 slots running in dual channel and 1 slot in single channel...thanks to the Intel new Flex Mode at least that is possible in the past you would have been forced to run in Single Channel mode across all RAM slots if you didn't have matching pairs all over
I'm sure u dont have any stability problem. In the other hand, u get zero, nothing, null, nada if u disable it, this myth has been going on long enough, I don't know why ppl keep thinking their pc's will go faster if the disable pagefile. While there was a visible perfonce gain in windows xp when we were proud to have 1gb of ram (lol), now it does not a single frakking thing. Go test it urself, with 32gb of ram is just ridiculous. And I just realized that u said: "I dont play games, just surfing and watching movies" -mega hyper epic face palm- F-o-r-g-e-t pagefile exists, please. And u need space... for surfing? =.= In any case get an external drive to store ur movies, 80gb is nothing with or without pagefile.
Totally worthless upgrade, even if you were gaming, that little bandwidth gain would mean nothing. The amount would mean nothing either. Just use the money you'd spend on more RAM to get a HDD for your movies and stuff, and forget about the page file. If you already have another HDD, just buy a beer for your wife or anything.
I didn't say I disabled it for performance. I said I disabled it for space and it had no impact on performance. When it was taking up several gigabytes I disabled it, along with system restore to save space. I don't keep any media files on my system drive, I have external drives and internal spinning drives. It's like you mashed his issue with my post then chastised me for not configuring my system the way you think I should. Learn to read/comprehend.
IMHO I would set windows at static min/max 1024Mb pagefile. There is no reason at all windows should be constantly reading and writing a huge pagefile to disk with your large amount of available ram! Also a large pagefile occupying all that disk space is completely unnecessary. IMO any average user system running 8GB ram or more should set static pagefile to 1024 or 2048Mb min/max You may not know this but if Windows encounters a situation that demands more pagefile, it will create it regardless of your system settings...static, custom, or otherwise. I have 2 multi-boot PC's 12GB and 16GB ram running with this pagefile configuration (Windows 7) for years...never has either encountered any issue, stability or otherwise related to pagefile. Unless that extra stick is a very low cost, I wouldn't bother adding to your system...
For all practical matters I have never had an issue with it disabled. I for one am not going to enable it just because someone says I have to. Enable or disable, it's your choice but don't denigrate someone who doesn't agree with you.
I agree with Dolorous Edd! The pagefile is not really needed and only in sudden apps it's useful. As example, if you work with Video Rendering, that Pagefile would be useful because of the needed huge amount of temporary space needed by such process.