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Virtual Memory
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Member Posts: 1,904
What is the recomended page file range for virtual memory? This system is as follows:
P4 2.0 ghz
512mb ram
GeForce 6600 GT
Currently it is set as 500-768. Ive been getting very bad lag on this computer, even worse then before I upgraded it. Playing games like Counter Strike and Star Wars Galaxies, the game runs horrible, almost bad enough to not play. Im hoping enlarging the virtual memory will solve some problems.
Comments
I run 2.2 gigs on my gaming rig. Honestly, I could probably run it at half a gig and not notice much of a difference, expect in, perhaps load times. A gig is probably fine for you. Too much and it may bottleneck.
"Whoever controls the media controls the mind..-'Jim Morrison"
"When decorum is repression, the only dignity free men have is to speak out." ~Abbie Hoffman
from what did you upgrade?
Don't see why you would have such problems with CS. You talking about CS or CSS? My second puter is a AMD1700+ (1462 Mhz) using PC2700 512MB RAM and a Nvidia FX 5700 Ultra and my vitual memory is at default. I run CSS at 1600x1200x32 and have most stuff set to the highest settings and it runs very smooth.
I know this may sound typical, but do you have any virus progs running? Are you running with Anisotropic filtering and/or Antialiasing set high by default outside of the game? Sometimes games like to control the AF and AA themselves and tend to run sloppy when they are forced to run at highend defaults.
It is best to set the video card to have AF and AA off, then configure it within the game settings. If still to sloppy, drop it some until your framerates are above 20+ or atleast 30-40 as most seem to be happy with.
As for virtual memory, it usually won't do much help to change this and usually, especially with the specs you are giving, it sounds like it is more than likely to do with other programs running taking up too much system memory (rather than virtual) or configurations or even not keeping "ALL" your drivers updated. Believe it or not even using a old sound driver can not only make a game run like crap, but even crash a game.
i know what ram is and video memory, but what exactly is virtual memory, and the paging file, i keep getting messagess about it during BF2. someone explain to me plz.
Ok, first off. I will try to explain in common tongue, but I am sure others have their version as well.
First off you have Physical Memory which is static, usually. You have system memory that is static and video memory that also is. But of course sys mem is basically the main memory on the computer (motherboard) and the video memory is on the video card specifically used to handle most of the graphical files.
Typically when you use up all the system memory and video memory (boith being static and physical) it needs a place to store temp files until they are needed again. So, on the hardrive your sys will create what we call a swap space or in otherwords a folder that will be allocated as "vitual memory" Usually it is set to a certain size to avoid problems. If it is too small it won't be enough to do it's job. If it is too large then you have too much swap space and the swap speed is like a snail compared to static memory usually being in the extreme low end of milli-seconds.
HD read and write speeds have gotten a lot faster, but still physical memory has also. But, still vitual memory is something you don't want to have to mess with too much. It is better to just go out and get more physical (system memory or video memory = new video card) so to aviod having it swap too much.
The best you could ever do is pump in about 1g = 1024mb of system memory and atleast a 128mb vid card instead of messing with the VM. half the people out there that mess with the VM tend to create more problems than fix them. Best to leave at default. Unless you wallet says other.
I upgraded from a geforce 4 mx 440, 256mb ram, and a 250 watt or so powersupply. I upgraded all of that to 6600 GT, added a stick of 256mb ram, and got a 400 watt powersupply.
Counter Strike Source is running fine after downlaoding some nvida beta drivers and increasing the virtual memory. I also lowered the specs down quite a bit. SWG is still running horribly, I get so much lag that now I dont even play, just leave it on macro and play music. All of the specs on SWG are as low as they can go, I dont have AA or AF on.
I dont have any virus programs up, I have done msconfig and disabled every all of the start up programs. Only thing that runs in background is sound and nvidia drivers.
My sound card is integrated SoundMAX Digital audio. Where can I find the drivers for this? I guess I would have to download drivers for my motherboard right? Even though I dont know what motherboard is on this computer, its just a basic 3 year old gateway model.
The thing im thinking of doing is reformatting the hard drive. Which I know is a decision long past due, im just to lazy to figure out how to do it, then backup all the files, then actually start the process.
Windows will use virtual memory whether or not you have enough physical RAM to accommodate the programs you have running, so it's best to optimize your system to take this into account.
A good rule of thumb is to set your virtual memory size at one and a half times the size of your physical RAM. So if you have 512 megs of RAM, set your virtual memory at 768 megs, and so on. Make sure you set the minimum and maximum size at the same value as this creates a contiguous file which will never become fragmented and is thus more efficient.
If you have two hard drives or a spare knocking about it's a good idea to use one as a dedicated "swapfile" drive, but I've noticed just dedicating a partition to the swapfile on my main drive reaps a performance reward.
Hope this helps.
Best tool to use I have ever seen is called Everest. It is a tool that not only tells you everything you have in your computer, but even runs some basic benchmarks on memory. However its main glory to Fame is the identifying it does to every component in your box. It even shows where to get the current drivers, fixes and etc...
It is free and one tool I will never leave home without.
The one you want is called Everest Home Edition. That in is free.
http://www.lavalys.com/
Oh, btw the Nvidia 6000 GT. does it have a power source you have to plug in to the card from the power supply?
What OS are you running? Win98? WinME? WinXP? and what service pack and such. All updates from Microsoft?
Do you know how much available physical memory you have free?
Not actually true, but this is a common misconception so I'll let you off this time.
Open up your task manager (ctrl-alt-del) and under "view", click "select columns". Put a check in the box for "virtual memory size". Click OK.
Now you'll not only have your usual "Mem usage" field, but also a "VM size" field. Notice how almost every running process is taking up both physical and virtual memory.
That's just the way Windows is designed.