Question About Virtual Memory Paging File
Hi Everyone,
So I was experiencing heavy stutters on Resident Evil 2 and one of the solutions was to increase the paging file size to 8GB, this removed the stutters for me and it solved some other stutters in other games and I was wondering if there's any negative side effects from increasing the size to 8GB? Thanks in advance

RAM: 32GB 3000MHz
C:Drive: 225GB SSD
Отредактировано VunnySilla; 2 ноя. 2021 г. в 3:21
< >
Сообщения 3145 из 65
Some boards don't xmp correctly. Some games don't like xmp.

For example one of my PCs with 3300x doesn't mind xmp. However, my 3700x build doesn't set xmp correctly and I have to manually select 3200 and then input my timings. I do get to run the default 1.2 voltage though and with four dimms, so that seems like a huge win.

But the default xmp wouldn't have done that for me in this situation. To the contrary I tried the same settings on the 3300x and it wouldn't boot lol. So back to default xmp for that one.

I only ran into this issue with amd so far. My i-5 11400f build with a asrock b560 pro4 doesn't have any strange software quirks with ram. That's why I always recommend intel for fast ram.
Virtual memory is something Windows uses, when you run out of System RAM, it starts using your slower hard drive. Being an SSD (Solid State Drive) it's not as slow as standard HDD (Hard Drives), but at system managed it will be reading/writing to it, increasing and decreasing it's size regularly. It adds more write to the SSD, slightly shortening it's life span over years doing so.

Honestly, it's not that major and most should just leave it on System Managed, using the fastest drive available for it. Setting any other drives to none.

- Always have one page file (never disabled)
- Never go below 4GB with your page file.

You want at least 4GB for older video games, which use it regardless of how much RAM you have.

However you can calculate how much the page file should be, by the amount of Physical RAM you have available.

For Window's crash logs, it wants double your RAM as the page file (minimum 1.5x your RAM size), which is crazy, specially when you have a large amount of RAM these days. However, you don't need that crash log, unless you are a game/app delivery coding your own, which you need to debug a blue screen crash upon.

If you have a small amount of RAM, then you would need a larger page file, yet if you have a large amount, it's better to reduce the page file to force it into that faster RAM, so long there's no memory leak or the game/app requiring a certain amount.

Since you have 32GB of RAM, your optimal page file size should be around 4-8GB. Recommended size 4985MB.

Since it's a SSD, set both the min and max as a Custom size to the same value of whatever you set. This will stop Windows from resizing it and writing to it continuously, which affects the SSD lifespan.

So optimal for your system should be...

Custom size:
Inital size (MB) = 4985
Maximum size (MB) = 4985

Resident Evil 2 uses heavy resources on the PC's paging file, as part of it's coding, so if 8GB works for you, stick with that. I would just recommend fixing the min/max size to be the same. So long you have the drive space, increasing it won't hurt. It's more just the fixed size vs variable size you should be concerned with when it comes to SSD (preventing block size change on your SSD).

SSD also likes to have a min 7.37% (10% recommended) free drive space as a reserve to use, as a provision for background activities such as garbage collection. Some brands will have that already set in the SSD app, to keep to the side (called SSD Over-Provisioning), otherwise, just make sure to keep a bit of free disk space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q15wN8JC2L4

Is it the original or remake of the game you are playing? As I wouldn't of thought the remake would of used it as much.
Отредактировано Azza ☠; 2 ноя. 2021 г. в 9:52
I wouldn't recommend to disable your page file. I wouldn't recommend to set it to a small static size. These are bad practices. Others do this and have no ill affects and claim there's no reason to have a page file, and if their mind is made up on it, I won't tell them how to set their system, but I will call out bad advice given to others when I see it. Anyone advising others to disable the page file has a lack of understanding on how Windows manages resources.

There's is next to no reason to disable your page file. Here's what happens when you disable it.

You are not entirely preventing paging anyway.

You are limiting your commit size to your installed RAM size (and thus, your "available RAM' to less than your installed RAM size). I learned the hard way, by being one of those people that used to set it to a small static size, what this can do. Not everyone experiences this, and if not, then your actual RAM needs are far below your installed RAM amount anyway.

There's no reason to do it. It's a placebo myth from the days of Windows XP that it "increases performance" and it's based on a limited understanding of how Windows manages resources, and how the page file is part of that.
Автор сообщения: Metallic Demon
Hi Everyone,
So I was experiencing heavy stutters on Resident Evil 2 and one of the solutions was to increase the paging file size to 8GB, this removed the stutters for me and it solved some other stutters in other games and I was wondering if there's any negative side effects from increasing the size to 8GB? Thanks in advance

RAM: 32GB 3000MHz
C:Drive: 225GB SSD
As someone who played the game heavily back when it released, here's what I recall about it.

The game is pretty heavy on asset streaming. It keeps the local "room" and all surrounding rooms loaded, and those further away are not (you may notice the familiarity of this with the behavior of the Tyrant, as it can be heard when in adjacent rooms but not when further away, and its behavior even changes depending on distance from you as a result, but I digress). Anyway, passing certain areas (main hall has a few infamous spots) causes it to need to load in (and unload) more assets, hence these momentary drops. Having a good enough CPU and enough VRAM, paired with proper settings, does the best to help against this.

Furthermore, if you're playing at 60 Hz and these drops occur to, say, 53 FPS, you barely notice. If you're playing at a higher frame rate, you will.

A good quad core is best. It's been theorized a quad core with threading is the ideal minimum, but people with 9th generation Core i7s (at the time, about the newest) have expressed experiencing this, and I played it fine on just below minimum requirements (Core i5 2500K) so this isn't strictly clear, but the game seems to want more cores/threads to a point. I did see what little stuttering there was go away entirely (almost entirely?) with a Ryzen 7 3700X though so it might have some merit to it, but I play on 60 Hz with v-sync.

Not sure on VRAM but I've heard 4GB and below is where it's more pronounced, and 6 GB to 8 GB or more is better.

Regarding that, set your texture size appropriately. The game seems to use this as a cache, so ignore the in-game guesstimated VRAM use and set the "texture quality" to match or even slightly exceed your total VRAM. From personal experience, with a video card with 6 GB VRAM, I tried this on 4 GB, 6 GB, and 8 GB and all seemed similar-ish/fine, even though the former had me right under the VRAM meter and the other two had me above. Speaking of cache, make sure shadow cache is on.

Other settings in general which won't affect stutter directly much, but shadows from very high to high and volumetric to medium instead of high may help. Some people have said HDAO seems better than HBAO+ even on nVidia but I can't comment much on that one (I've personally used both seemingly fine on nVidia hardware so I can't say).

As for the storage drive, despite the issue being streaming, you'd think this would play a huge part, right? It might, but I tried it on an HDD (Western Digital Black 5 TB) and an SSD (both a Crucial MX100 256 GB and Western Digital Blue SATA 1 TB) and it played the same. It wouldn't hurt to have it on fast drive but it doesn't seem to be the obvious necessary factor it would seem to be in my experience.

And, as said above, don't disable or otherwise limit your page file. There've been a few comments about this in the Resident Evil discussion boards back then. One was even so thrilled they thought they found the fix to the stuttering but then other people replied and said "my page file was never disabled but I have stuttering so it isn't just that". But it certainly wouldn't hurt NOT to have it disabled.
It's always been a well known issue in Windows OS and that wipeing the PageFile clean by setting it to NONE > Apply > Restart Windows. Then set a size such as 4, 8 or 16 GB as the Max & Min and apply > restart... has solved alot of game related issues when it comes to how Games function under Windows OS in general.

It is again, just one of those things you MUST change when configuring a new PC or after doing a clean install of any Windows OS.

Leaving the PageFile on Auto / Windows Managed is generally fine when it is a general use home or office PC. But not when its a heavy Pro Work or gaming PC.
Автор сообщения: Bad 💀 Motha
It's always been a well known issue in Windows OS and that wipeing the PageFile clean by setting it to NONE > Apply > Restart Windows. Then set a size such as 4, 8 or 16 GB as the Max & Min and apply > restart... has solved alot of game related issues when it comes to how Games function under Windows OS in general.
I've personally never had a problem with a game having issues with the default page file settings that was set by customizing it, although I'm not saying it can't happen just because I haven't experienced it. I've never heard of it either though, and I'd find it unlikely that a game would have an issue with it and it be consistently reproducible to do so while being fixed by customizing the state of the page file (meaning it isn't the removing and resetting of it that fixes it as that could be a corrupt page file). Do you have examples of games that are like that?

I have, however, had issues with things when I customized it. I set it to 1 GB then 4 GB with 16 GB RAM (this was half a decade ago when 16 GB was still a lot) and eventually learned, after getting away with it for some time, how little I understood of what I was doing simply because I was following old habit from something that a lot of guides back then would recommend, because I "ran out of RAM" with "10 GB in use". The commit limit was reached, despite being just over 50% of RAM "in use".
Автор сообщения: Bad 💀 Motha
It is again, just one of those things you MUST change when configuring a new PC or after doing a clean install of any Windows OS.
Do as you wish, because again I'm not necessarily saying what to do with your own systems, but it's definitely not something you must do.

I maintain the stance that this is merely old habit from the Windows XP (or earlier?) days that continues, and part of your recommended process sort of suggests this. The whole point of setting it to none and restarting before setting it again was to prevent potential fragmentation, which is...

1. Irrelevant on modern systems with SSDs where fragmentation doesn't really matter, and...

2. Wasn't even a big issue to begin with (but we like to cover fringe possibilities and the time spent restarting would have probably been worth it I guess?)...

3. I've never heard of the second restart being required but this is a minor point.

Old habits die hard. The whole thing remains as placebo in my mind, unless you have sources to verify it's not only not placebo but that it is wildly necessary. I'm open to changing my mind if presented with strong evidence, but my own experiences combined with further research (and still not knowing a lot about how "Windows manages resources") has taught me to leave well enough alone.
Автор сообщения: Bad 💀 Motha
Leaving the PageFile on Auto / Windows Managed is generally fine when it is a general use home or office PC. But not when its a heavy Pro Work or gaming PC.
Do you have sources for this?

If it is a PC for work and is more critical than something for all play, I really wouldn't recommend this.
Отредактировано Illusion of Progress; 2 ноя. 2021 г. в 22:04
You're just supposed to let windows manage the page file. The only time you turn it off is when you absolutely must have the disk space for some emergency. Increasing it or decreasing it is something I would never do and something I don't recommend.
The pagefile can be a funny thing. I recall a wile back a fix to help with stutter in PUBG. It was to set the pagefile to 1.5 times the memory size. Even with 32GB, i tried it anyway and worked.

Also it is on another drive, specifically another NVMe drive.
I'm content to let Windows manage the page file. It's never been an issue for me on any PC with any type of workload. General use, software development, or gaming.
Concerning the beloved "once size fits all" and "only one correct solution", here is a quote directly from Microsoft:
"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 means that page file sizing is also unique to each system and cannot be generalized."

I have it on Auto with 16 GB of RAM and created two pagefiles on two different SSD drives. One is now roughly 19 GB and the other 3 GB. And in addition to that do i currently have about 9 GB of mapped files in RAM. And it works with no problems. I never had loading problems in RE2. And that game is installed on a HDD.
Отредактировано Overseer; 3 ноя. 2021 г. в 6:45
I thought I would give an update, I decided to let Windows configure the Paging file and now I am getting The Memory Could Not Be Read errors on some games, any solutions?
You have to be more clear. What error where and from what?
Автор сообщения: Overseer
You have to be more clear. What error where and from what?
Sorry for not being clear, I just played Dark Souls for example and I got this

The instruction at 0x00007FF602133E16 referenced memory at 0x00007FF419570480. The memory could not be read.

This didn't appear before I changed the Paging size and I've set it back to default but the error remains
Set the page file to none, reboot and optimise the ssd then reset pagefile

Edit; I noticed your ssd is only 225gb, make sure you have the space available not forgetting the overhead space required.
Отредактировано Carlsberg; 3 ноя. 2021 г. в 7:29
or move it to a different drive, reboot, then back to the boot ssd at a static size
It's better to do a full restart after you changed the pagefile settings. Once you are back check system integrity with the command line or PowerShell. Right-click on the Windows icon in taskbar. Select PowerShell as Administrator.
Run
sfc.exe /scannow
then
dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth
then
dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

Lets see if it finds some corrupted files. You could also check the games integrity as well via the Steam client under Properties and local files.
< >
Сообщения 3145 из 65
Показывать на странице: 1530 50

Дата создания: 2 ноя. 2021 г. в 2:51
Сообщений: 65