[SOLVED] How does memory swapping work?

[alfredjoejr]

Does memory swapping work only if the Main memory is full, or is it usually used even when there's enough RAM ?

 

[CountMike]

Does memory swapping work only if the Main memory is full, or is it usually used even when there's enough RAM ?

That depends on OS and conditions. W10 and up swaps to disk much before memory is full but in smaller chunks and only in CPU idle cycles. It also depends on Pagefile and Swapfile sizes. That shouldn't reflect on performance unless memory is heavily over used/full, then it might have to do it during regular CPU duty cycles and disk action can impose extra load on CPU and memory specially with slow HDDs.