[SOLVED] Page file in gaming on SSD

[Andrreim]

I have 8 GB of RAM, but X Game needs actually more RAM than 8 GB to work and ofcourse this leads to using a big chunk in terms of MB or GB of virtual memory/page files filling the game's needs.
Question: Does this affect the lifespan of the SSD? It will shorten his life?

My logic says yes, because its constantly writes and erases data, files etc. Im asking because I want to be sure of whats happening actually and opinions from someone with better expertise in such things.

 

[punkncat]

I don't think so. IMO it would be nearly impossible to quantify. SSD are designed such that different "areas" get equal use.

I will say that utilizing less RAM that spec'ed by the game cannot be good for performance. Page file is FAR slower than RAM.

 

[USAFRet]

My system is SSD only. 7 solid state drives.
So the "pagefile" must live on a SSD.

It has not killed any of them yet.

Your solution should be 'more RAM'.

 

[LinuxDevice]

Wear leveling reduces damage done by writes, but all data writes which move beyond cache/buffer and into permanent storage will reduce life (perhaps not by much on newer SSDs). It is just a question of how much more writing is done by paging to an SSD, and how well leveling works on the SSD...the damage may not be significant in many cases, but in some cases damage from constant writes will be significant. Paging to the SSD is superior to paging to a traditional HD, but in no case will the SSD's life do anything other than going down with constant writes (again, this assumes the buffer/cache actually gets written to storage, so I wish to emphasize this might or might not matter depending on the data itself).

 

[USAFRet]

"Will it affect the lifespan?" Yes.
"Will it affect the lifespan to any significant or even noticeable degree?" That is the real question.

Unless you have a tiny SSD from a 3rd rate brand, no.

 

[SamirD]

If you're paging this much, the real question is how much will more ram cost. Paging was never intended to be a solution where programs were actually run from it.

 

[Andrreim]

I know that the best solution is more RAM, but for now i have to stick with this option...Page file. I see that opinions are split...

I forgot to mention that I have an 512GB Samsung MZVLB512HBJQ-000L2 model. I it helps...

 

[SamirD]

I know that the best solution is more RAM, but for now i have to stick with this option...Page file. I see that opinions are split...

I forgot to mention that I have an 512GB Samsung MZVLB512HBJQ-000L2 model. I it helps...

Honestly, I would even sell the ssd for more ram--more ram will allow things to stay in memory and not hit the disk after they are initially loaded.

 

[Andrreim]

Honestly, I would even sell the ssd for more ram--more ram will allow things to stay in memory and not hit the disk after they are initially loaded.

Its the only storage i have. Its a laptop.

 

[USAFRet]

I know that the best solution is more RAM, but for now i have to stick with this option...Page file. I see that opinions are split...

I forgot to mention that I have an 512GB Samsung MZVLB512HBJQ-000L2 model. I it helps...

If that is the RAM you have, and that is the only drive you have...your options are pretty small.

Use the system and don't stress over the pagefile.

 

[Andrreim]

If that is the RAM you have, and that is the only drive you have...your options are pretty small.

Use the system and don't stress over the pagefile.

I mean, the laptop has slots for future upgrades for both sides, RAM and Drive and I will upgrade them in the future, but I think not in a near one, sadly.

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

You can't really "kill" a modern SSD with plenty of Spare Area. It would take decades of normal use with windows and a page file on an SSD before the cells started to degrade to the point where it impacted using the computer.

I really wouldn't worry about it. Things move really fast and by the time you eventually do start to wear out the flash, you will just toss the drive anyway since it will be tiny compared to what you can buy for $50.

As an example, I bought a very fast (for the time) 120GB SSD about 10 years ago, and that was big for an SSD back then. It cost a lot, maybe $200 or more, but I never once worried about writes or anything like that. I just used it normally as a boot drive, with a page file, hibernation switched on, the works. In the past 5 years as I've upgraded to bigger and faster drives, its gone from PC to HTPC to laptop, to garage PC, always in use, I checked it just now, and I've barely used 2% of the spare area on the drive, which I believe is only 8GB.

Things have moved on so fast, I can now buy a drive 10 times the size and 10 times the speed for half the price I bought that drive for. It is pitifully slow compared to any of my other SSDs or NVMe drives, and is barely big enough to be useful as a drive for a crappy PC I keep in my garage for watching Youtube videos on. Eventually I will throw it out, once Windows 11 takes 100GB on its own and it really stops being useful as a drive, but whenever it happens, that obsolescence will still come a long time before I run out of spare area on that drive, or even use half of it.

 

[SamirD]

I mean, the laptop has slots for future upgrades for both sides, RAM and Drive and I will upgrade them in the future, but I think not in a near one, sadly.

Get another ram module and enjoy less swapping.

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

Paging was never intended to be a solution where programs were actually run from it.

Pardon? That's precisely what it is intended for.

If anything, the rapid random seek times and transfer rates on an SSD make it the perfect medium for a page file, since it can offload and restore to and from RAM so quickly you might not even notice it paging at all.

Absolutely do upgrade to 16GB, but there's zero reason not to use a modern SSD for your page file, it's the perfect place for one.

 

[SamirD]

You can't really "kill" a modern SSD with plenty of Spare Area. It would take decades of normal use with windows and a page file on an SSD before the cells started to degrade to the point where it impacted using the computer.

I really wouldn't worry about it. Things move really fast and by the time you eventually do start to wear out the flash, you will just toss the drive anyway since it will be tiny compared to what you can buy for $50.

As an example, I bought a very fast (for the time) 120GB SSD about 10 years ago, and that was big for an SSD back then. It cost a lot, maybe $200 or more, but I never once worried about writes or anything like that. I just used it normally as a boot drive, with a page file, hibernation switched on, the works. In the past 5 years as I've upgraded to bigger and faster drives, its gone from PC to HTPC to laptop, to garage PC, always in use, I checked it just now, and I've barely used 2% of the spare area on the drive, which I believe is only 8GB.

Things have moved on so fast, I can now buy a drive 10 times the size and 10 times the speed for half the price I bought that drive for. It is pitifully slow compared to any of my other SSDs or NVMe drives, and is barely big enough to be useful as a drive for a crappy PC I keep in my garage for watching Youtube videos on. Eventually I will throw it out, once Windows 11 takes 100GB on its own and it really stops being useful as a drive, but whenever it happens, that obsolescence will still come a long time before I run out of spare area on that drive, or even use half of it.

The reason your older drive has lasted so long is that it was made of a different type of memory with higher longevity. Those are primarily only found in enterprise ssds and consumer ssds today are not even close to built like that one you had.

 

[Andrreim]

You can't really "kill" a modern SSD with plenty of Spare Area. It would take decades of normal use with windows and a page file on an SSD before the cells started to degrade to the point where it impacted using the computer.

I really wouldn't worry about it. Things move really fast and by the time you eventually do start to wear out the flash, you will just toss the drive anyway since it will be tiny compared to what you can buy for $50.

As an example, I bought a very fast (for the time) 120GB SSD about 10 years ago, and that was big for an SSD back then. It cost a lot, maybe $200 or more, but I never once worried about writes or anything like that. I just used it normally as a boot drive, with a page file, hibernation switched on, the works. In the past 5 years as I've upgraded to bigger and faster drives, its gone from PC to HTPC to laptop, to garage PC, always in use, I checked it just now, and I've barely used 2% of the spare area on the drive, which I believe is only 8GB.

Things have moved on so fast, I can now buy a drive 10 times the size and 10 times the speed for half the price I bought that drive for. It is pitifully slow compared to any of my other SSDs or NVMe drives, and is barely big enough to be useful as a drive for a crappy PC I keep in my garage for watching Youtube videos on. Eventually I will throw it out, once Windows 11 takes 100GB on its own and it really stops being useful as a drive, but whenever it happens, that obsolescence will still come a long time before I run out of spare area on that drive, or even use half of it.

For media and such things I think its perfectly fine, but when a game kicks in, it writes and erase such amount of content pers second that will catch up very fast the writes and erases that media and surfing does in these years.

 

[USAFRet]

The reason your older drive has lasted so long is that it was made of a different type of memory with higher longevity. Those are primarily only found in enterprise ssds and consumer ssds today are not even close to built like that one you had.

Meanwhile, my pair of almost 7 year old 840 EVOs are doing just fine.

One of them is soon to be replaced, only because 250GB is getting rather slim with all the CAD files.

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

The reason your older drive has lasted so long is that it was made of a different type of memory with higher longevity. Those are primarily only found in enterprise ssds and consumer ssds today are not even close to built like that one you had.

Incorrect. I bought a consumer-grade, MLC drive. If anything, consumer MLC flash has improved, not degraded in reliability, not to mention improvements in wear-levelling algorithms and TRIM capability has led to significantly longer MTBF on consumer drives.

Sorry, but you really sound like you don't know what you're talking about. You just recommended someone sell an SSD to pay for another 8GB of RAM in a laptop. And then what, run windows from a 5400RPM HDD instead, to speed things up? No. Just no.

For media and such things I think its perfectly fine, but when a game kicks in, it writes and erase such amount of content pers second that will catch up very fast the writes and erases that media and surfing does in these years.

No. None of that matters. You could uninstall and reinstall your entire 100GB steam library every day for 5 years and you still would not wear out the drive. This whole paranoia about SSDs only having a certain number of writes and then they die is based on information from 2008, back when it genuinely was an issue. It is not an issue any more. I don't know how much more clear I can be on this.

Unless you are running a heavy-duty file server in a datacenter, you do not need to worry about writing to your SSD. At all.

 

[USAFRet]

The question seems to arise from incurring too many write cycles to the SSD.
Here, due to the page file.

In normal consumer use, it is highly unlikely that a drive would see 20% of whatever warranty TBW number it comes with.

I've asked in here many times - Has anyone had an SSD die from too many write cycles?
I've not heard of one.

It may die of something else...I had one do that.
But it was nowhere near its warranty number.

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

I've asked in here many times - Has anyone had an SSD die from too many write cycles?
I've not heard of one.

The problem is when you Google it all you find is threads like this one with people repeating the same misinformation from 2008 about avoiding using it for page file, avoid using it for game installs etc etc, because it somehow hurts the drive. And if you go back far enough you find reputable sources giving that advice, because it was a real issue in the early days of SSDs.

 

[Ralston18]

@TommyTwoTone66

Reference your comments/tone in your Post (#18).

Please remember that Forum participation requires civility. No need to attack other posters.

 

[Andrreim]

To be honest, I've searched about this days after days in the last couple of weeks all kind of threads but I avoided the older ones like you mention (2009-2014/16). And still, to this date people are very split in opinions. Interesting thing is, atleast from my searching, I didnt find a thread about this specific thing...Ssd dies faster because a game or games in general uses page file as RAM. Or any kind of program that uses this feature for an extended period of time. I know that with these new SSDs they get better with more endurance. I will let the thread opened (if i can close it myself) or tell the moderators to not close it for future replies and opinions. Still there are split opinions.

 

[USAFRet]

To be honest, I've searched about this days after days in the last couple of weeks all kind of threads but I avoided the older ones like you mention (2009-2014/16). And still, to this date people are very split in opinions. Interesting thing is, atleast from my searching, I didnt find a thread about this specific thing...Ssd dies faster because a game or games in general uses page file as RAM. Or any kind of program that uses this feature for an extended period of time. I know that with these new SSDs they get better with more endurance. I will let the thread opened (if i can close it myself) or tell the moderators to not close it for future replies and opinions. Still there are split opinions.

"dies faster":
10 years, or 9 years 49 weeks.