Pagefile on an SSD ?

[Rougert]

Hi everyone !
I'm gonna buy a new SSD which has 180-200 TB of endurance, they say. I was worrying about the pagefile. My games are on a very old and slow hard drive, but the OS will be on this new SSD. The pagefile will be on it aswell. When I game, the pagefile is around 10gb, then goes down when i leave back to the office, then again up to 10gb when playing. Doesnt this mean that it writes 10gb each time I game? If i'm not wrong 10gb x lets say 10 games a day = 100gb of write /day
180 tb = 180.000 gb. 180.000/100 = 1800 days ? I dont know if it is correct though...
Can someone correct me ? 😛

Thanks.

 

[RealBeast]

Depending on how much physical memory you have, you may not really need a page file at all or at least can either (1) put it on a HDD or (2) make it a static 1024 1024 size on the SSD). I have 16GB so use a static 1024MB size on a HDD, although it is never actually used.

Don't let Windows automatically select the size -- it makes it larger as you have more physical memory. No it isn't always written to but it does decrease the available space on your SSD for no necessary purpose.

 

[iamacow]

A pagefile is created everytime you turn the computer on (from power off state). If you have a second drive that isn't a SSD you can set the pagefile to that (which is what I do). If you have enough ram than you can turn off pagefile completely if you don't have a second drive. Pagefile is only used if you run out of ram. So for example if you hit say 16GB (of ram and that is how much you have) and have pagefile on, the hard disk will be used as a fo/fake ram. If you have no pagefile than it will either crash or run super slow since you are completely out of ram.

Say your page is 10GB and you turn the computer on once a day. Than it will write 3.5TB per year of a SSD that probably has 100TB of writes minimum. It would take you 28 Years to kill the drive from writing 10GB a day. I wouldn't even worry about pagefiles.

 

[USAFRet]

Do not stress over the "SSD will die from too many write cycles"
That is a long outdated concept.

1. So let's assume you have the pagefile set at 10GB.
The system does not actually write to that every time you power up. At all. Not happening.

2. Given sufficient RAM (16GB or so), turn the pagefile down if you want. Mine has been set at 1GB min/max for years.

3. Actual used write cycles on a 5 year old boot drive:
120GB SSD, starting in summer 2012
OS and all applications. Incl the pagefile, and a couple of games.
3.5 years as the C drive, then as a secondary drive
Now, a tertiary drive, used as cache space for Lightroom, Paintshop Pro, and various video applications.

34,560 running hours (3.9 years)
Total host writes - 13,258GB
Playing your games does NOT write 100GB per day. At all.

That drive will outlive the rest of your system.

 

[Rougert]

Depending on how much physical memory you have, you may not really need a page file at all or at least can either (1) put it on a HDD or (2) make it a static 1024 1024 size on the SSD). I have 16GB so use a static 1024MB size on a HDD, although it is never actually used.

Don't let Windows automatically select the size -- it makes it larger as you have more physical memory. No it isn't always written to but it does decrease the available space on your SSD for no necessary purpose.

Hi, thanks for the answer. I do have 8gb, but i ´ll refresh my config next christmas to 32gb and a new intel processor. I dont want to put my gaming pagefile on the HDD because its not on the same storage as the OS, and its known to cause problems. So will it really hurt the ssd's performance ?

 

[RealBeast]

No it will not hurt performance, just waste space. Do as USAFRet and I suggest and set it at a fixed amount of 1GB so enter system control panel, advanced tab, click the settings button next to performance, advanced tab, click the change button next to virtual memory, click on custom size and enter 1024 for the min and max values. Then click apply and ok on the windows to get out and then restart.

I also routinely put paging files on HDDs (when a user has a very small primary SSD) and have never seen an issue if you have 8GB or more of physical memory as it is rarely accessed.

 

[Rougert]

But those 10gb used in games, they will not have 10gb in the ram to be stocked ? There will be a problem ?

 

[RealBeast]

No, your paging file is rarely used if ever used with the 8GB of memory that you have, and when used even on an SSD it is far slower than system memory.

Windows automatically sets the amount and the more memory you have the more it sets as virtual memory. So in other words the less you need it the more it gives you. 1024MB min/max will be fine.

 

[Rougert]

No it will not hurt performance, just waste space. Do as USAFRet and I suggest and set it at a fixed amount of 1GB so enter system control panel, advanced tab, click the settings button next to performance, advanced tab, click the change button next to virtual memory, click on custom size and enter 1024 for the min and max values. Then click apply and ok on the windows to get out and then restart.

I also routinely put paging files on HDDs (when a user has a very small primary SSD) and have never seen an issue if you have 8GB or more of physical memory as it is rarely accessed.

I ´ve put it to 1024 mb, but it stills get to 7-8 gb in games. ( I restarted 3 times).

 

[USAFRet]

No it will not hurt performance, just waste space. Do as USAFRet and I suggest and set it at a fixed amount of 1GB so enter system control panel, advanced tab, click the settings button next to performance, advanced tab, click the change button next to virtual memory, click on custom size and enter 1024 for the min and max values. Then click apply and ok on the windows to get out and then restart.

I also routinely put paging files on HDDs (when a user has a very small primary SSD) and have never seen an issue if you have 8GB or more of physical memory as it is rarely accessed.

I ´ve put it to 1024 mb, but it stills get to 7-8 gb in games. ( I restarted 3 times).

1. How are you measuring that 7-8GB?
2. This does not mean 7-8GB is actually getting written to the drive all the time.

 

[Rougert]

I do use MSI afterburner to monitor it.

 

[USAFRet]

I do use MSI afterburner to monitor it.

And in the windows setting where you changed this?
Please show us a screencap of that, please.
Along with a screencap of the Afterburner window.

(but you're worrying needlessly)

 

[Rougert]

This is in game ram usage. Left is ram, right is pagefile : http://imgur.com/ooHbsG3
This is afterburner : http://imgur.com/PEMn8k1
This is windows : http://imgur.com/3wOPkUX

 

[USAFRet]

No idea, man.

But a side note that has nothing to do with pagefile....you really shouldn't use A as a drive letter.
It works, but functionality is reduced. For instance, windows does not index the legacy A or B drive.

 

[Rougert]

Thanks for all your help dude, i've changed its letter to A. Got a last question : what's the best between the UV400 and the Ultra II ? Sandisk seems to be the best.

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks for all your help dude, i've changed its letter to A. Got a last question : what's the best between the UV400 and the Ultra II ? Sandisk seems to be the best.

I have a Sandisk Ultra II, 960GB.
It works well.

I would get that over the UV400, simply because of previous weirdness from Kingston ont he SSDNow line.