Use RAMDisk utility for page file

[Kevin Samuel Christian Yong]

Hello all! As the title says, i want to use ramdisk to create a partition that will be use for paging file.

Currently in my 1 TB harddrive, i've got 3 partitions. C is for windows OS, D is for data such games, project, etc, and E is Page File Only. My system had a total RAM of 8 GB consists of 2 sticks each 4GB. The problem is that HDD is slow. Sometimes games like Battlefield 4 stutters because of page file. Disable page file will help but aside from not recommended, it always give me an errors. I've forgot what kind of error but by enabling back the page file, no errors occured. At maximum, i ever reach 1.7 GB of page file being used although i set it at max about 8GB.

So i think, i need a page file that is as fast as ram. Some people says 16 GB ram dont need page file while another says page file is a must. My plan is to purchase another same 2x4 GB. Put them in my system then using the RAMDisk utility, i create a new partition thats about 4GB. Then, on the windows, i directed the page file onto that partition. In the end, my total available RAM for use will be 12 GB.

Is this a good idea or bad idea? Need to know before i spend my $$$ that can be spend for other things like ssd and such. hahaha 😀

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Why the hell would you do that?

Page file is what the OS uses when it doesn't have enough RAM. Putting your pagefile in RAM is... crazy.

Chances are that it's something other than your RAM.

 

[Pinhedd]

Hello all! As the title says, i want to use ramdisk to create a partition that will be use for paging file.

Currently in my 1 TB harddrive, i've got 3 partitions. C is for windows OS, D is for data such games, project, etc, and E is Page File Only. My system had a total RAM of 8 GB consists of 2 sticks each 4GB. The problem is that HDD is slow. Sometimes games like Battlefield 4 stutters because of page file. Disable page file will help but aside from not recommended, it always give me an errors. I've forgot what kind of error but by enabling back the page file, no errors occured. At maximum, i ever reach 1.7 GB of page file being used although i set it at max about 8GB.

So i think, i need a page file that is as fast as ram. Some people says 16 GB ram dont need page file while another says page file is a must. My plan is to purchase another same 2x4 GB. Put them in my system then using the RAMDisk utility, i create a new partition thats about 4GB. Then, on the windows, i directed the page file onto that partition. In the end, my total available RAM for use will be 12 GB.

Is this a good idea or bad idea? Need to know before i spend my $$$ that can be spend for other things like ssd and such. hahaha 😀

This is a bad idea. The page file is used to store memory that is infrequently used. It should have little to no impact on the performance of processes that are currently running unless those processes end up fighting for resources. If Battlefield 4 is stuttering with a page file enabled this means that you're running too many other demanding processes in the background and they're fighting for resources. If a process is running, but not doing anything (eg, just waiting for input), it'll eventually get kicked to the swap volume and more demanding data will take its place.

Purchasing an additional 8GiB of memory and installing it as is should help.

 

[Kevin Samuel Christian Yong]

Why the hell would you do that?

Page file is what the OS uses when it doesn't have enough RAM. Putting your pagefile in RAM is... crazy.

Chances are that it's something other than your RAM.

The more time i spent time on the computer, the more page file starts fill up. i dont think my RAM is ever reach a full 8GB being used (i know the ram consists of many elements like standby, cached code and etc).

This is a bad idea. The page file is used to store memory that is infrequently used. It should have little to no impact on the performance of processes that are currently running unless those processes end up fighting for resources. If Battlefield 4 is stuttering with a page file enabled this means that you're running too many other demanding processes in the background and they're fighting for resources. If a process is running, but not doing anything (eg, just waiting for input), it'll eventually get kicked to the swap volume and more demanding data will take its place.

Purchasing an additional 8GiB of memory and installing it as is should help.

i see.. So its bad and crazy idea. Any suggestion? Installed another stick and leave it untouched or eventually try this on my own and see the improvement? Since page file is a temporary ones, when the pc shutdown, all RAM and page file are being released right? it wont damage a my system.. i guess.. 😱

 

[Someone Somewhere]

i dont think my RAM is ever reach a full 8GB being used

It never should - you want a bunch of spare space so that if something suddenly starts chewing RAM, it doesn't have to suddenly page stuff out.

Are you absolutely certain that it's actually a RAM issue?

You won't be able to hibernate or do hybrid sleep. And I wouldn't rely on it un-paging stuff before kicking your RAMdisk drivers.

 

[Kevin Samuel Christian Yong]

It never should - you want a bunch of spare space so that if something suddenly starts chewing RAM, it doesn't have to suddenly page stuff out.

Are you absolutely certain that it's actually a RAM issue?

You won't be able to hibernate or do hybrid sleep. And I wouldn't rely on it un-paging stuff before kicking your RAMdisk drivers.

im not sure. There are lots of possibilites to think of like cpu and such. Other than these area, i dont know what the cause of the stutter. i already disable few unneccesarry startup thingy. it still occured few times. I think im the only one got thought for this 😛

mostly i shutdown my pc when not in use. I use sleep sometimes too. never use hibernate because although its quicker than shutdown, its the same long duration (on my laptop).

 

[Pinhedd]

Why the hell would you do that?

Page file is what the OS uses when it doesn't have enough RAM. Putting your pagefile in RAM is... crazy.

Chances are that it's something other than your RAM.

The more time i spent time on the computer, the more page file starts fill up. i dont think my RAM is ever reach a full 8GB being used (i know the ram consists of many elements like standby, cached code and etc).

This is a bad idea. The page file is used to store memory that is infrequently used. It should have little to no impact on the performance of processes that are currently running unless those processes end up fighting for resources. If Battlefield 4 is stuttering with a page file enabled this means that you're running too many other demanding processes in the background and they're fighting for resources. If a process is running, but not doing anything (eg, just waiting for input), it'll eventually get kicked to the swap volume and more demanding data will take its place.

Purchasing an additional 8GiB of memory and installing it as is should help.

i see.. So its bad and crazy idea. Any suggestion? Installed another stick and leave it untouched or eventually try this on my own and see the improvement? Since page file is a temporary ones, when the pc shutdown, all RAM and page file are being released right? it wont damage a my system.. i guess.. 😱

The operating system does use the page file to store kernel crash dumps, so it does rely on it to be persistent. You may receive error messages at startup after experiencing a BSoD.

With that said though, putting a page file in a file system that is stored in RAM defeats the whole purpose of both. RAM is generally considered to be a fairly scarce resource so much time has been devoted to figuring out how to use it optimally in a multi-process environment without putting a burden on the processes themselves.
Page swapping is used to detect memory that is stored in RAM that is being used infrequently or not at all. This often occurs with bloated programs that have codepaths that are never executed (for example, a program that is compiled with both AVX and SSE codepaths will almost never use the SSE codepaths on a microprocessor that supports AVX, yet they may be loaded into memory). More common though are sections of code and data that are used once and then never accessed again, such as start-up and shut-down code.
When the physical memory fills up (or while idle and building a cache) the operating system finds candidates for ejection, writes them to the swap volume, and then marks those pages as invalid in the page table of the process to which they belonged. If the process later references that memory, the microprocessor throws a page fault and the operating system brings that memory back in from the hard disk before proceeding.

It is commonly believed that swap-volume acts as a peer to physical memory, this is not the case. It is basically the operating system's attic where it can store stuff that it doesn't need right now but can't get rid of because it might upset someone.

 

[madmatt30]

You can safely set your page file to 1gb with 8 or 16gb ram - as stated setting your pagefile on a ramdisk is mental.
Generally windows will start to use a pagefile when you hit 75% usage of your physical ram.
With 16gb the only way that is going to happen is with big RAW image editing or 4k video editing,not in gaming.

Search indexing is the bane of hard drive thrashing especially in windows 7 & especially with 1 hard drive with 2 or more partitions
Disable it on each partition in drive properties - you may be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Kevin Samuel Christian Yong]

The operating system does use the page file to store kernel crash dumps, so it does rely on it to be persistent. You may receive error messages at startup after experiencing a BSoD.

With that said though, putting a page file in a file system that is stored in RAM defeats the whole purpose of both. RAM is generally considered to be a fairly scarce resource so much time has been devoted to figuring out how to use it optimally in a multi-process environment without putting a burden on the processes themselves.
Page swapping is used to detect memory that is stored in RAM that is being used infrequently or not at all. This often occurs with bloated programs that have codepaths that are never executed (for example, a program that is compiled with both AVX and SSE codepaths will almost never use the SSE codepaths on a microprocessor that supports AVX, yet they may be loaded into memory). More common though are sections of code and data that are used once and then never accessed again, such as start-up and shut-down code.
When the physical memory fills up (or while idle and building a cache) the operating system finds candidates for ejection, writes them to the swap volume, and then marks those pages as invalid in the page table of the process to which they belonged. If the process later references that memory, the microprocessor throws a page fault and the operating system brings that memory back in from the hard disk before proceeding.

It is commonly believed that swap-volume acts as a peer to physical memory, this is not the case. It is basically the operating system's attic where it can store stuff that it doesn't need right now but can't get rid of because it might upset someone.

wow.. its a bit overwhelming. Only got a few points here. Still i very thankful for the long explanation. 😀

 

[Kevin Samuel Christian Yong]

You can safely set your page file to 1gb with 8 or 16gb ram - as stated setting your pagefile on a ramdisk is mental.
Generally windows will start to use a pagefile when you hit 75% usage of your physical ram.
With 16gb the only way that is going to happen is with big RAW image editing or 4k video editing,not in gaming.

Search indexing is the bane of hard drive thrashing especially in windows 7 & especially with 1 hard drive with 2 or more partitions
Disable it on each partition in drive properties - you may be pleasantly surprised.

guess might tried this to see what kind of instabilites by doing it.,