Question Virtual memory vs physical memory ?

[DarthGizmo]

Have had some memory error messages recently, and I am considering changing the amount of virtual memory.

I am a bit confused as to how this works though.

It is recommended that you set between 1.5 to 3 times the amount of virtual memory vs physical memory.

So we have 32 GB of total RAM, and I'm therefore confused why Windows has currently allocated 2648 MB of virtual memory, and it says that it recommends 4982 MB to be allocated.

If we have 32 GB of RAM, wouldn't we need about 48 GB or 96 GB maximum of virtual memory?

 

[35below0]

Did you get any messages from Windows informing you that you're low on virtual memory?
What version of Windows are you running?

On my Win 11 system with 64Gb of RAM, the pagefile was set to 4096Mb. It's not whining about this being too low so i never changed it. My old Win 7 machine with 8Gb of RAM had it set to 7893Mb. Go figure.

You should do what Windows recommends, that is set it to 4982Mb.

I'm not even sure how old that 1.5 to 3 times the physical RAM recommendation is. Probably dates back to very different RAM sizes.

 

[Bob.B]

Have had some memory error messages recently, and I am considering changing the amount of virtual memory.

I am a bit confused as to how this works though.

It is recommended that you set between 1.5 to 3 times the amount of virtual memory vs physical memory.

So we have 32 GB of total RAM, and I'm therefore confused why Windows has currently allocated 2648 MB of virtual memory, and it says that it recommends 4982 MB to be allocated.

If we have 32 GB of RAM, wouldn't we need about 48 GB or 96 GB maximum of virtual memory?

Might be best to set it to 'let windows handle it'.
Windows might adjust that on an as needed basis.

 

[SkyNetRising]

It is recommended that you set between 1.5 to 3 times the amount of virtual memory vs physical memory.
If we have 32 GB of RAM, wouldn't we need about 48 GB or 96 GB maximum of virtual memory?

No. Those recommendations are from time, when systems had meager amount of total ram (like 256MB or 512MB total ram).

With your 32GB of total ram
set virtual memory to 4GB initial, 16GB max,
Do not set to system managed size. It often leads to ridiculous virtual memory configurations.

 

[MJS WARLORD]

Personally i only ever got a warning about low on virtual memory 20 years ago when i was using xp.
I always look at what windows recommends and then change it myself to double that figure , btw when you do change virtual memory you should get a message saying it wont take effect until you have done a restart.

 

[Bob.B]

Have had some memory error messages recently, and I am considering changing the amount of virtual memory.

I am a bit confused as to how this works though.

It is recommended that you set between 1.5 to 3 times the amount of virtual memory vs physical memory.

So we have 32 GB of total RAM, and I'm therefore confused why Windows has currently allocated 2648 MB of virtual memory, and it says that it recommends 4982 MB to be allocated.

If we have 32 GB of RAM, wouldn't we need about 48 GB or 96 GB maximum of virtual memory?

What sort of problem are you having that you want to go manual with this setting?

 

[DarthGizmo]

Memory errors are happening when I shut down, that is all detailed in a different thread that I started, I thought this might solve that problem.

This was sent to me by a Microsoft tech support person recently:

"As a rule of thumb, paging file should be at least 1.5 times the size of your installed RAM, and a maximum of 3 times your RAM size."

I assume my installed RAM is 32 GB, right? So 4 GB as a recommendation is way below this "rule of thumb".

I don't really follow, maybe I'm confusing exactly my definitions of what exact kind of RAM they are talking about.

 

[35below0]

Memory errors are happening when I shut down, that is all detailed in a different thread that I started, I thought this might solve that problem.

This was sent to me by a Microsoft tech support person recently:

"As a rule of thumb, paging file should be at least 1.5 times the size of your installed RAM, and a maximum of 3 times your RAM size."

I assume my installed RAM is 32 GB, right? So 4 GB as a recommendation is way below this "rule of thumb".

I don't really follow, maybe I'm confusing exactly my definitions of what exact kind of RAM they are talking about.

That tech support person just parroted the usual answer. Pagefile size does not scale with installed RAM. Once 32 or 64 Gb is crossed, Windows has (usually) tons of unused memory, so adding further tons of slow memory would not help. Only people who can fill up >64 or 128 Gb of RAM would ever need to bother with very large pagefiles.

A sensible size is 4 - 16 Gb, not strictly because your RAM is 32 Gb, but because Windows these days rarely uses more than 8 - 16 Gb of physical RAM (normal usage, professional workloads could far exceed this).
I have 64 Gb of RAM and my pagefile is happy being set to 4 Gb. Making it larger would do nothing more than add to a pool of (slow) memory for Windows to use. Except it wouldn't need the extra memory it because physical RAM and the existing 4 Gb can cover existing needs.
Right as i type this, about 400-500 Mb is being used. Even with a 256 Gb sized pagefile, usage would remain at 400-500.

This is why virtual memory settings cannot directly address your problem. Virtual memory does not cause the error. (In fact you traced it to a faulty controller driver)

 

[SkyNetRising]

"As a rule of thumb, paging file should be at least 1.5 times the size of your installed RAM, and a maximum of 3 times your RAM size."
I assume my installed RAM is 32 GB, right? So 4 GB as a recommendation is way below this "rule of thumb".
I don't really follow, maybe I'm confusing exactly my definitions of what exact kind of RAM they are talking about.

Already told you.
That is extremely outdated "rule of thumb".

That response was probably generated by ChatGPT or clueless person using it. 😊

 

[DarthGizmo]

Well I have 32 GB of RAM and msconfig say I have 29 GB of Virtual Ram, so that doesn't even match what it says about 2 GB being currently allocated and recommending 4 GB when I try to change it in the Performance Settings.

Since I have no idea what is going on, I won't change it for now until someone explains this to me.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Well I have 32 GB of RAM and msconfig say I have 29 GB of Virtual Ram
Since I have no idea what is going on, I won't change it for now until someone explains this to me.

Can you show screenshot of your current virtual memory settings?
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

Msconfig doesn't show virtual memory settings at all. You're looking at something different.
Msinfo32 perhaps?

BTW - Total virtual memory can never be smaller than total physical memory. Or something weird is going on.

 

[DarthGizmo]

I was looking as Msinfo32, I think you're right.

As of now I have decided not to change my virtual memory, so I will probably leave this issue alone for the time being, thanks for your help.