increasing virtual memory...

[elephantine]

i want to increase my virtual memory page on the hard disk from the recommended 382mb to 512mb and the maximum allowed from 768mb to 1024mb... will this improve game performance without any side effects?
thanks to anyone who may reply

[Panama Red]

Increasing installed memory will give you a better performance increase than increasing the VM/Page file. Increasing the VM allows more use of the hard drive as a substitute for installed memory. The system will read/react much faster reading from installed memory that it will from the hard drive. How much memory do you have installed now? Default VM size is typically 1.5 x installed memory as minimum and 3 x installed as max.

[elephantine]

i have 256mb installed memory

[HyperTF]

I totally agree with Panama Red, a page file is necessary and helpful but no way near substitutes additional RAM. Of course you have to pay for this option but it is probably the cheapest value for money upgrade you can do!!!
Invest in a new healthy stick of RAM, can be costly for a decent name (but most of the time you get what you pay for), but it should free up some of that bottlenecking. I must admit i have a generic brand (but not too generic -if that makes sense!) I installed a 512MB on top of my supplied 256MB stick (total 768MB) and it suits my purposes very well.
Umm, one question... how old is your machine? Can you provide specs... if the machine is quite old this might be a factor in the choice you make.

[sataraid0]

Agree with all, the best upgrade for your money is more ram memory. It will do wonders for you computer, especially in the gaming department.

Regards...............................Sterling

[elephantine]

my machine is 3 years old
i'm gonna upgrade it soon but i wanna increase the performance now before i do that... so there is nothing bad about increasing the paging file size??? taa

[HyperTF]

Sure, no harm in increasing the page file size unless you don't have much room left on your hard drive. Are you running Windows 98? I was pretty sure that letting Windows manage Virtual Memory will adjust as necessary anyway. (can anyone confirm this for me?)
I am not so sure about gaining a great increase in performance where games are concerned, may not be noticeable at all, are you hoping to run better games then you have now?
Check the minimum and recommended system requirements on the game packaging. I doubt increasing VM will compensate very much if at all, but let us know how you go!

Good luck!

[Carl Price]

I agree with most of what's been said. The best upgrade you can do is more ram UP TO A POINT!
If you are looking for more performance from your games be aware that if your game sticks any code into the page file, when it needs this code it will read it AT PAGE FILE SPEED, not necessarily the speed you need. The best way to get a performance kick in my opioion is buying enough ram to stick the whole cd there. In other words make a virtual disk in ram and download the game code to it.

[Iman74]

I personally found the following to have the best results.
Amount of RAM x 1.5 = Page File Size
So let's say you get 480mb for the page file I set it at that. Not 480 to 712mb or whatever. I set it 480mb to 480mb and so far this has solved many problems, and produced significant results.