Windows 7: The optimal size of the swap file for games

Today, probably, it is difficult to find a user of modern computer systems running Windows (and Win7 in particular), which would not have somehow encountered the concept of a swap file (it is designated as Pagefile.sys and is a system file). Let's see what it really is, and also determine its best size for optimizing system performance. What is the optimal size of the paging file for Windows 7 is recommended to install, now it will be clear.

What is a swap file?

To start a little theory. Actually, the swap file itself, which is present in any Windows operating system, is, as it were, an additional means of increasing the size of the computer's RAM when its own volume is not enough to perform some "heavy" tasks in terms of system resources or processing a large amount of data (for example, Floating point calculations, which mostly relates to modern games and multimedia applications).

In fact, this file prescribes all that "trash", which is subject to processing, if the RAM is not enough. In other words, the object itself is responsible for reserving a hard disk space for certain operations. In other words, when the "RAM" is overloaded, the data is reset to the hard drive, where the processing takes place.

But here it is important to understand one main aspect: the point is that the system's access to RAM is much faster than to the hard disk, it has an arbitrarily fast spindle rotation speed (which, by the way, determines the speed of reading the data). Unfortunately, Windows 7 determines the optimal size of the paging file on its own. And this is not always good.

The fact is that the developers of the system tried to establish the size of the reserved space, so to speak, in some universal version for all possible configurations. But if you take into account the features of the installed equipment (often even non-standard), there can be a lot of problems. The very file of paging Windows 7, the optimal size of which is set by the "operating system" itself, can not cope with the tasks assigned to it. But more on that later.

Accessing paging file size options and optimization methods

Setting and changing the size of the file itself is done in the standard "Control Panel". There initially is selected a section of settings and security, then - the "System" menu. On the left, there is a hyperlink to the additional parameters. Clicking on it, you can access the main configuration window. Here the "Advanced" tab is used and the change to the settings is made by clicking the "Options" button.

Here, again, there is an "Advanced" tab, in the menu of which there is a line "Virtual memory" and an "Edit" button. Push it and go to setup.

It is immediately evident that a certain size is set by default, because the automatic selection line is involved. Now we remove a tick from it and try to change the set size at our discretion. That's where the trick begins.

The fact is that some users have a firmly established view that a larger set dimension will facilitate faster processing of data. Absolute nonsense! If the specified size is too large, the system will simply start ignoring the memory and will increasingly refer to the reserved area of the hard disk. And this, as already said, occurs with a speed lower than when accessing the "RAM". But the system itself with the use of RAM is able to reserve about 30% of resources, so as not to access the swap file.

Why do I need to change the settings and settings of the swap file?

Now let's look at the optimal size of the Windows 7 x64 swap file for games or for performing some resource-intensive operations. In principle, in this case the bit depth of the system (32 or 64 bit architecture) in general does not matter. If anyone does not understand, everything depends only on the number of installed slats of the "operative", that is, its volume.

In general, many experts do not recommend to expose too large a size, but to disable the swap file in most cases is not necessary (except that if there is more than 8 GB of RAM). The best solution is to manually set the size to half of the available standard value. Microsoft experts do not advise you to do such things, believing that it will damage the whole system. As practice shows, nothing like this is observed. You can generally disable the use of the spare area of the hard drive, and this does not affect the performance or performance of the system. By the way, and the game launched from the hard disk (and not from the optical media), will not produce errors, and processing of the same three-dimensional graphics will be made much faster.

Windows 7: The optimal size of the swap file (generally accepted standards)

Now let's look at the common parameters offered for the paging file size in the "seven". To do this, just look at the following table.

As can be seen from the above data, the more memory slots are installed, the smaller the size of the disk space reserve. However, if we talk about some specific tasks or modern games, these parameters can be changed (it all depends on the requirements imposed by the application itself, as well as on the existing configuration).

Do I need to follow standard advice?

Standards are standards, but the question naturally arises: should one adhere to generally accepted rules?

Just pay attention to user feedback. For example, many argue that the optimal size of the paging file Windows 7 x32 (4 GB "RAM") can be set below the default value, and even disable the use of the reserve at all. But that's not all. Even with only 1-2 GB of "RAM" (if you work, say, only with office documents), you do not need to use the paging file at all. Its inclusion will only bring harm, since, as it is clear, the system will turn to the hard drive more often than to the "operative", which, in turn, can cause a sufficiently strong "braking".

The optimal size of the Windows 7 paging file (x64): actual usage

If you do not want to follow the described recommendations, you can use "advanced" programs-optimizers like Advanced System Care or something else. If you dig into the settings carefully, you can also find the optimizer for the swap file.

In principle, if you understand, these applications work quite effectively, allowing you to properly change the settings and install the optimal size of the swap file for the same Windows 7 system, though, if you run as administrator.

What in the end?

In conclusion, it remains to add that the above actions should be taken only at your own peril and risk. Although in Windows 7, the optimal size of the swap file by and large does not play a special role (most modern computer systems have a fairly powerful configuration), however, changing its size, say, upwards is not recommended. The easiest way is to just turn it off, nothing terrible will happen, believe me.