How much virtual memory should I set for 4GB RAM?
The paging file is a minimum of 1.5 times and a maximum of three times your physical RAM. You can calculate your paging file size using the following system. For example, a system with 4GB RAM would have a minimum of 1024x4x1. 5=6,144MB [1GB RAM x Installed RAM x Minimum].
Microsoft recommends that you set virtual memory to be no less than 1.5 times and no more than 3 times the amount of RAM on your computer. For power PC owners (like most UE/UC users), you likely have at least 2GB of RAM so your virtual memory can be set up to 6,144 MB (6 GB).
Therefore, no matter how large the capacity of RAM is, it's still necessary for us to enable the virtual memory. Another thing about virtual memory is that Windows only uses paging files when it's necessary. In other words, Windows does not use paging files all the time.
Note: Microsoft recommends that you set virtual memory to not less than 1.5 times the size of your RAM and not more than three times the size of your RAM. So, if you have 2GB of RAM, you could type 6,000MB (1GB equals around 1,000MB) into Initial size and Maximum size boxes.
This is where virtual memory comes in. Virtual memory frees up RAM by swapping data that has not been used recently over to a storage device, such as a hard drive or solid-state drive (SSD). Virtual memory is important for improving system performance, multitasking and using large programs.
You can calculate your paging file size using the following system. For example, a system with 4GB RAM would have a minimum of 1024x4x1. 5=6,144MB [1GB RAM x Installed RAM x Minimum]. Whereas the maximum is 1024x4x3=12,288MB [1GB RAM x Installed RAM x Maximum].
The bigger the virtual memory space, the bigger the adress table becomes in which is written, which virtual adress belongs to which physical adress. A big table can theoreticaly result in slower translation of the adresses and therefore in slower reading and writing speeds.
Click Start > Settings > Control Panel. Double-click the System icon. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab and click Performance Options. In the Performance Options dialog, under Virtual memory, click Change.
With virtual memory, the computer can use hard disk space as random access memory (RAM). The computer uses virtual memory to augment the ordinary RAM that is installed on the computer. If you reduce the size of the paging file, the Office program may not start correctly or may not start at all.
The Initial size is one and a half (1.5) x the amount of total system memory. The Maximum size is three (3) x the initial size. So let's say you have 4 GB (1 GB = 1,024 MB x 4 = 4,096 MB) of memory. The initial size would be 1.5 x 4,096 = 6,144 MB and the maximum size would be 3 x 6,144 = 18,432 MB."
Does virtual memory increase FPS?
Short answer is no. In a gaming context it won't compensate for not having enough RAM.
4MB is the maximum space that a single process can occupy in the Virtual Memory. You can check the number of running processes from Task Manager > Performance tab > CPU tab (left section) > Processes (right section). Assuming an average of 100 running processes, the sum of all page table size = 4MB * 100 = 400 MB.
Random access memory (RAM) is physical memory that holds the applications, documents and procedures on a computer. Virtual memory is a storage area that holds the files on your hard drive for retrieval when a computer runs out of RAM.
Virtual memory is much slower then actual memory as your hard drive is SIGNIFICANTLY slower. If you are completley maxing out your memory then being able to offload to virtual memory will prevent you from completley locking up, but haivng more virutal memory wont make it faster by any stretch.
Virtual memory, also known as the swap file, uses part of your hard drive to effectively expand your RAM, allowing you to run more programs than it could otherwise handle. But a hard drive is much slower than RAM, so it can really hurt performance. (I discuss SSDs below.)
The OS moves data from processes that are not immediately needed out of the RAM and stores them in virtual memory. It copies the data back into RAM when the process is needed again. Using virtual memory slows the computer down because copying to a hard disk takes much longer than reading and writing RAM.
Smartphones with a virtual RAM feature can make use of internal storage to significantly increase the system memory and boost performance. The virtual RAM or extended RAM feature on Android devices helps to increase the onboard system memory using a software-based solution.
Typically, the page file is set between a minimum of 1.5 times and a maximum of three times your install RAM. For example, a system with 4GB RAM would have a minimum of 1024x4x1. 5=6,144MB [1GB RAM x Installed RAM x Minimum]. Whereas, the maximum is 1024x4x3=12,288MB [1GB RAM x Installed RAM x Maximum].
How much RAM you need for decent performance depends on what programs you are running, but for almost everyone 4GB is the absolute minimum for 32-bit and 8G the absolute minimum for 64-bit. So there's a good chance that your problem is caused by not having enough RAM.
Why 15-30% RAM Usage Is Normal? The RAM usage between 15-30% at idle might sound a bit high to you. However, Windows always has a reserved memory of around 0.8-2.4GB in anticipation of its use. This amount is usually dependent on your computer's hardware and its quality.
How much RAM usage is too much?
To many, 64 GB RAM is too much as it is significantly more than needed. Ideally, most laptops use about 4GB of RAM per day. Even gamers who spend most of their time on their PC can do okay with just 16 GB or 32 GB for future-proofing.
Once inside Developer Options, scroll down and choose "Memory." Here you will see your phone's current RAM usage. Select "Memory usage" to see the average usage of apps for the past three hours.
Microsoft recommends that you set it to be a minimum of 1.5 times and a maximum of 3 times of the physical RAM. If your computer has 4GB RAM, the minimum paging file should be 1024x4x1. 5=6,144MB and the maximum is 1024x4x3=12,288MB.
We highly recommend all users let Microsoft Windows choose the best initial, maximum, and minimum settings for their virtual memory (page file). Disabling or setting the page file size too small can reduce system performance and cause instability and crashes in Windows.
Although it's possible to disable virtual memory on Windows 10, even when you have a large amount of system memory, it's not recommended to disable this feature.
If you are lucky enough that you have more than 16 GB of RAM in the system, we suggest that the page file minimum be set between 1 and 1.5 times the amount of RAM.
To calculate the "general rule" recommended size of virtual memory in Windows 10 per the 8 GB your system has, here's the equation 1024 x 8 x 1.5 = 12288 MB.
Yes 32GB would be recommended however if it is just 1 VM and you are not doing anything intensive on it, you will be fine with 16GB.
You never want to use it in gaming. It's slow and doesn't really help. It lets you run things you couldn't whithout enough RAM, but you won't enjoy it at all, as it's slow and in games swapping causes bad slowdowns. Virtual memory is virtually useless for gaming.
