!!!!!!!VIRTUAL MEMORY!!!!!!!

[gilby4747]

Hi lads. Virtual Memory it is this time. Problemos problemos, when will they end? Ok. I am at a loss with virtual memory. I do'nt understand it very well. But I can say this: after an hour of playing CoD with good graphics at high res. the game slows immensely and gets all freezy and choppy etc.. I have to dramatically reduce the graphics and decrease res from 1280x1082 (something like that) to 800x600. Tis very annoying. Now, with other virtual memory game guzzlers like Battle for Middle Earth it drained so much that I received a message in Windows saying that I my virtual memory minimum was too low.
I have a program which displays accurately how much virtual memory I have left (SiSoftware Sandra) in percentage. Can anyone help cos this message isnt being displayed and I still have like 30% of virtual memory left when the symptoms come into play.

Thanks a guzzilion. see yer around Woody. :wink:

[gilby4747]

Hello?

[gilby4747]

Cant anyone help me?

[Light_Fighter]

are you letting Windows handle the virtual memory?
did you set it yourself if so, what is the minimum and max size you used? despite what you may have read or heard setting your virtaul memory to 2 or 2 1/2 times your physical ram is not recommended.
and what is the amount of installed physical ram?
and your Virt mem usage will be less when you're not actually playing the game. but fill in the above blanks

[OldDog]

Your symptoms sound like a memory leak (a program that progressively grabs memory but doesn't give it back completely. Does this problem (slowing down over time) go away if you re-boot?

There are quite a few things to look at here: what else is running (perhaps in the background)? is your drive fragmented? do you have a FIXED paging file (where the min and max are the same)? if its fixed, is the paging file fragmented?

How to do this: right-click on My Computer, choose Properties, then Advanced, then Performance & Settings, then Advanced again, then look at the Virtual Memory box...it will tell you how much is assigned. Then look at the total free space on your hard drive. If the free space is less than the amount of virtual memory, you have a problem. I take mild exception to Light_Fighter's assertion that 2-2 1/2 times physical RAM isn't recommended. It is, as long as the resultant, FIXED paging file is fragment-free...using the min/max range that XP does out-of-the-box can cause code fragments to end up all over the drive...hence the need for a fixed, fragment-free paging file. The on-board defragger that comes with XP won't show the paging file...its not very good. I would invest in something like Diskeeper Pro.

The next thing to look at is what else is running in the background, or, what else you've been running prior to playing the game (or games). For what's currently running, use Task Manager, and look at the high memory users.

[Light_Fighter]

not wanting to start a disagreement but do you really believe that if you have 1 gig of physical ram you need a 2 1/2 gig swap file?

[OldDog]

Not 2 1/2 ... I usually only use that for servers running Exchange or SQL, but I do like to use 2X. My workstation has 2GB physical RAM and I use 4096 as a paging file...fragment-free, of course. I've found that no amount of physical RAM can contain everything that's going on on a given Windows system, hence the swap-out space. Works quite well.

[Light_Fighter]

that still seems a bit of a waste of space... i do realize that even 2G of ram can't hold all, but i'd probably opt for a 1 1/2G swap for that much ram. but anyway this isn't helping anyone... :smile:

[gilby4747]

Wow. Hold your horses guys. I literally know nothing about what you're talking about other than RAM. I know that. It is under system in control panel. I have 512 MB Ram. That's a lot, I know that. But nothing else. I'll check under my copmputer-properties-advanced blablabla though. Thanks for all the help. Also, other programs running: F-Secure Anti-Virus. and I think Activ-Surf whatever that is. Also, I have serial spyware problemos. VERY ANNOYING . You would not like this, but literally every 10 minutes bloody 10 popups come up WHILE I AM PLAYING CALL OF DUTY: UO Single Player or Mulitplayer! 10! Takes about 2 minutes to minimise CAll of Duty, close group of internet exploers(like 9 or 10, all saying they help with spyware etc..Of course they ARE spyware.) Anyway, I went Run and typed in msconfig and unchecked all spyware opening on bootup(tip i picked up from somewhere), also I installed this AD-AWARE program which literally DELETD all my malware. VERY good program. All other probs went away EXCEPT this one unfortunately. ANyway, trailing off there(just thought they might slow it down) Thanks for info though!

[Light_Fighter]

the spyware that adaware was unable to get rid of is probably located in your Add/Remove Programs... you'll have to search for a "mysterious" program that you know you didn't install and isn't associated with any other Windows program or program you did install.

512 is a good amount of RAM, to find the virtual memory option right click teh My Computer icon on your desktop and then click Properties from teh pop up menu. this will open a window called System Properties. then choose the Advanced tab, and click Settings under Performance. that will open another window called Performance Options, then click the advanced tab, and you'll see Virtual Memory, you can click the Change button and either let Windows adjust your Virtual Memory or you can set it yourself. But DON'T choose No Paging File!!!!!
RudeDog and i disagree about the size of the size of the paging file and what you set it to is up to your best judgement. but in my opinion i would use a 768MB page file with your 512 MB physical RAM. Others will undoubtedly disagree with me but everyone has their own opinion. best bet for you would be to find some articles about managing virtual memory and deciding for yourself.

[Light_Fighter]

also there is a cheaper way to defrag your page file. disable the page file reboot (which will take a long time to do) and then run defrag. and when its done (which will take a long time) you can enable the page file again. and reboot and your page file is now defragged. again others will disagree... as i said before what ever you choose make an informed decision.