Virtual Memory?

[shyvr6]

Hey guys. I added 1 gig of memory to my computer bringing it to 2 gigs, and now when I try to play a game it says "My windows virtual memory swap file is less than the recommended size of 140Mz, and I may have to reduce my game settings for it to play properly." I never received that message before so it obviously has to do with the added memory. Does anyone know what that means or how to fix it? Thanks.

[ecotec83]

Don't quote me on this but virtual memory is part of the hard drive that acts like a ram chip for data storage.
Not sure what operating system you have but for XP this should work.

1-Right click on my computer, select properties from the drop down menu.
2-Next select the advanced tab on the top of the system properties window.
3-Under the performance settings on the next tab click settings.
4- A new windows called performance options should come up, when i does click the advanced tab at the top of the window.
5-You should see virtual memory box near the bottom of the window, click the change button.
6-On the next window make sure your C: drive is selected, then for page file size select custom size . Mine is set at 2046mb for initial size and 4092 for maximum size.
7- Click set and ok or apply on the rest of the windows. You should be set after that.

[Spangles Muldoon]

(ecotec83 just beat me to a response, which is essentially the same as mine.)

It is odd that adding physical memory has increased an application's need for virtual memory. I wonder whether Windows is recognizing all of your physical memory. For example, your new memory might be defective or not properly matched with your existing memory. Depending on your computer, memory sticks might need to be added in matching pairs. To check how much physical memory Windows sees (I'm assuming Windows XP here), do the following:

1. Right-click My Computer (either the icon on your Desktop or the entry in your Start Menu) and select Properties.
2. Read the amount of RAM near the bottom of the System Properties window. For example, it might say 1.96 GB of RAM (which would be about right if you use an onboard graphics processor rather than a dedicated graphics card, in which case the number would be higher).

If Windows is seeing all 2 GB of physical memory, you might adjust the amount of virtual memory Windows uses as follows:

1. Click the Advanced tab on the System Properties window (opened as described above).
2. Under Performance, click the Settings button.
3. Click the Advanced tab on the Performance Options window.
4. Under Virtual Memory, click the Change button.
5. Select the drive with the largest amount of free space (or your C: drive if you have only one). See below for instructions on how to determine the amount of free space on a drive.
6. Select Custom Size.
7. Enter 2046 (MB) for the initial size and 4092 (MB) for the maximum size.
8. Click the Set button.

Note: If your hard drive does not have 4 GB of free space, you will need to lower the values you set in Step 7 accordingly.

In fact, it is possible that your application is finding insufficient virtual memory simply because there is little free space remaining on your hard drive. To check the amount of free space on a drive, do the following:

1. Double-click My Computer.
2. Right-click the hard drive in question and select Properties.

[shyvr6]

I found out through other gaming forums that my game usually says that error because it was made for only a certain maximum amount, so since I have more that error pops up. Thanks for the advice though. I changed my settings.

[jab_au]

Originally Posted by shyvr6

Hey guys. I added 1 gig of memory to my computer bringing it to 2 gigs

Genarly the rule is 1.5 x the amount of ram you have, so in your case 2 x 1.5 = 3, so you pagefile/swapfile should be 3GB

[tlgibson97]

What I find funny is no matter how much ram I have, Windows still uses 25-50% of it. I have 6GB of ram and even with nothing running in the background windows Vista uses over 25%. And thats with all the bells and whistles turned off.

[Narcissus]

Originally Posted by tlgibson97

What I find funny is no matter how much ram I have, Windows still uses 25-50% of it. I have 6GB of ram and even with nothing running in the background windows Vista uses over 25%. And thats with all the bells and whistles turned off.

An OS will use available memory for disk cache to improve performance. As applications demand more memory, the OS can back off and make that available to the application. I don't know Vista, but that's probably what's going on.

[3itman]

You can manually set page file to a 1024 mb maximum and minimum even though If you have a gig of RAM.