Virtual memory:
This is a method of extending the available physical memory on a computer. In a virtual memory system, the operating system creates a pagefile, or swapfile, and divides memory into units called pages. Recently referenced pages are located in physical memory, or RAM. The total amount of memory that is available to programs is the amount of physical memory in the computer in addition to the size of the pagefile. An important consideration in the short term is that even 32-bit applications will benefit from increased virtual memory address space when they are running in Windows x64 Editions. Applications that are compiled with the /LARGEADDRESSAWARE option, as would be required to take advantage of the /3GB switch in 32-bit Windows, will automatically be able to address 4 GB of virtual memory without any boot time switches or changes to x64 Windows. Plus, of course, the operating system does not have to share that 4 GB of space. Therefore, it is not constrained at all.


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294418/#XSLTH3122121123120121120120

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/889654/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555223/en-us


The best pagefile layout is as follows:

1.
Set the system for "small memory dump" in the Startup and Recovery settings. Set the pagefile size to a static 2mb on the WindowsXP install directory. This must be done to prevent system crash when the main pagefile is located on another HDD I/O.

2.
Using a separate HDD I/O that is equal to or greater in speed (greater is better) than the WindowsXP install HDD, place a pagefile on it which its size has been determined by using the correct performance counter and memory I/O monitoring method. If the user does not know how to properly use the counter and memory I/O monitoring system, (and most don’t.. that is NOT the Windows task manager counters) set the page file to a static size that is 2x-3x the physical memory installed. It is critical that the page file be located on the first partition of the separate HDD I/O

examples: If the system has 2 RAID-0 controllers ( for example Promise and VIA), make sure both controllers are active and the page file is located on the controller which the WindowsXp boot directory is not located on. In this example configuration make sure if you use a 2xSATA RAID-0 (on the VIA Raid controller) for the WindowsXP boot directory, the pagefile is located on the other RAID-0 (Promise) controller in a minimum of 2xSATA RAID-0 configuration but  keep in mind SATAx 3, 4, or 5 RAID-0 is better. The pagefile MUST be on the FIRST partition and it is always recommended the pagefile be defragmented offline after creating it.

NOTE: The pagefile HDD's must be of equal or greater specification (type, access time and RPM) of the WindowsXP boot HDD's or the setup is useless. Also, if you do not have 2 completely separate HDD I/O controllers, (not the primary and secondary ATA controller) don’t bother with the above method as you will not see any gain by moving the pagefile to another drive, doing so will slow performace. Those who may be running single ATA on the primary or secondary IDE controllers and have a RAID-0 controller available, but do not use it because they are apprehensive about using RAID-0 for their data security or lack of RAID experience can benefit greatly by setting up a RAID-0 (2xSATA or ATA) pagefile for their systems using that unused RAID controller, ESPECIALLY for game use.


RAID-0, SCSI HDD pagefile setups are the most efficient and the highest performance pagefile there is. I use the RAID-0 SCSI method on my dual Xeon system which is 14gb in size and makes video editing and other heavy pagefile usage programs, fly. I have never seen a 3D application or game slow down because of that setup, nor does Windows run slow... The internet boogyman sites which posts those rumors and XP tweaks are wrong and need to get a masters degree/PHD from a real university in computer science before posting such nonsense.

[quote author=unomernot  link=1138734675/15#16 date=1139279831]Awesome Nick N! You covered ALL the bases on that one! Nice..  ;)  BTW, I'd hate to ask what that system of yours set you back (well, I can always dream of a system like that!)  :o ;D

Congo, to answer your question, the difference between static and dynamic page file should be determined by disk I/O. If your system is slow, and very fragmented, a static pagefile might make sense, but with todays powerfull systems, it's not such a concern. Here is a link to tweaking the pagefile if you wish. But if your not running a server where space and disk I/O is a premium, it's not worth the headaches that Win~ can throw at you.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314482/en-us

Changing the pagefile can wreak havoc with some imaging programs as well. So make sure you do a total restore and not incremental from an image file or you'll find issues.

Hope this helps guys,
Mick
PS: I love these forums cause it's a pleasure to chat with folks who KNOW their stuff and are willing to help others.  Thanks[/quote]

I have about $9200 invested in my super tower... What’s really cool is I can encode a video, watch TV or a movie (send the signal to LCD projector or watch on system LCD monitor) and web surf heavy flash media websites at the same time without a hiccup.


As for pagefile setups.. My personal preference has always been to set a static size. It has been my experience, with my usage, a dynamic page file tends to fragment more than a static one. A pagefile will typically not fragment if it is placed on its on partition however I always run a defrag from time to time just to be sure.

There are allot of internet tweaks out there which are complete nonsense. One of my favorites was to compress the FS9 folder to get rid of stutters.... Then when I went back and read the thread again I saw that in the process the person posted that defragmenting before and after was necessary... I almost fell off my chair laughing at that point because allot of people were posting back about how it also worked for them....

.... what most people do not realize is that even good professional defragmenter software does not completely defragment the hard drive in one pass. It is limited by many things (available memory, HDD space, resources, etc) and in one pass will usually display a graphic representation of a completed HDD defrag which looks like everything is nice and in order. The truth is, if a system is fragmented like after a complete OS and software reinstall or has been thrashed around by huge files, such as FS scenery files… especially anything photo-real and huge, it normally takes 2-4 full defragment passes to totally defragment a HDD to 100% optimal performance no matter what the graphic display shows in the defrag software.

Those guys that were compressing their FS9 folders were seeing the performance results of running multiple defragmentations, not compressing FS9 files.

The same goes for those who run FS9 on a separate HDD w/dedicated FS9 boot O/S. If before going to all the trouble to set up a separate boot drive for FS9 they were to have acquire a professional defrag program such as O&O Software and run a COMPLETE\ACCESS defrag 4 times, rebooting in between each pass, they would find ALL their FS files nicely placed on the HDD in blocks EXACTLY the way FS9 will access them as a flight progresses, therefore eliminating allot of stutter issues which are file load related. A COMPLETE\NAME defrag work wonders as well if you use allot of photoreal scenery which is normally file named in numerical or alphabetical order.

if you have enough ram you don't need a page file (virtual memory) and use only memory.  I think with windows XP this is about 4gb because thats the max amount of memory it can alocate to a single proccess. to get around the problem of some aplications needing a page file (I have found non that do if you have enough ram though) you could always put your (small) page file on a ram drive partitioned from the main system memory.

If you get out of memory mesages that means that your page file is too small and/or you don't have enough memory for the task your trying to acomplish.

The best setting for most users with virtual memory is the auto mode and allowing windows to resize virtual memory if needed.

Vitual memory has nothing to do with graphics cards.  The only graphics cards that take system memory are the chepo onboard ones (Intell Extreme) or the low end ati hyper memory cards or nvidia turbo cache.  This is because system memory opertates at much lower frequancys that graphics memory on the card and is further away from the graphical proccesing unit so higher latencys would be incured thurther impacting on perfomance if it was accessed.

Currently I have 1gb of ram and a 1.5gb page file and have never had an out of memory mesage and have good performance.

Quote:

If you really want to trawl through the "dump" the computer just had to find out why your comp reset itself, then use a memory dump.  There really is no use for the average and advanced home user to use memory dumps.

Quote:

I've seen a few people do that with very good results.  You do need a lot of RAM though.

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I am not saying FS9 would not benefit from a dedicated HDD... I just do not think it requires an entire boot OS for its own use. A proper virtual machine can be set up in the WindowsXP boot for FS9 use. If FS9 is installed on the first partition of a dedicated HDD and defragmented as mentioned above then I can see advantages to that setup. It will not give any better frames but scenery access would be further improved.

As for Big Ben (dual Xeon)…. It is also my house entertainment system with remote DVD drives, 7.1 audio entertainment video signal for 3 rooms. It has 5 remote terminals throughout the house and I have been toying with running the lighting sprinkler system and answering the phone as well. It has been on 24/7 for several years now and never flinched. I also use if for autocad and other engineering applications. I do not use it for 3D games because my wife, who is also an engineer, uses it extensively for her projects. I did try FS9 on it a while back.

Did someone say 70+FPS with all sliders, including weather, maxed??    

By offline defrag, you mean defrag while the PF is not active I presume. How do you achieve this?

Here is what I just tried:

I did the disk check first.

I then turned off my page file and re-booted.

Next I opened my page file to 1534mb fixed.


My idea was this, instead of maintaining and defragging the PF, I just killed it and started over, would that work once in a while?

Gentlemen, this has been an excellent series of posts. Explained exceptionally well!    Since were on the subject of system performance, and almost everything has been covered, I would like to add one more item that I've found is often overlooked even by advanced users, the subject of disk logical error checking and repair. This little tutorial is designed for the novice to intermediate user (bulk of the market).

Often, when a unit is in for repair, the disk will show a simple lack of maintainance over an extended period of time. The customer complains that system gets slower over period of time till it dies.  Nick and Congo, you already see where this is going, but for the sake of others reading this post, I will expand on the fix a bit.  8)

"Check Disk" (chkdsk.exe) has been bundled with most MS systems for a while. I have heard folks tout horror stories about this program and how it "destroys" your drive etc.. yada yada. If your talking Win98 and below, yes. If WinX and 2K not so. I've used this program thousands of times on extremely damaged file and logical structures and never has a drive not booted after running it. It also features a "basic" recovery mode built in that saves (salvageable) data back to the drive so you can copy paste it back into it's proper place. For a "freebie" utility, it's come a LONG way.

Running Check Disk (chkdsk.exe) in READ ONLY mode (the default) will show you if there are errors and nothing happens to your system. Run it in REPAIR mode only if it suggests it.  If you have ever been forced to do a hard reset on your system (power off button or reset button) cause it locked tight as drum. There is a good chance your disk had a bit of logical damage done to it.

Usually, this shows up in the Volume Bitmap, and Logical structures. Lost clusters, and incorrect free space are two issues that will slow your drives performance as much as 400+ %! Slow boot times (if no virus is found) can indicate need for logical disk repair as well. To find out, follow this procedure.

Click START, then RUN.
Type CMD into the box
Press OK

A black "DOS" (although it's NOT a true DOS window, but this is a whole seperate issue) window appears. At the blinking cursor type

chkdsk c:  (then press RETURN)
you will see a lot of information. 1st a warning that checkdisk is in READ ONLY MODE. This is a good thing so ignore it.  When all is finished, you will see a synopsis of the results. If check disk wants you to FIX the disk, it will tell you to run it again in /F (fix mode).

That's easy enough, just press F3 to call up the last line you typed and add /f or, type the following.

chkdsk c: /f   (switch F for fix) press RETURN or ENTER

Now, you will see another warning that chkdisk can't run in windows mode, and you are asked if you wish to run it when the SYSTEM REBOOTS (Y).... Answer (Y)es
close the window and reboot. Once your system makes it back to the desktop, your done!    Depending on the type of logical issue repaired, you may note as much as a 200% increase in performance and decrease of boot time. Remember this is only when the disk is pretty damaged, not for you folks who do your regular maintainance.

On last note for ADVANCED users. You might see situations where the directory structure seems hosed. Analysis testing on this utility surprised me a bit. I had a directory structure so damaged it wouldn't boot. Checkdisk actually repaired over 84% of the directory construct so that an advanced user could effect a complete repair. This amazed me considering the utes past history!  

Mick