Windows XP 64-bit Virtual Memory

[brianlynn]

The company I work for recently went to corporate policy on several IT
related things. As a result I have a new user profiles and we do not have
admini rights on our assigned computers any more. I need to have a way to
determine the page file size so it will be right the first time it is set,
so I don't have to keep calling on IT to "fix" the setting because Pro/E
needs more virtual memory, for large assemblies. Any one have a policy or
a rule of thumb they use for setting the virtual memory? I know Windows
recommendation is maximum three times the installed memory, but I honestly
don't trust Microsoft's recommendations.

Thank you for any information you can pass along,

Brian S. Lynn
Technical Coordinator, Product Engineering
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[PAULKORENKIEWIC]

The rule of thumb I seem to recall is equal to your RAM, and set to
"fixed"; same minimum and same maximum so Windows doesn't have to
"figure it out" or keep adjusting it...

Thanks...

Paul Korenkiewicz
FEV, Inc.
4554 Glenmeade
Auburn Hills, MI., 48326

[rreifsnyder]

Actually, for most applications Windows recommends much smaller virtual memory settings because most apps. don't come close to using all that memory. That being said, I do still use the 3X physical RAM when I set the virtual memory with both the Min. and Max set to the same size. I don't know for certain how valid the 3X is since that comes from the old Unix days, and swap in Unix is handled very differently that Windows virtual memory, but I have nothing better.

Rob Reifsnyder
Mechanical Design Engineer/ Pro/E Librarian
L
Mission Systems & Sensors (MS2)
497 Electronics Parkway
Liverpool, NY 13088
EP5-Quad2, Cube 281

[willy.chung.pd]

According to the PTC TPI 143897 (Best Practices Regarding Pagefile, Temporary Files, Temporary Directories, Defragmentation And Virtual Memory):

* Set the minimum and maximum pagefile values to the same value
* A general rule of thumb is 3-4GB * the number of concurrent sessions of Pro/ENGINEER + 500MB for
other Windows processes. For example, on a 4GB client machine 6GB would be a good starting point to
support one large Pro/ENGINEER session and 8-12GB for two large Pro/ENGINEER sessions.
* Place pagefile on a non-system drive

Keep in mind that as you increase system memory (e.g., 8GB RAM), you don't necessarily need to allocate 2-3x of RAM (i.e., 16-24GB) since you have plenty of RAM which is significantly faster than swapping data to the HDD in the pagefile. Just keep an eye out on how much memory is being used by the applications (e.g., Task Manager). I think that having a pagefile that is too large will also slow down a system trying to manage it.

If you want to get more technical, there are other TPI's at the PTC website that show how you can monitor usage and see how often your pagefile is being used if you really want to streamline.

.willy.