Computers| Computers |
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03-18-2006, 06:34 PM
| #1 (permalink) |
| Newb Techie Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 11
  |  Speeding Up the Page File I recently started running Star Wars Empire at War on my 3 year old system. It's holding it's own running low detail graphics, but I want to do everything I can to get my pc running as fast as it can. I've been monitoring system performance for about a month now and when I run high end programs like Empire at War the Page File is always red lining. I've got it split between two ATA hard drives right now, but I want it to go alot faster. I got the idea of using USB 2.0 flash drives to run the page file, and theoretically it should be alot faster, but idk for sure and I was wondering if anyone's played around with this at all. Thanks for any help in advance Chake Shcos |
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03-18-2006, 08:04 PM
| #2 (permalink) |
| Wizard Techie Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Delaware
Posts: 3,449
| USB flash will be slower. You should get the Gigabyte IRAM.
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03-18-2006, 08:20 PM
| #3 (permalink) |
| Newb Techie Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 11
| I checked it out, and it sounds cool, but there's one or two minor problems. The biggest of these is that I don't have a SATA controller on my mobo, and adding one via a pci slot isn't possible as I've only one free slot in my current configuration... Also, the card it's self is alot cheaper than the flash solution, but after you add in the ram modules, even low end ones, it ends up more expensive, and of course there's the 4 GB limit as well. I'm gonna need 6 GB to fit my entire page file on there, and again sacrificing 2 PCI slots isn't possible. Is there something else like the IRAM that maybe comunicates directly through the pci slot and supports more than 4 GB of RAM. If so I think that would be ideal. |
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03-18-2006, 08:48 PM
| #5 (permalink) |
| Newb Techie Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 11
| I can see how getting more RAM would help, obviously, but I don't see how completely disabling the page file would increase performance any. And really I'm trying to make my computer as fast as the motherboard and current level of technology will allow. This limits me to 4 GB of physical RAM and at some point soon, I can easily see that just not being enough to run that new next gen game. |
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03-18-2006, 08:49 PM
| #6 (permalink) |
| Multicellular Eukaryote  Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 12,879
| paging file is there if your system runs out of RAM to use. it is a file on the hard drive(s) and hard drives are much slower than RAM. if you get more RAM, programs won't need to use paging file, and will be faster. currently, most programs require up to 1GB, some high end games will need 2GB. you won't need 4GB anytime soon. besids, 4GB will actually slow the system down.
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03-18-2006, 08:55 PM
| #7 (permalink) |
| Newb Techie Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 11
| yes I realize this, I'm just trying to plan ahead. Programs and games especially have only gotten more hardware intensive as time has gone on and demand for near real life graphics and performance has become ever more prominent. Most of the High end games of today recomend having at least 1 GB of RAM if not more, and I can easily see Games like SW Galaxies, Everquest II and similair MMORPGs being intensive enough to use up the 4 GBs my system is limited to and still be hungry for more. It's with this in mind that I'm searching for a faster page file solution than my current 2 ATA hard drive configuration. |
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03-18-2006, 09:02 PM
| #8 (permalink) |
| Multicellular Eukaryote Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 12,879
| I very much doubt they would use 4GB of RAM. currently BF2 uses just over 1GB, but people get 2 x 1GB sticks. mainly it is for future-proofing, because games are expected to take up more RAM in future.
__________________ 1 + 1 = 3 if you define 3 as a result of 1 + 1 |
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03-18-2006, 09:13 PM
| #10 (permalink) |
| Multicellular Eukaryote Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 12,879
| I can only recommend faster hard drives, regularly defragmented. (like the Western Digital Raptor) but games will always run faster if they are always in RAM
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