Anyone having performance issues, ensure your virtual memory is correctly configured

[=wfl= sgt bilko 10]

Aparently you're right with that when it comes to software which has quite 'normal' use of RAM but ArmaII uses the ram like it's nothing.

My two first statements are valid no matter if you play ArmA2 or not. Keep pagefile on a separate partition (and on a separate drive if possible) and make sure that min/max are the same so that pagefile doesn't expand when you least want it to.

My advice to read up more on the pagefile size/usage can't really be argued. There are several articles about how to "trim" pagefile to suit a specific application w help of taskmanager and perfmon. Use google.

The quote was from a windows KB article and referenced just to illustrate that there's more to it than just expanding the size in absurdum.

Edited September 11, 2009 by =WFL= Sgt Bilko

[Nutlink 10]

Change your initial to 1.5 times your ram

Change your max to 3.0 times your ram

In my case - 3gb of ram = 3072mb

3072mb x 1.5 = 4608 initial size

3072mb x 3.0 = 9216 max size

That's completely counter productive. It also doesn't make sense for those with older systems and 1GB of RAM. General rule of thumb for me is that, no matter what OS, 2048MB for 1GB of RAM, 1024MB for 2GB of RAM, and 512MB for 3GB or more RAM. It doesn't take up much HDD space, especially if you have 3+GB of RAM, so there really is no reason to disable your pagefile. Windows ALWAYS uses your RAM first before resorting to the pagefile, and this way you're covered if you run a program that requires a pagefile. Of course, also keep your initial and max sizes the same so Windows doesn't A) try to keep clearing space when it doesn't need to for a larger pagefile, and B) doesn't use up precious HDD resources trying to adjust on the fly. HDD are slow enough as it is, no need to make it work any harder.

If you really want to learn how to get the best out of your system I suggest going to tweakguides.com and checking out the XP and Vista tweak guides.

[milucom 10]

My two first statements are valid no matter if you play ArmA2 or not. Keep pagefile on a separate partition (and on a separate drive if possible) and make sure that min/max are the same so that pagefile doesn't expand when you least want it to.

My advice to read up more on the pagefile size/usage can't really be argued. There are several articles about how to "trim" pagefile to suit a specific application w help of taskmanager and perfmon. Use google.

The quote was from a windows KB article and referenced just to illustrate that there's more to it than just expanding the size in absurdum.

Sorry bud. Was about to just quote the KB article. Of course, your first two statements are absolutely right. Was just commenting about the KB article. Pardon me.

[kklownboy 43]

you know... i really dont give damm about the page... it can be in "My Documents" for all i are care.I might set a equal size when i even think about it, but its really not noticeable what i do, Win control, my control, different HDD, no Page( well untill a app borks for it)

I mean i can see the diff in "benchmarking" but in real world usage (VMs Games,PS{well the scratch is all}) It never makes a difference, i cant really be bothered anymore with "win98" tweaks. I have E-penis hardware, and it blows any win98 improvement to hell.

So squeak out another 2ms of seek.. or 1sec of write... meh

[=wfl= sgt bilko 10]

Well, for the moment we're trying all sorts of tweaks and fixes with drivers and setups waiting for the real performance boost with the game engine patches.

In the end I have to agree with a previous poster saying that the fps is less important than how smooth the game feels.

[Nosedive 10]

I think i may have jumped to conclusions, performance was great when i first made this change, but it also seems to have made my game wildly unstable. This game is just so hard for me to tell what is causing the problems, be it mods or just what is going on in the game.

[Alex72 1]

Changing the VM to different than the same value on both will have it expand and contract wich means much more fragged HD i think.

I run with the same value on both so this doesnt happen.

[sn0b0ard 10]

I think i may have jumped to conclusions, performance was great when i first made this change, but it also seems to have made my game wildly unstable. This game is just so hard for me to tell what is causing the problems, be it mods or just what is going on in the game.

It is hard for practically everyone to run the game with good performance. I've tried so many different little tweaks here and there, and nothing has really worked for me at all, except lowering the graphics in the game. The bottom line is, the game is not optimized properly, and Bohemia Interactive needs to fix the performance issues in the game. People with recommended hardware can't seem to get good performance out of the game, so there is definitely something wrong with it.

[Nosedive 10]

That does seem the be the case. I guess i'll just have to learn to accept that. Dang.

[Maddmatt 1]

Why on earth would you want the pagefile to be something huge like 6GB when you have 4GB of RAM? And the logic of setting up a larger page file as you have more RAM seems backwards.

The more RAM you have should mean less need for a large pagefile.

[sn0b0ard 10]

Why on earth would you want the pagefile to be something huge like 6GB when you have 4GB of RAM? And the logic of setting up a larger page file as you have more RAM seems backwards.

The more RAM you have should mean less need for a large pagefile.

The tweaking of the pagefile is generally meant for people with low RAM. Most of the information about pagefile tweaking came from when people had Win9x/2000/XP with 256MB-1GB of ram, and they wanted to squeeze out every last ounce of performance. Larger amounts of RAM don't really fit into the whole 1.5x equation anymore. Thus, tweaking the pagefile when you have large amounts of RAM will not do any good; it may actually make performance worse.

[Maddmatt 1]

That's what I thought. So what's a good pagefile setting these days? 512MB for a system with 4GB of RAM perhaps? Or just let Windows deal with it (surely with Win7 MS has improved in this area)?

[kklownboy 43]

Actually having more means having a larger Page.. its Win OS thing. Thinking you will get performance with less page and more RAM with a NT4-6 kernal isnt what its cracked up to be. But you can use the "extra" RAM with some apps and can make a RAM drive.

[sn0b0ard 10]

That's what I thought. So what's a good pagefile setting these days? 512MB for a system with 4GB of RAM perhaps? Or just let Windows deal with it (surely with Win7 MS has improved in this area)?

You don't want the pagefile to be too low, just in case some program needs the extra memory. 4GB of RAM, I would just let windows manage the pagefile, especially with Windows 7. I actually saw a performance decrease when I set my pagefile manually.

[dogz 10]

this is a funny discussion...

I have actually run the game for a long time with no page file on a 2G ram XP Pro install I was getting some CTD but I still got them after I set it to OS managed I have tried all and dont see much diff.

Currently on same size min max but I dont think this game has ever used more than 1.5 gig mem so does not need much swapping.

ps I have not played SP much only online...

Edited September 14, 2009 by dogz