I would like to know Does setting the virtual memory higher slow down the system? Also should I tell the computer to page file or not to page file? cheerio lululee

are you only useing your c drive or do you have multiple drive, each drive should have its own page file amount of VM . Or check system manage . if you have more than 1 drive.

I've set my VM to 3 gig on both my drives. This was recommended by SVDL as I was getting "you're out of virtual memory" messages etc. which caused Poser to lock up. Since upping it to 3 gig I've had no more problems!

I have virtul memory on both my C drive and H drive (because they both have programs on them) set to minimum 1500 max 3000. OS XP. I am slso allowing the system to page file. I made these changes since Vue 5 was giving me out of memory messages. I am not very knowlegeable about system stuff so I want to make sure I am not going to slow things down with these settings. cheerio lululee

I let Windows handle my virtual memory, never had nay problems with it. I assume that whoever wrote that part of XP knows more about virtual memory than I do.

My "C" drive is system managed. Poser 5 is on my "G" drive and I have this set at 3Gig on "initial size" and "max size" and to page file. I too am running XP with 512 RAM. Since upping my VM to 3 gig I've had no more problems. The memory usage is also set for "programs" not "system cache" and the "processor scheduling" is also set for "programs" and not "background tasks"

It's my understanding that the VM will only come into play if you don't have enough RAM (I could be wrong)so I'm guessing that "stewer" has maybe at least 512 RAM and possibly 1Gig or more. Is that right stewer or are you gonna make me a liar ;-)

An increased VM will slow your system down if you do not have enough space on the drive to which it is placed and if you place it on the same physical drive as the system files. Windows does indedd handle VM incredibly well. In independent tests, it sorta kicked butt over competitive systems. However, At rendertime, Poser is not a patient application -- it will not wait for windows to adjust VM, and will lock. For this reason, and most particularly, it is recommended (including by MS) that you increase your VM/swapfile size to the maximum allowable for the number of applications in use -- as any 32 bit OS has the single limitation of being able to assign a maximum of 2GB to any single application event. In general, if you run Poser, windows itself, and, say, windows media player all at once and you plan to render, a good setting is roughly 3096.

My PC 768MB RAM (for insiders, the max that BeOS can take ;). However, I'm often running lots of other applications in parallel - Poser, Visual Studio, CVS, Cinema 4D, Photoshop, Trillian, FireFox, OE...never felt the need for messing with my memory settings. When the system was new, XP did pop up the little window telling me about a small swap file and that it's going to increase it, but I guess by now it has adjusted to my heavy use.

benchmark

I don't fiddle with Virtual Memory any more. I have complete faith in Windows XP to handle it for me, and I haven't been disappointed. I routinely run several programs at the same time. Sometimes I have a very complex scene, and Windows tells me it is adjusting the VM for me. I don't need to mess with it. I have 640MB of RAM, and devote a 120GB hard drive to Poser. Each of my hard drives has its own partition. I don't sub-divide hard drives.

I too run XP and it was constantly throwing up the "not enough memory" error message which consequently locked my P5 up good style as ynsaen has said. i took SVDL's advice on the Vm size and it seems to have worked, I've not had a n error message or lock up since.

if you set virtual memory too much higher than actual memory, the 'surplus' comes from using the hard drive as 'virtual memory'..which is an order of magnitude slower than your 'real' memory..that could do it..

something that will help : before launching poser do a disk cleanup and clear all your unnessary restore points.
and close all unnessary background program. Dont surf the net while rendering cus all that internet temp files uses your pagefile up quick .you might evan not want to connect to the net. Or do a (msconfig) and see what startup programs are running.

and if you still have problem's heres a web site that was referred to me by a dell operator i been useing it for 3 years now and had no problems ever and it has saved my ass plenty

this site will tell you every thing that is wrong and how to optimize for best performance www.pcpitstop.com

also i use a program called (cachemanXP) it a free utilty that optimizes your ram & pagefile it can be found at
www.cnet.com

Message edited on: 11/04/2004 03:55

WOW! Thanks to everyone for all of this great info. cheerio lululee

I use Norton SystemWorks to keep my computer in good shape. I routinely run 4-5 programs at the same time, Render in Poser, surf the web, etc. I know you guys mean well, but it's entirely possible just to use your computer, have fun, and let Windows handle all the details for you.