Microsoft KB Archive/171442

= Microsoft Knowledge Base =

INFO: Checking Virtual Memory Size
Last reviewed: July 30, 1997

Article ID: Q171442

The information in this article applies to:


 * Softimage 3D for Windows NT, version 3.7

SUMMARY
To check the virtual memory on Windows NT 4.0, open Control Panel > System, then click the Performance Tab to see the setting for virtual memory. The minimum size is the size that pagefile.sys (your virtual memory file) starts at and will never go below this value. You can also set a Maximum value and as memory requirements grow, memory gets swapped out and memory pages are put in the pagefile.sys. If memory requirements increase significantly, the page file can grow to the Maximum size setting.

You can also have multiple page files. If you have more than one hard drive, you can optimize the amount of swap space, by setting up a page file on each drive letter. But, if you have one hard drive it is not advantageous to split up your swap so that it resides on all three drive letters.

You can set a more accurate value for your machine's initial Virtual Memory Size, do a typical render and when it is complete, set your initial swap space to this size, which appears in the pagefile.sys file. By doing this, Windows NT will not have to allocate space as needed, and the swap space is in one continuous block.

TIP: For SOFTIMAGE 3D the best Pagefile size is at least 200Mb, with an upper limit of 250-300Mb for optimum performance.