Virtual memory/RAM query
- Thread starter tyconn
- Start date
Virtual memory is temporary RAM storage to s disk drive be it SSD or HDD. It is only used when processes have already used all existing RAM and a process calls for more RAM than is available. A portion of the existing RAM is written to disk and the RAM is reused by the process calling for the RAM. When the RAM is released by the process or the prior process accesses the save RAM the data stored on disk is written back to RAM.
Whether it will help or hurt depends on how much memory swapping your system does which depends on how many and what programs you run simultaneously and how much RAM is installed. This memory swapping is very slow compared to hardware RAM access as you can imagine the difference between RAM and disk access speeds.
If your system has low RAM and you run a lot of programs simultaneously you will have a lot of memory swapping and, yes, the SSD will help because it is so much faster than a HDD. The down side to that is that SSD's have less write durability than HDD's so the SSD may wear out faster.
On the other hand, if you have a lot of RAM it's possible that virtual memory will rarely be used so the benefit of using a SSD rather than a HDD would be minimal, if any.
IMO, increasing your RAM, if possible, would be a much better option. That depends, however, on what you have installed, if any free RAM slots are available, and the OS you are running. If you are running a 32-bit operating system and you already have 4Gb of RAM then increasing it will just be a waste money because a 32-bit OS can only access 4Gb.
Whether it will help or hurt depends on how much memory swapping your system does which depends on how many and what programs you run simultaneously and how much RAM is installed. This memory swapping is very slow compared to hardware RAM access as you can imagine the difference between RAM and disk access speeds.
If your system has low RAM and you run a lot of programs simultaneously you will have a lot of memory swapping and, yes, the SSD will help because it is so much faster than a HDD. The down side to that is that SSD's have less write durability than HDD's so the SSD may wear out faster.
On the other hand, if you have a lot of RAM it's possible that virtual memory will rarely be used so the benefit of using a SSD rather than a HDD would be minimal, if any.
IMO, increasing your RAM, if possible, would be a much better option. That depends, however, on what you have installed, if any free RAM slots are available, and the OS you are running. If you are running a 32-bit operating system and you already have 4Gb of RAM then increasing it will just be a waste money because a 32-bit OS can only access 4Gb.
alot of this i already know but just wondering if i am using half of my OS's RAM (I have 2gb out of a possible 4gb max) if using my old HDD from my laptop as an SSD and then allocating some of the memory from that as virtual RAM will speed me up any as my applications are using all available RAM and actually showing signs of slowing since i upgraded my GPU
No, the HDD will not work as well as the SSD. How much SSD space to use would depend on what is available. You really should upgrade your RAM from 2Gb to 4Gb and then determine if you still need virtual RAM and how much.
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