Gaming performance & pagefile windows 7 x64

I've recently started having performance issues in both Crysis and Farcry 2 when loading new areas/bits of the games to the point where they become unplayable, it seems to get worse and worse in Crysis as new areas load and sometimes it just doesn't seem to settle down at all, it feels like it's trying to load new textures from the HDD as they appear onscreen. Farcry is not as bad but does seem to exhibit the same kind of behaviour, sometimes going very choppy for 30 secs when I come in range of an enemy outpost.

I'm running windows 7 RC1 7100 x64 with the following specs in brief

Processor: Phenom II X550 black edition
RAM: 4Gb DDR3
Graphics: HD 4870
HDD: 500Gb Seagate less than 50% full on both partitions

Harddrive partitions - C: windows 7 partition & programs ; D: data (movies, music, pics etc)

I know my graphics card can run both games on max settings with 8xAA on my HDTV 720p resolution of 1280 x 720, the experience is smooth and fast once all loading/page swapping activities have ceased.

So having hunted high and low for a fix I've started fiddling with my pagefile and have found the following:

Default setting - Pagefile system managed on C and off on D

This is the original setting and gives me the performance issues above - Crysis only playable (just) with everything on high rather than very high

Setting 1 - Pagefile = 200Mb starting and 1000Mb max on C, off on D

Better performance in both games but still some loading/stuttering; no windows errors yet (I haven't tried opening loads of apps) - again Crysis settings left on high rather than very high for playability

Setting 2 - Pagefile = off altogether

Superb performance in both games with everything set to max, Crysis runs smooth on Very High for all settings with the pagefile off. However Windows 7 frequently reports that it's running low on virtual memory.

So I seem to have two choices currently, pagefile off for brilliant performance in games but potential system instability/insufficient virtual memory OR pagefile normal, system stability but bad gaming experience. This is not a purely gaming rig, as is probably the case for most people, I use my PC for multimedia, work and gaming.

I don't understand why the pagefile should make such a massive difference when I've got 4Gb of ram on my system, it's almost like I need to be able to tell Windows not to use the PF unless absolutely necessary but I'm guessing that should be the default behaviour in Windows. I'm tearing my hair out over this as I have a good rig that should be fully capable of running games and other applications smoothly, does anyone have an alternate solution or has anyone else had this problem and solved it. Please don't recommend buying new hardware as I don't think that it is required, my HDD is less than 50% full and fully defragmented, and I know that the rest of the system can handle the games as they run beautifully with the PF turned off... I just don't get it!

Cheers,

J

Have you checked for malware? That can eat a lot of memory.

Yah - Malware could be a contributor, but in this case I'm inclined to bet it's a Hard Drive I/O problem. Your drive is struggling to page out old info while retrieving/loading new.

With the pagefile off, you're forcing windows to keep everything in memory. This cuts down on the amount of disc I/O, but as you have found uses a lot more RAM and may eventually impact the system itself.


Couple things you may do: One is attack the root cause (HDD I/O) directly with a faster hard drive, by setting up a RAID array, or by using an SSD for your system/game partition. Another is (if you're using a 64 bit version of the OS) more RAM. Doesn't solve the root, but gives more overhead for the sytem to operate under.

Both cost money, though.

Oh and money is not the problem here... I guess it's principle... if there's not a solution then I'll go upgrade to 8Gb ram, and I intend to raid my HDD soon anyway for data recovery reasons. But even if I do upgrade my system this will still bug me.

Hope that explains things better...

Couldn’t we say to windows not to use the page file unless it is totally necessary. As far as I know, even if you have 8GB of ram, windows still prefers to use the stupid page file!!

What I understood and trying to explain is that windows (all versions) don’t use physical memory efficient enough even if there is plenty of memory.

If gaming performance increases after the PF has been switched off it means that there is enough physical memory in the system but windows didn’t use it all unless user told it to do so.

It could be something wrong with hard drive I/O but it shouldn’t matter if the system has enough physical memory installed. Because the system should use this physical memory in the first place instead of trying to reach PF and therefore the possible I/O problem shouldn’t effect gaming performance.

Perhaps you would care to explain then why turning off the PF allows the game to play smoothly from memory while leaving it on leads to I/O issues. Obviously one of those senarios is leading to disk activity and the other is not. Are you saying Windows 7 has everything loaded into memory (as it would without PF turned on) but is accessing (read or write) the PF for some other reason (loading things it might think useful or writing what it has just loaded)?

I have the exact same problem. You know how I solved it? I installed Vista x64 on a little partition with Crysis and a few vista-better-games. It's NOT an I/O problem usually. It has something to do with Windows 7, or at least the drivers in it. I get ABSOLUTELY smooth very high settings with my 2gb gtx 285 on vista (brand-new install plus drivers) but on Windows 7 (brand new install on the same partition!!) I get the crap-tacular problems the original poster has.. I never thought I'd say this, but vista saved the day for me..

2x gtx 285 2gb @ 710 (the issue also happens with only one installed)
EVGA 750i FTW / Q9950 running at 3.9ghz
Dominator 1066 4gb
w400aaks 640gb 100Mb/S Sata drive ( x4)

i'll have to disagree with you. if it's the first crysis he's running, that card shouldn't have much of a problem with higher graphics. The game is pretty high end, but my little brother has it with a GeForce 260 and he can run it on max without a hitch.

i don't know a ton about window 7, as it's closer to vista than xp, and as far as i'm concerned vista never existed. But if modding the page file to off affects how the game is run, obviously windows 7 on your system is not utilizing the ram as has been suggested. REGARDLESS of if that's how windows 7 has been built, my bet would be something is wrong with your over-all settings, or the OS didn't install uite right. Flame me all you want for that part, i don't care.

I'd check the HD tho, try running Crysis off another HD if you have a spare you can install. that will eliminate your HD being faulty, in which case i'd start barrel assing through the OS config, and see if you can't find the problem, or a "Restore Defaults" option. again, i don't know W7 very well, and an option may no exist.

but try a different HD. could uite possibly be processor as well, because if your processor isn't getting the locations of object-instances to the GPU fast enough, it may end up having the load the textures at the last second, causing the HD to read/write at the same time in order to get the frames out in time without dropping any and causing that oh-so-glorious stuttering effect we as gamers love so much

You all are focused on hardware issues, but I think you oversee the fact that he uses Win 7 RC 7100.
It may be related to a OS issue. My Win 7 RC has caused a lot of issues, whereas after switching to Retail most of those issues ceased to exist. And most of it was performance in games.

I'm not saying it is definitely not hardware related, it's just a theory.

This was very interesting to learn what pagefiles is, how it reacts with RAM and HDD I/O! Had no knowledge of this at all before I read this thread. A lot of good hints and ideas when I soon will buy Win 7 64. Had for a couple of years ago a similar problem with my games just keep stutter and freezing more the higher levels I got to and the more I replayed unfinished races/courses, understand now that the HDDs could´nt keep up the I/O because I had I pixel-error on the graphic card and two RAMs that does´nt worked with each other.

One thing I and every Windows user suffer under is that in time the list of background services, additions and processes grows so big that they hinder you to play games and make them stutting and get stucked, when your RAMs too busy trying to handle both the services, processes and the game. No news for anyone I know but I whant to pay attention to the fact that there is a simple solution that may help you. Every time I am about to play games thats on the edge of what my computer is capable to run I first reboot and then unplugg the net cable, then exit all the unneeded programs in the activity field (ex antivirus, firewall, messenger, antispyware, media agents etc). Then I open the Task Controller and delete all unnecessary processes like spoolsv.exe and wmiprvse.exe, things I dont need when playing. When all that is done I usually am able to play my most CPU and RAM-consuming games for hours without any drag at all.

Probably you already have tried this but felt for give my little straw to help you. Good luck!

uum, about stutter, can someone please tell me what the word strutter means (you know that old song by KISS)?

Hello

During my couple of years building performance hardware for a local builder in Stockholm, Sweden, I have learned that you need to have all the basics up to par with what you are after performance wise. If all else is equal and you have built your new system (or upgraded) to specs that you desired, then it all comes down to what you can add to boost system performance. Specially when gaming.

Virtual memory should always exist. But if you have plenty enough RAM you will not need to use it. Instead of a system managed size setting a custom size (that is locked to a certain size initially up to max size) lets OS skip doing a bunch of recalculating every time paging is needed. So you gain in performance but lose a little HD space or about 1.5-2.5 x GB RAM.

example: 4GB RAM = 4 x 1024 = 4096 => 1.5 x 4096 = 6144 set size for page file

so...
go to Virtual Memory settings...
mark the drive you want to have paging file on...
then choose Custom size (4GB RAM example from above)
!!! If you want page file on other HD than OS, remove page file from C: HD after reboot.

Initial size (MB): 6144
Maximum size (MB): 6144

Push [Set] button then [OK] and exit. Reboot system. Check Virtual Memory settings to make sure all is OK.


Best scenario...

- Max RAM @ top speed your MB can handle (installed properly)
- 1st HD (2 x 32GB SSD RAiD-0/STRiPE=speed) Operating System
- 3rd HD (1 x 32GB SSD) Page file @ set size from example above
- 4th HD (1 x 500GB SATA) Games/Programs (!!! paging file for certain programs pointed to correct HD)
- 5th+ HD (? x 1TB SATA or GBit NAS) Storage as needed

PS. don't forget to cool the system properly so it runs smoother and use latest bios/drivers. ALWAYS save data to separate physical HD or external unit! =)

/Joe Cool

You only have 1 drive partition into two. That's a no-no in this modern day. Buy a secondary hard drive then move your pagefile to the second hard drive. Placing the pagefile to the second partition is an illusion, it's still the same drive, and your taxes your hard drive to move between partitions. I have multiple drives, my primary has the os of course, the secondary has my programs folder, my third hard drive which is a raptor hosts my pagefile. I also have windows 7 64-bit with 4gb of ram.

hello, which would fit the best for SYSTEM (30GB), PAGEFILE (7GB max, 4GB RAM), WORKDISK (50GB), STOREDISK (300GB)

i have:
- 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 7200rpm 32M
- 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 7200rpm 32M
- 74GB WD Caviar RAPTOR 10000rpm 16MB

( both with win7 installation 64bit windows rank 5,9)

according to HD Tune RAPTOR has almost half acces time (about 8s) but almost 1/3 slower read write (about 74MB/s).
Samsung F3 spinpoint acces time abour 14s and read/write about 110MB/s.

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey