How to Increase Windows XP Virtual Memory for Games

byally -December 02, 2013

0

Edited by TechFlash1, Teresa, Wanxuanwang, Sharli and 2 others When your computer "loads" a game, what this generally means is that it is retrieving the data from your hard drive and placing on the RAM for quicker access, as RAM read/write speeds are generally much faster than hard disk read/write speeds. Virtual Memory, also called a page file, is space on your hard disk that the computer uses when it is running low on free RAM. The computer will automatically re-assign low-priority data such as minimized programs to the page file, so that RAM is freed up and the applications you are running, such as games, run faster. If you are often seeing messages such as "Windows has run out of Virtual Memory and is increasing the size of your page file", there are two options to use: Buy more RAM, which can be cheap or expensive, depending on the type and speed (larger capacity and faster is better), or increase the size of your page file manually.

Edit Steps

1
First you will need to find out how much RAM your computer has installed on it. To do this, open the Start menu, then right click on "My Computer", then click "Properties". You will see the amount of RAM you have displayed on the lower right-hand corner of the dialog box, underneath your operating system specs and your processor speed.
2
Now you will want to do some quick arithmetic. To run smoothly, the Windows XP minimum requirements are 256MB of RAM. However this is simply for running the operating system, and games will require more. To run most modern games, 2GB of ram is a good amount to have. To decide which size to set your paging file to, a good benchmark is roughly 2-3 times your installed RAM. However you may require more. For example, if you have 2GB of RAM and a 1GB page file which equals 3GB of total usable memory, but your peak usage when running multiple programs are 5GB, your computer will run extremely slowly to the point of being completely unusable. However if you have 2GB of RAM and a 1GB page file and your peak memory usage is 1.5GB, you will be fine. However 2-3 times your RAM is a good enough benchmark for most people.
3
To change the page file size, open the Start menu, right click on "My Computer, then click "Properties". Click on the "Advanced" tab, then click on the "Settings" button in the "Performance" box. Click on the "Advanced" tab. Set both "Processor scheduling" and "Memory usage" to "Programs". Now click on "Change" in the "Virtual memory" box.
4
Click on the drive your page file is currently on. Change the selection from "System managed size" or "No paging file" to "Custom size". Enter in a minimum and maximum value for the paging file on this drive in megabytes (MB). Remember that 1024MB = 1GB. Repeat this step for all the drives you want to have a paging file on. Even though on some tweaking sites it is recommended that you turn the paging file off, DO NOT do this as this will make your situation worse. Also remember that the paging file takes up hard disk space, so do not increase it beyond the free space you currently have on your hard drive(s), and you will want to leave some free space.
5
Click OK and restart your computer. You have now increased the size of your paging file. If the problem persists, buy more RAM or consider upgrading to a new computer.