an FPS trick for the taking

Ever get really low FPS? (for the nvidia users 9.x is low) Want to make those FPS much higher? How about 12 minimum with Ultra settings? Well here is a simple and useful trick I have learned: (for both Windows XP and Vista, steps are slightly different) (this will also assume you know where your "computer" is (usually in the start menu, some, like me, show it on the desktop)


1) Right-click on "my computer" and select properties.
1.5) (vista only) click "Advanced System Settings"
2) Go to the advanced tab and select "performance settings"
3) go the the "advanced" tab and click Change
4) (vista only) uncheck "Automatically manage..." (both XP and vista) select "Custom Size"
4.3) (32 BIT ONLY) put 2000/2000 in the root drive (the one where %sysroot% is (xp only, aparently..) Vista users can get root drive via %appdata% ) and other drives
4.6) (64 BIT ONLY) 6000/6000 in EVERY drive
5) reboot, and enjoy!

my settings 6000/4000/6000 respectively c/d/j(external) (Vista 64bit, home premium) fps range on high usually 13-15 in high lag areas? (d doesn't have 6gb open)

bump?

All you're doing is increasing your swap drive size. It would only make a difference if it needed increased in the first place. Congrats, you figured out endlessly swapping code in and out of memory can slow your PC.

Works even better if you put your swap on a different hard drive.

I think it's a bit more than just that. The default windows setting of "manage this for me" is really PURE EVIL as it allows the page file to get fragmented. If Windows decides you need some more swap space and the existing page file doesn't have free space at the end, it's gotta fragment it. Of course, it may then shrink the size later. The grow/fragment it again. Rinse, repeat.

I'm not too sure about the numbers of the rest of the post, though - 6GB of swap on every drive seems a bit overkill to me. I think the standard recommended size is 50% more than the amount of physical memory you have.

If somebody _does_ decide to change from dynamic size to a static size, you should clean up your disk as much as possible then defrag it _before_ playing with this setting.

I cry when my framerate drops below 30fps.

Just as a frame of reference, what kind of CPU video card & memory are we talking about here, and what constitutes a high lag area?

CPU: Intel Core 2 Series Processor (2199 MHz)
Memory: 3839 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (Build 6001)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce 7100 / NVIDIA nForce 630i/PCI/SSE2
OpenGL Version: 2.1.2


it's a personal experience that splitting them across the board works well, and in fact my pcs have BOTH benefited from this. (this one and another I had at one point, the was also on XP) so can you explain how this works on 2 separate PCs for me, yet you're saying it makes no difference?

please not also: I have told several other people and they say it HELPED.

where is my fuzzy logic in this?


um.. how about here for the high-lag area?:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Central/143/223/23

First of all, most geeks like me have been doing this for a while because well... given the choice between anything "automatic" and "custom" we always choose custom.

But second of all, the problem is not nearly as bad as you think. Windows is a lot smarter than you give it credit for. For one, when Windows increases the size of the page file, it doesn't just say "oh, I need 32MB more so I'll just go add 32MB to the page file." it actually increases the page file relative to its current size so it might add 50% more space and then it's much less likely to ever need to increase it again. With each growth, the odds of needing more space decreases. Also, NTFS (the file system) is pretty smart too. If you tell it you need to allocate x number of bytes, it can quickly find a contiguous region of free space to allocate those bytes to minimize fragments. So bottom line is, the most your page file might be fragmented is maybe 4-5 fragments. Which, for a file of that size, is trivial. In fact, MFT fragmentation which people don't even know about, is far more harmful.

Bottom line, the idea that this tip could increase your frame rates is ludicrous. Just get more RAM.

Play Devil may cry 4 on a 7100 with 4gb of ram and a 2.20 duo intel processor. 9FPS, do my trick: 20FPS, this DOES help, no matter what you want to say.

and instead of "theorizing" why don't you back those words with some action and results? I have.

LOL.. I think I tend to give Windows a lot more credit than most people do..

I still say that system-managed page file sizes are PURE EVIL, especially with an app like SL which is very memory hungry (and leaks a bit) and uses a fairly ginormous number of files on the system. If you don't have a big disk and you're only at 1GB, a config that's probably pretty common, you're gonna feel that page file fragmentation..

If you do have a big disk that's not in danger of getting highly fragmented, it's still evil but not PURE EVIL!!!.

I give it none at all. in fact I'm only using windows cause I'm a gamer. I am very tech-savy as well, but most people discredit what I say.

There's PURE EVIL in my computer! YES! That is so awesome. Now every time I start up my PC, I'm going to think about the scene at the end of "Time Bandits". "It's evil! Don't touch it!"

Actually, only two fragments of pure evil, and since I upgraded to 6GB of memory, I think Windows has stopped using it.

I tried various monkeying with the swapfile, and nothing made any difference. Maybe it helps with a slow video card and less memory. I'll try it on another PC sometime.

I posted my pc specs, that's the one I use the trick on, I do my own advice after all.