Evaluating System Performance Tutorial 10

RAM and Virtual Memory Computer performance most affected by Performance of the processor Amount of installed RAM Storage capacity of the hard disk Virtual Memory—created to supplement RAM

XP swaps from RAM into the paging file—Pagefile.sys. If XP does not have enough RAM to open applications (multitasking), a special system file is created on the hard disk called a paging file or swap file. XP swaps from RAM into the paging file—Pagefile.sys. Page is usually 4 KB Pagefile.sys stored in the top-level folder of the volume where Windows is installed. Default size is 1.5 times the amount of RAM on your machine. Size increased/decreased depending upon need. Paging file automatically created at bootup.

Virtual Memory Slows down computer performance Must have sufficient space available on the hard disk Keep at least 1.5 times the installed RAM of free space on hard disk drive for use by Windows XP as virtual memory Also need additional space for temp files, spool files, and Internet cache

Windows Task Manager WTM can be used to Monitor changes to allocated memory and to the sized of the paging file View changes in the activity of the processor Useful tool for monitoring basic processes within your computer—esp memory use

Work Tut pp. 10.09-10.13 Right-click taskbar/Task Manager/ Performance tab View CPU Usage/Memory Usage Physical Memory Commit Charge Limit