Optimizing RAM and SSD for best performance.

[archz2]

I have Acer Nitro 5 AN515-52 laptop. It has Core i7 8th Gen 8750H Processor. It came with 8GB RAM/16GB Intel Optane/1TB HDD/Windows 10/NVIDIA GeForce GTX Graphics 1050 Ti 4 GB GDDR5.

I recently removed 16GB optane stick from my laptop and installed SSD 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2 250GB as the main C partition which has windows and installed software. I also installed same 8GB RAM of the same Hynix brand and model number that my laptop was initially equipped with.

Everything is running fine. I am sharing my virtual memory performance options settings.

The C partition is my Samsung SSD
The D partition is of the original HDD of my laptop
The E partition is my old C partition which had window installation and software. I used the Samsung migration tool to directly migrate the windows installation and the installed software.

My query is, should I do any additional settings so that my SSD and RAM perform their best?

 

[satrow]

I'm sure many people here would say "use the defaults, Microsoft knows best" or similar :)

Well, it really depends on your session length and workloads; many notebooks have moderately short uptimes, maybe 3-5 hours - they might safely use a fixed pagefile of between 2048 and 4092MB on the NVMe. If your workload is very heavy and/or significantly longer sessions, 4092MB fixed on the SSD plus an 'overflow' (probably used only when the SSD is busy) of the same size on the 1st partition of your HDD would be a cautious starting point.

Keep logs of usage from the end of each session with the WMI script #34 to get an idea of your own usage, which should stay below ~75% of the allocated size in heavier sessions, higher and you risk the next program to call for more pf space allocation crashing without a trace.

Current settings/stats from my W7 desktop:

 

[Digerati]

I'm sure many people here would say "use the defaults, Microsoft knows best" or similar :)

Today, I am one of those people. Back in the day (XP days and earlier) I would indeed tweak just about every setting possible. But IMO, these days, especially with W10 which you have, I say "use the defaults, Microsoft indeed does know best". W10 is not XP. W10 is not W7 for that matter and W7 is not XP either.

The Microsoft engineers have not been sitting on their thumbs these last 20+ years. They have decades and exabytes of empirical data, teams of true experts in virtual memory management, and super-computers in which to run through every conceivable scenario to ensure the defaults do work best for all but the 1% on either extremes of the user spectrum.

There's a reason Microsoft has made the page file setting "dynamic" - so it can adjust as needed. That's the problem with setting a fixed size - it can't adjust. What this means is whenever you change your computing habits or install another significant applications, you should re-evaluate your virtual memory needs to see if you need to adjust your settings again.

So, IMO, if you do have expertise in virtual memory management and are adept at determining the best PF size for your hardware and the tasks you perform, and you always use your computer for the same tasks day in and day out, then setting a fixed PF size may be best. But if you don't have such expertise or you use your computer for different tasks throughout the week, month or year, or you install (or uninstall) major applications and you don't want to constantly re-evaluate your virtual memory needs, then just let Windows manage your page files. They really do know what they are doing - especially with Windows 10 and modern hardware.

In any case, I see no reason to disable the PF on any drive (unless it is a tiny secondary SSD). So my recommendation is to check that box that says, "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives".

My query is, should I do any additional settings so that my SSD and RAM perform their best?

The only other suggestions are to uninstall any application you installed if you no longer use it. Make sure applications you don't use on a daily basis are not set to start with Windows. Check to make sure other unneeded applet or service is not set to start with Windows. These can include auto-updater programs for other additional programs you have installed. Lastly, regularly run Windows Disk Cleanup or CCleaner to keep the build-up of clutter at bay.