When I play a video game on my PC...?

Question

I sometimes get a "Virtual Memory Too Low," message - would adding RAM help this?

If not, what's the solution?

Before I play I close down EVERYTHING so I have almost nothing in my process list.

Answer 1

Virtual memory is an extension of your computer's physical memory (memory chips or RAM). In order to be able to run multiple programs at once, the computer looks for areas of RAM that have not been used recently and copy them onto the hard disk into so called page files. This frees up space in the RAM to load the new application.

The hard drive (virtual memory) is much slower than actual memory chips. When you don't have enough RAM, the operating system has to constantly swap information back and forth between RAM and the hard disk. This is called thrashing, and it can make your computer feel incredibly slow.

So, increasing ram can help - also, if you make more room on whatever drive Windows is running on, that'll also help; it'll increase 'paging space' that Windows unfortunately loves to hog.

Answer 2

Unfourtunately adding RAM for a VM too low messege wont help. Virtual Memory is part of the computers hard drive. The more you have open at once the less VM you have. There are 2 ways to fix the issue, Increase the Paging file size, which should be done automatically. Or get a second hard drive, and store data on it, and all the programs on the primary drive.