Virtual memory?

Question

Does increasing your virtual memory help to make the pc run faster and/or smoother? And how exactly do you do it??

Answer 1

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=== Part 1: What is Virtual Memory?
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Virtual Memory is used to "fool" your computer into thinking it has more memory than it actually does, by simulating additional memory through use of disk drives.

Let's say your computer has 1 megabyte of memory, but you need to run a program that needs to open a 2 megabyte file. Your operating system tells the program that it has 2 megs available. When the program tries to access a part of the file that is beyond the first meg, the operating system performs a sneaky trick: it moves the contents of the main memory to the disk, and replaces them with the memory (in this case, the second part of the file) that the application is trying to access. This is called swapping.

This is sort of like pulling the rug out from under the program's feet, and replacing it with a different one, without the program even noticing.

Another way to think about this is like running on a treadmill. The treadmill itself is only a few feet long, but it keeps recycling, so it is virtually any length you want.

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=== Part 2: Will Increasing your Virtual Memory Improve Performance?
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The short answer is, no. Although setting the size of your virtual memory too low can affect system performance, there are other variables involved. Modern operating systems like Windows XP and Mac OS X handle these settings automatically, and unless you know exactly what you are doing, they are best left alone.

There are better ways of improving performance, the best of which is probably adding more physical memory.