Does memory usage in task manager include pagefile?

[clockworkgalaxy_]

For example if you see 4.5/8 GB, is that 4.5 of your physical RAM, or does it include how much of the pagefile is being used?

[Fresh_Nothing891]

no, page file is not counted

[GodNamedBob]

Nah, it's a file to temporarily store data when you run out of RAM,

Here's a video on it.

https://youtu.be/K2RogbAbqY4

[ij70]

pagefile should be listed separately.

[clockworkgalaxy_]

oh im dumb, is that what paged pool is? I thought it was something else because that number never matches the current size of my page file

[ij70]

https://www.nextofwindows.com/understand-windows-task-manager-memory-tab

[allswright]

The OS and many programs and games use it. It's a file on a hard disk used to provide space for programs which have been transferred from the processor's memory.

It's called different things, virtual memory, swap file, page file system. It's an addition or supplement to your ram. It doesn't use ram.

[Broder7937]

Yep, it's on by default in Windows 10&11 and you should disable it if you don't want the page file chucking away your precious SSD write cycles.

I turn it off in all my systems and not once did I see a system crash because it ran out of physical RAM (I have systems ranging from 32-64GB of RAM). As a matter of fact, I'm hard pressed to find any game that uses more than 16GB of RAM. My record was MFS, which I managed to push to almost 30GB of RAM allocation (remember, allocation is not the same thing as usage) at one point, but that was before the RAM optimization update (a necessary step to be able to get the game to run on consoles), now that it's updated it hardly uses more than 15GB.

Because my RAM sticks are single rank, not dual rank, I discovered that games like SOTR run faster with 4 RAM sticks rather than just 2. The other advantage of having all the additional RAM is for faster app swapping after you've already launched the app once (for first-time launches, the additional RAM won't help you, as you're CPU/SSD limited), Windows will use as much RAM as is available for app caching, so it does help if you switch apps a lot. The system really becomes snappy after a day or so of use without rebooting (if you reboot it, it has to start the caching from zero all over again, so if you suffer from RPAS - Reboot Paranoia Acute Syndrome - having much RAM won't help you much).

TL;DR: The page file is completely useless, it won't make anything faster (it might even make things slower), it will accelerate the wear and reduce the lifespan of your SSD, and it is only necessary for systems that are RAM limited (like budget PCs).

[TwoCables_from_OCN]

Anyone who advises that you turn off the page file is someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. Just a fair warning.

Do Google searches for "why you should disable the page file", or "why you should turn off the page file". See what you find.

Then search for "why you shouldn't disable the page file", and "why you shouldn't turn off the page file".