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How Big Should My Swap Partition Be?

Posted by timothy on from the wait-until-ram-is-infinite-then-double-it dept.

For the last 10 years, I have been asking people more knowledgeable than I, "How big should my swap be?" and the answer has always been "Just set it to twice your RAM and forget about it." In the old days, it wasn't much to think about — 128 megs of RAM means 256 megs of swap. Now that I have 4 gigs of RAM in my laptop, I find myself wondering, "Is 8 gigs of swap really necessary?" How much swap does the average desktop user really need? Does the whole "twice your RAM" rule still apply? If so, for how much longer will it likely apply? Or will it always apply? Or have I been consistently misinformed over the last 10 years?

2 of 900 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What Has Changed? by AvitarX · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Really?

    Because storage is usually measured in Base 10 on the box, and Base 2 when used.

    People who say it's never ambiguous confuse me. We would all think the same thing about what units scientists use on a Mars mission, but we all know that can be ambiguous after all.

    --
    Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
  2. Re:What Has Changed? by LO0G · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I love /. This comment replies to the same comment I replied to and it says essentially the same thing that my comment is and it's moderated insightful. My comment is marked flamebait and I'm described as "idiotic".

    Redundant I could absolutely see. But I don't get flamebait.