Swap/Page files - Are they really necessary anymore?

**u-noob-tu** · April 30th, 2013

These days new computers are coming with more and more RAM out of the box, and 8GB or higher is becoming common. This makes me wonder: are page files/swap areas really necessary anymore? Sure, it's possible to use all that RAM and then it would become necessary, but I can't think of many programs that can push a computer that hard. Can anyone shed some light on this subject for me?

**zer010** · April 30th, 2013

Swap space probably becomes more of an issue when editing/encoding large graphics/video files.

**ibjsb4** · April 30th, 2013

You could always see for yourself.

Code:

sudo swapoff -a

Code:

sudo swapon -a

**codingman** · April 30th, 2013

err... It seems like a bigger problem with laptops, as in for hibernation. I don't make a swap anymore, cause I never use it and it takes precious time when you need to setup Arch.

**CharlesA** · April 30th, 2013

Originally Posted by codingman

err... It seems like a bigger problem with laptops, as in for hibernation. I don't make a swap anymore, cause I never use it and it takes precious time when you need to setup Arch.

That's probably the only reason you really need swap.

I have one on my server, but the whole 2x max RAM thing kinda gets old.

**lykwydchykyn** · April 30th, 2013

Apart from hibernation, I wouldn't see any point in swap with that much RAM. I mean, can you imagine if you were utilizing even half that much swap (4gb)? Think of how long it takes to copy a 4 Gb file to a partition. Seems like you'd be better off not swapping at all.

**Paqman** · April 30th, 2013

I still tend to keep a swap file on hand in case it's needed, but with 4GB RAM I find it's very rarely used. Tbh after installing Raring recently I haven't bothered to set the swap file up yet, I'll probably get around to it but the system works fine without it.