Swap storage question

[joelshort]

 I recently upgraded to a new PC with better specs specifically for Pixinsight.  The computer has 32GB of RAM and I have designated 10GB as RAMDisk storage to use for swap.  I have noticed that when processing large data sets I am sometimes running out of swap storage.  I don't really understand what swap storage is but I thought it was a temporary thing where files are deleted after they are used. 

Is 10GB RAMDisk just not enough, or what else might be causing this?  Instead of just using the RAMDisk for swap files, should I also designate a folder on the SSD to use for swap?  Currently I use 8 swap directories on the RAMDisk.

[msmythers]

Joel

If the only swap you have setup is the 10GB Ramdisk then it is probably not enough. A large project can easily use more then that. A project that has been going on with many steps and many secondary images will eat up swap. Swap in PI is used to hold every image, every image created during a change for every step during a processing session so no extra CPU processing is done when you recall a step from the history.  Swap also holds every process settings during every step of the project. This is also why project files can grow to be very large.

Myself I have 2 SSD's and have a swap folder on each. On my computer which uses an old AMD X6 processor, each swap folder is called multiple times in the global preferences. I determined the number by using the PI Benchmark script and trying different amount of folders until I got the result I liked the best. Every computer will be a bit different due to their hardware.


Mike

[joelshort]

Thanks Mike.  I'll just go ahead and add several directories on my SSD in addition to the RAMDisk. Are the directories used in order?  In other words, if I have the RAMDisk directories listed first will PI use that first before the SSD directories?

[msmythers]

Joel

I'm not sure??? Never bothered to check to be honest. Can't hurt to put the ram disk first I guess.


Mike