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Do I need a swap partition?

Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 1:33 am
by baj
Hello,

I am setting up a new laptop with an SSD and 24GB of RAM. I dual boot Win7 and Mint 13 Mate, so I don't hibernate. I also don't use sleep, if that matters. The cold boot with the SSD is very fast.

I set it up without a swap file thinking I didn't need it (not with current software and 24GB of RAM), but before I "go live" with this laptop I wanted to make sure I didn't make a fatal error.

Thanks,
-Brad

Re: Do I need a swap partition?

Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 2:46 am
by caf4926
With 24GB RAM, you will not need swap

Re: Do I need a swap partition?

Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 8:42 am
by DavePlummer
I've operated a desktop with 4GB of RAM, a laptop with 4GB of RAM, and a file server with 2GB of RAM for about two years with no problems. :)

Re: Do I need a swap partition?

Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 9:48 am
by Orbmiser
Yep gone are the days of needing swap for the most part.

Have 4gb of ram and rarely see swap used. Tho comes in handy doing Video or Raw Image editing.
As ram use really climbs when doing editing with multiple actions on 4gb ram so have 4gb swap.
On a 24gb I wouldn't even see a need for swap.
.

Re: Do I need a swap partition?

Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 6:43 pm
by Skara Brae
Just for fun, I have opened all the programs in the "All" list :)

System Monitor says that 2.6 Gb of my 4 Gb RAM are used. Swap is 4.8 Mb "full" (of the 4 Gb that were automatically made during install - a bit much for swap, but what the heck).

So, with everything open, 2.6 of 4 Gb RAM is used, and only 4.8 Mb swap.

Re: Do I need a swap partition?

Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2013 4:35 pm
by nunol
Orbmiser wrote:On a 24gb I wouldn't even see a need for swap.
It will depend on the type of utilization. For typical use I don't even see the need for 24GB of RAM but some specific uses may use a lot of RAM and need a lot of SWAP like servers, playing with a lot of VM's, graphics and video editing, some scientific computations, etc.

Re: Do I need a swap partition?

Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2013 1:06 pm
by alicajmacandie
caf4926 wrote:With 24GB RAM, you will not need swap
I have to agree.