To play a new game I do not have enough RAM. I am reluctant to pay to upgrade my RAM so I am considering increasing virtual memory instead. I only need to increase the memory by 1GB, but the point is basically is virtual memory suitable for playing games. A quick Google search was inconclusive.

If it is not suitable is there another solution?

Dani AI

Generated

Short answer: no — you can increase the pagefile (virtual memory) and the system will run, but that is not a practical substitute for more physical RAM when gaming. and were correct that the pagefile is disk‑backed and only extends the system’s “commit” limit; it’s meant to prevent crashes and support things like crash dumps, not to serve as fast working memory for real‑time code. (learn.microsoft.com)

Why it feels bad: real RAM is orders of magnitude faster than any disk. DRAM access is measured in nanoseconds; even modern NVMe SSDs have latencies measured in microseconds and lower sustained bandwidth for the kinds of small, random accesses games need. That huge latency/bandwidth gap is exactly why paging causes stutters, long load times, and very poor frame pacing. Putting the pagefile on a faster drive reduces the pain, but it does not close the gap. (crucial.com)

About USB “RAM” / ReadyBoost: what hobby guides call “USB RAM” is effectively a disk cache (ReadyBoost). It can help general responsiveness on old HDD systems for small random reads, but it won’t turn a slow machine into a gaming rig and Windows may not even enable ReadyBoost on SSD systems. For gaming workloads, ReadyBoost / a USB stick is not a reliable fix. (learn.microsoft.com)

Practical next steps (what to do now): check Task Manager → Performance → Memory to see peak usage; if the game is hitting RAM, add memory (buy the correct DIMM/SODIMM for your board) — that’s the only low‑risk way to get smooth play. Short‑term: close background apps, lower texture/streaming settings, and use the fastest local drive (SSD) for the pagefile if you must page. Leave Windows to manage the pagefile unless you know the dump/diagnostic reasons to change it; keep a small pagefile on the system drive for crash dumps. (howtogeek.com)

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Virtual memory is just what it is, viryual, it doesnt exist in a physical form, it uses the hard drive as a way to hold/page your physical memory so your computer can hold/work with more workspace than what it really has, games software will look for physical memory only so your trick wont work.

Virtual memory is just what it is, viryual, it doesnt exist in a physical form, it uses the hard drive as a way to hold/page your physical memory so your computer can hold/work with more workspace than what it really has, games software will look for physical memory only so your trick wont work.

Does the same thing happen for USB RAM too?

Never tried USB RAM, because never had to nor ever want to due to the USB speed of read/write, but looking at the Google page showing how to make a USB RAM, my conclusion is simple, its a time wasting exercise, even if you did managed to get it to work, a USB read/write would be so slow it can be painful to use, especially for games.

as dimsums said,virtual ram is virtual no matter what drive you choose to use ,it aint a gonna help with gaming

using wintune98 my disk drive page file (virtual memory) benchmarks at about 900MB/s (with uncached disk at about 6MB/s noted as a relative value - why booting is slow)
ddr2 ecc memory benchmarks at 3300MB/s
3300 vs 900
hence the performace problem if ram memory is exhausted with the page file used to store program pages ( parts of programs) normally found in ram memory space
NT platform memory manager divides up applications into parts called pages with some stored in ram memory space and others stored in virtual memory

There is no cost free upgrade to my knowledge available if limited ram memory is cauising performance issues

for games with under spec ram memory the only solution is to incraese system memory
and also best to replace the disk drive with a faster model to boost paging speed or add an additional equal or faster cheap cost low capacity disk drive and configure performance options > virtual memory for a remote dedicated page file drive, as games seem to have a lot of pages stored in virtual memory
C;drive 2MB min 2MB max, (120MB /120MB if a crash dump is desired)
X:drive 2700MB min 2700MB max

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