Should I increase the Windows page file for flight sims?

For most Windows flight simulators, leave the page file enabled and set it to System managed size. Increasing it manually will not raise frame rates; it only adds commit headroom when memory demand is high. Enlarge it only if Windows is reaching its commit limit or an old custom setting has capped it too low.

This applies broadly to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and 2024, X-Plane, Prepar3D, DCS and other demanding Windows simulators. The page file supports committed virtual memory; it is not extra physical RAM or VRAM, and Windows may use it before RAM is completely full.

What Windows page-file setting is best?

We recommend allowing Windows to manage the paging file automatically unless a measured problem or a specific support instruction requires a custom size.

The old advice to set virtual memory to 1.5 or 3 times installed RAM is not a useful universal rule. Modern systems have widely different RAM capacities and simulator workloads, so an enormous fixed file can simply consume SSD space without changing performance.

How can I tell whether the page file is too small?

Check Windows committed memory while reproducing the flight that normally fails.

1. Run the real workload. Load the simulator, aircraft, scenery, traffic, utilities and background applications normally used when the problem occurs.
2. Open Task Manager. Select Performance, then Memory, and find the Committed figures.
3. Compare current commitment with the limit. The first figure is memory presently committed; the second is the commit limit supported broadly by RAM and page files.
4. Watch what happens before the fault. If the first figure repeatedly closes in on the second immediately before a warning or crash, additional commit headroom may help. If substantial room remains, enlarging the page file is unlikely to fix it.

Relevant symptoms include Windows allocation errors, a simulator closing during a memory-heavy load, or a warning such as “Memory resources getting low”. For that specific simulator message, see the causes and fixes behind MSFS 2024 memory-resource warnings.

High physical-memory use alone does not prove that the page file is undersized. Non-zero hard faults are also normal and can involve mapped files, not just data retrieved from pagefile.sys. VRAM exhaustion, a leaking add-on, corrupt scenery or an unstable overclock can produce similar-looking crashes.

How do I safely increase the page file?

The safest way to increase virtual-memory headroom is to restore automatic management rather than guessing a custom size.

1. Close the simulator and save other work. Check that the Windows drive or chosen internal SSD has adequate free space.
2. Open advanced system settings. Search Windows for advanced system settings and open the matching system control panel result.
3. Open Virtual Memory. Under Advanced, open the Performance settings, select its Advanced tab and choose Change under Virtual memory.
4. Enable automatic management. Tick Automatically manage paging file size for all drives. This normally replaces a disabled or undersized custom configuration with the appropriate Windows-managed setting.
5. Apply the change. Confirm the dialogue boxes and restart Windows if requested, then repeat the same simulator workload and recheck the Committed figures.

If a custom page file is genuinely required, set its initial and maximum sizes from observed peak commitment and leave sensible headroom. There is no single correct value in megabytes for every simulator. Do not allocate nearly all remaining SSD capacity, because Windows, simulator caches and updates also need working space.

Will a larger page file improve FPS or fix out-of-memory errors?

A larger page file does not improve frame rates when the existing commit limit is sufficient.

Performance, stutters and physical RAM

Paging can prevent an allocation failure, but retrieving active data from storage is much slower than using RAM. An SSD reduces the penalty without turning virtual memory into a substitute for physical memory. If the simulator continually pages during flight, adding RAM and reducing memory-heavy scenery, traffic or background applications are better fixes; our practical flight-simulator RAM and storage guidance explains when a hardware upgrade makes sense.

A mistake we see constantly is enlarging the page file to cure every pause. Stutters can come from shader compilation, scenery streaming, main-thread limits, storage access or add-ons. For MSFS 2020, use our targeted checks for stutters and micro-pauses rather than treating virtual memory as a universal fix.

Drive choice and free space

Let Windows place the page file on an internal SSD with adequate free space. Avoid removable drives, and do not disable paging merely to reduce SSD writes; leaving no page file can cause allocation failures and can interfere with some Windows crash-dump configurations.

Moving every page file away from the Windows drive may also affect certain crash dumps unless their settings are adjusted. Splitting page files across several modern SSDs rarely provides a meaningful simulator benefit, so keep the arrangement simple unless storage constraints dictate otherwise.

Limits and common mistakes

• FSX remains a 32-bit application. A larger Windows page file cannot remove its per-process address-space ceiling. Use the FSX-specific out-of-memory fixes for scenery, aircraft and texture pressure.
• VRAM is separate. Increasing pagefile.sys does not expand graphics-card memory or directly solve a GPU memory warning.
• Memory leaks keep growing. A larger page file may only delay the eventual crash caused by a faulty aircraft, scenery package or utility.
• A huge fixed file is not faster. Once the commit limit is sufficient, unused page-file capacity has no FPS benefit.
• Do not delete pagefile.sys manually. Change virtual-memory settings through Windows and allow the operating system to recreate the protected file.