MinFileCache= sets the Minimum disk cache (in KB’s) on your system. This setting directly affects the physical RAM you can use on your machine, the higher you set it the less RAM will be available to applications. I recommend setting this to 1/8 your RAM X 1024 for 128 MB of physical RAM or less. Some suggest ¼ but this impacts performance with low levels of RAM. If you have more than 128 MB then using ¼ is acceptable. 128MB = 16384 setting. If you are missing this entry hit New button - type “MinFileCache=” (without quotations) and numeric value after the equal sign.
MaxFileCache= sets the Maximum disk cache (in KB’s) for your system. This setting directly affects the physical RAM you can use on your machine, the higher you set it the less RAM will be available to applications. I’d recommend setting this to 1/4 your RAM X 1024 , i.e. Double the MinFileCache (if using 1/8). Eg. 128 MB = 32768. If you are missing this entry type “MaxFileCache=” (without quotations) and numeric value after the equal sign. The visual screen capture was on a system with 512 MB of physical RAM.
Save and reboot. It may be worthwhile testing on different motherboards although the recommendations given above is what has worked best in tests.
There is another entry you can post in vcache; this is Chunksize. Chunksize=x. Chunksize can effect performance. Vcache is a single block of memory that is divided into chunks. If the Chunksize is too small it will occupy to many chunks & when set too
large it will occupy too few chunks. A program can have more than one chunk, but if it doesn't divide evenly into the size of the chunk, some RAM goes unused (i.e. is fragmented). On one hand, having a smaller chunk size allows for less wasted RAM in the vcache. On the other hand, a larger chunk size increases the access speed for the vcache. Common values are 128, 256, 512, 1024, and 2048 . The rule of thumb is, if you have any newer monster multi-GigaByte size hard disk, you may want to set this value to "high": 2048. The ideal value will lie in between two extremes. x represents a numeric value that is a multiple of 512, e.g. 512, 1024 & so on. Depending on your Min/MaxFileCache settings a good starting value for x would be 512 or 1024. Default in the registry (void of actual entry line in Sys.ini is 512). If after all tweaks you still find the system sluggage, unstable, dropped frames and/or poor sync try 1024 up to 2048.
4.) [386Enh Settings] – In system.ini TAB
Add the line ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 This can significantly reduce Virtual memory use - it makes Windows use RAM before the (slow hard drive) Swapfile. This setting will tell Windows ME not to use the swap file at all until all of the RAM is used. After all of the RAM is used up, the computer will push most of the infrequently used data to the swap file so this is a very good adjustment (“tweak”). This is particularly beneficial for those with 256MB RAM or more. While in the [386Enh] section, add another line; DMABufferSize=64 to tweak DMA performance. This will conserve at least 64KB of memory to DMA (direct memory access) to reinsure that your DMA devices always have enough memory allocated. Note that this tweak should only be used if you have one or more DMA enabled devices on your system. Also add a line PageBuffers=32 This setting tells the computer to dedicate a certain amount of RAM to buffer the hard drive rather than allowing the operating system to dynamically handle the buffer. Windows dynamic handling of most memory issues is very inefficient, due to the large difference Windows sets between minimum and maximum values. 32 is the highest setting the operating system allows, so it is recommended that you use this value. LocalLoadHigh=1 This setting tells the operating system to load its local drivers into upper memory by default as opposed to trying to squeeze them into conventional memory. WARNING : The LocalLoad... tweak is only good if you have less than 128MB of RAM, but may actually hinder performance for those with 128MB or more . Exit Re-boot.
5.) Computer Role setting and Performance
These next 2 settings should be set in accordance with the “Typical role of this computer” setting (Right click on My Computer select Properties. select the Performance tab then the File system button). With the default selections Network server is the best recommended choice for video editing. Network server role places registry settings for high disk activity (which is what editing involves). Network Server caches 64 directory paths and 2729 filenames, and takes up 16K doing it. The "Desktop" setting caches 32 paths and 677 filenames, and takes 8K. .
Set Read-ahead optimization to None. The slider setting changes the amount of RAM used for read-ahead optimization. Basically, Windows stores data temporarily to RAM versus your HD, since access to data stored in RAM is faster than access to data stored on your HD. Changing the "Read-Ahead Optimization" setting to "None" will, however, prevent block-size chunks of data (in the range of 1-2K) from being cached. Retrieving and reading this cached information interferes with high data rate playback. Selecting to None option causes the disk cache to flush continually. If you have problems with “realtime” transitions and/or drop frames in Premiere or av sync in capture. This is usually due to poor disk burst activity - setting to full will help. If have RAM > 128 MB try set to Full or 50 %.
6.) System Configuration Utility
The Windows Me version of msconfig differs in many ways to the Windows 9x version. With Windows Me there comes an extremely useful System Configuration Utility. This displays program/utilities running at Startup & gives you control over other aspects of the system itself. Click on Start > Run, type in msconfig & hit Enter. This will load the System Configuration Utility.
See Display next page
In the General tab you should select Selective startup as your Startup selection & “Untick” the Load environmental variables setting. This will give both optimal boot time & system performance. Now select the Startup tab.
This tab displays a list of all programs that are loaded upon system start-up. The items which are Ticked are actually being loaded upon Start-up. To disable an item from being loaded at Startup simply Untick it. The programs are typically called TSR – Terminate and Stay Resident. Now which to leave ticked……..
TSR programs load instructions into memory that shouldn’t be there for high intensive operation such as video editing. There are, however, a few that should be left in the background.
1. For System Stability you should leave the Scanreg entry “Ticked”, this makes backups of the System registry & should anything go wrong it will restore you system registry to a point upon which your system last booted normally.
2. “Untick” Findfast (If you have it). Findfast is a Microsoft a utility included with Microsoft Office applications that builds indexes to speed up finding documents from the Open dialog box in any Microsoft Office program & from Microsoft Outlook. However building these indexes can consume a lot of system resources while they are being updated & such. This feature is of little use to anyone as a result. Make sure you remove.
3. Leave System Tray and Load Power Profile “Ticked” – one or both may show up more than once and that’s OK.
If using the Matrox RT-2000/2500 the. MxvfxStartup MUST be “Ticked” are the Card will not initiate.
“Untick” all others – hit OK and close – reboot for changes to take effect.
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