[adonys]

actually, if you want to keep the page file, you should:
- set it on another HDD than the one with the OS
- set it on it's own drive on that HDD (the first drive, with the clusters near the HDD's center are the best in terms of performance)
- the above points should be enough to make sure the page file it is not fragmented, but if you can't do the above points, then defrag the HDD/drive on which you want to set it, put it in there (thus the page file is not fragmented at creation) and lock it's size (custom size, min = max) in order to not have the OS fumble with it (to keep it not fragmented)

thing is: as it is SAFE & even ADVISABLE to disable the page file if you have a SSD, then logic should tell you you may run without it even if you don't have a SSD, but have enough memory.. rrrrright?!!

Things is this: the virtual memory concept is an OS mechanism to assure concurent running processes with enough memory, even if the RAM is not so big. Thus, it creates a virtual memory space (on which the RAM is mapped as a part, the rest of it being actually mapped on the paging file on your HDD) in which it allocates memory to all running processes. processes (& their threads) AND/OR data not ran/requested for a while are firstly moved from the RAM part of the virtual memory, to the HDD mapped part, and then back when they are needed (a process TRANSPARENT to the running processes (which know that they & their data are actually in "RAM" (actually VRAM)) and called swapping.

Windows OS tries to have free RAM all the time (just in case, even if all the running processes and their data would perfectly fit into RAM and still leave a lot of it free), and actually moves parts of the data of still running and having high CPU %time processes in the paging file as part of his "awesome and newly optimised" VRAM management routines. It did that in ALL M$ OSes and it still does in Win7 (though to a lesser degree than in the previous ones, it's true. they are really trying to fix and improve this mess).

Il2 CoD is trying to cache into RAM a very high amount of small files. As it is not using all of them all the time, some of them might be swapped by the OS into the paging file, and when IL2CoD requests them.. ooops! there's a RAM miss, and the OS is swapping them back into RAM from paging file. There you go, one possible explanation for IL2CoD's microstutters.

I've found out that disabling the paging file and aero theme and using max settings is the best combo will get rid of the infamous microstutters, for me at least.

I'm not trying to impress, or convince anyone, I was just sharing a thought I have regarding a possible explanation (and if you'll read my first post you will see I've said "Because Windows is known for using the swap file even if it has tons of memory free, and this might lead to the microstutters you all are complaining about..") and trying to help the others with my knowledge.

It seems like there's no need for that, and there are "smarter" ones knowing "better".

Be my guests, go on, you help them!