Did you try using IDEs without PFs, specifically MS visual studio.
Since I have almost no creativity, I've never attempted software development. For that reason I've never run MS Visual Studio nor any other IDE. I did a Google search to see how much RAM this program takes up. Some people report they've run it with as little as 2GB - assuming they're not running anything in the background.
Based on what I've read, if you've got a minimum 8GB of RAM and are not running a ramdisk, you might be able to run it without a PF. Run a test and see what happens. Oh and BTW, I'm assuming 64bit so you can use all your available RAM.
Keep in mind that with Task Manager on Windows 8.1 or higher you can easily see how much RAM is being used and what programs are using it.