Hi,I am trying to update my thinking to match my new system (specs in Signature). Is it worthwhile adding another 3 sticks of 2g Kingston HyperX 1600mgz to my system for a total of 12g? I realize that at least one time 12g of ram would have been useless for FSX. Has opinion changed?Stephen

As FSX is a 32bit application adding 6GB wont make any difference.

Hi,I am trying to update my thinking to match my new system (specs in Signature). Is it worthwhile adding another 3 sticks of 2g Kingston HyperX 1600mgz to my system for a total of 12g? I realize that at least one time 12g of ram would have been useless for FSX. Has opinion changed?Stephen

Stephen,I can just tell you that while only running FSX I have run out of ram repeatedly using 6Gb on win7-64 and jumpped to 12 to eliminated the problem. Huge highres sceneries, complex Aircraft and other add-ons can eat far more than what you often read about. 32 bit apps are restrained to about 1.7gb per proccess is true, but FSX combined with complex add-ons is much more than one proccess.As far as performance though, no you dont need it, and further why dont wait to see if you ever have an "out of memory FSX must be shut down" or maybe you considering returning rrecently purchased ram that you can still return. Dont know what to tell you other than run all your addons for a long flight, land often max everything including LOD and see what you can deal with now, if you dont run into a problem dont waste your money.Understand though that since the memory controler is on the I7 chip, filling up all your slots will cause much more work for the controler, and that equals heat that can limit your overclock. There are a few around here that use 12GB and over clock in the ultra high range, so it can be done.Also buying matched pairs of memory is a must. And since no one wants to get stuck with under performing ram, you may want to read up on it and really think about what speed to get.Faster Speed ram allows for you to run at higher overclock but also higher Uncore a bit easier which FSX seems to like at stock BP settings. If you think you are going to be always using BP=0 then Just sticking to some decent 1600 6/7cl should do fine.

I can just tell you that while only running FSX I have run out of ram repeatedly using 6Gb on win7-64 and jumpped to 12 to eliminated the problem. Huge highres sceneries, complex Aircraft and other add-ons can eat far more than what you often read about. 32 bit apps are restrained to about 1.7gb per proccess is true, but FSX combined with complex add-ons is much more than one proccess.

FSX, huge sceneries, and complex aircraft add-ons are still all running as part of FSX, and all of that has to fit into a 4GB address space under a 64-bit OS. Having 6 GB or 128 GB of RAM doesn't change that. External add-ons, like Active Sky, Radar Contact etc have fairly small footprints, and that part of the OS that needs to stay resident in memory while FS runs is less than 1GB.If you're running out of RAM with 6GB installed, either you have a whole heap of other apps and processes running on the side (i.e. you're not practicing good configuration control to shut down unneeded processes), or you have something unusual in your configuration.Going to 12GB from 6 GB will slow your memory subsystem down. The timings are automatically loosened significantly by the BIOS when a second bank of DIMMs is added. It defeats the purpose of buying fast RAM in the first place. As Shockwave suggests, I'd only consider it if I were having OOM issues that configuration control couldn't fix. To date I have never had an OOM on my i7 Vista64 system (6GB) when running FSX + heavy weather + complex high polygon count acft (e.g. PMDG 747X/MD-11) + complex scenery (e.g. ImagineSim, FlyTampa, FSDreamTeam etc).The most likely result is that an extra 6GB will just help heat the room and nothing more.RegardsBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

FSX, huge sceneries, and complex aircraft add-ons are still all running as part of FSX, and all of that has to fit into a 4GB address space under a 64-bit OS. Having 6 GB or 128 GB of RAM doesn't change that. External add-ons, like Active Sky, Radar Contact etc have fairly small footprints, and that part of the OS that needs to stay resident in memory while FS runs is less than 1GB.If you're running out of RAM with 6GB installed, either you have a whole heap of other apps and processes running on the side (i.e. you're not practicing good configuration control to shut down unneeded processes), or you have something unusual in your configuration.Going to 12GB from 6 GB will slow your memory subsystem down. The timings are automatically loosened significantly by the BIOS when a second bank of DIMMs is added. It defeats the purpose of buying fast RAM in the first place. As Shockwave suggests, I'd only consider it if I were having OOM issues that configuration control couldn't fix. To date I have never had an OOM on my i7 Vista64 system (6GB) when running FSX + heavy weather + complex high polygon count acft (e.g. PMDG 747X/MD-11) + complex scenery (e.g. ImagineSim, FlyTampa, FSDreamTeam etc).The most likely result is that an extra 6GB will just help heat the room and nothing more.RegardsBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

True and good points to think about and glad that works for you Bob.But there are exceptions to everything you just said and as long as he isn't running into those exceptions he should stay pat as I mentioned.Ram: As they saying goes "you get what you pay for". I run 12 gig at the same speed as 6gig, 1600 7-7-7-20 at just 1.5vdram, or 1600 @ 6-6-6-18 or 2000 @ 8-8-8-24 it all runs at that and the subtimings give great results and can easily compete with the 6Gb subtimings real world.Runs any of those 24/7 at very overclocks of 4.2 and as high as 4.5 on air if we want to turn on the afterburner. Is it easy? no.But I think I made that clear as to the IMC, but you prepare for it by research, investing in good ram, a good mother board and good cooling.Having set up quite a number of machines like this on I7 and AMD platforms as well (8Gb) same problems, same solutions. However FSX does not seem to care about timmings as much as it does about uncore to QPI ratio as Peter Dawson made mention his 2000 speed ram helped him out a lot, 2000 uses uncore at more than 1:1 ratio to QPI and if your not using BP=0 it helps FSX reduce stutters quite well, much more than timings do, but lots of voltage and heat to L3 cache controler (QPI). I have spent considerable time with timings with FSX over the years, what you see posted about system performance and benchmarks around the net is of no use if it doesnt help you in the real world is all I can say. There are other things you can do with 1600 and uncore to get it to behave like 2000 as well, but still you need good cooling and a good MB. FSX, again there are exceptions and is why I sugest he see if he can run it max with all his add-ons for some long flights in and out of the bussiest areas without running into a out of memory error then dont bother. As for me and some other FSimmer veterans that have experienced it, the other 4Gb or 6Gb solved the problem.

Just as a for-what-it's-worth...I have 12GB of RAM and have never seen FSX use More than 3.6GB. As said earlier, FSX is a 32-bit application and can't get past the 4GB addressable memory limitation. Seems to me that 6GB would be just fine for FSX unless there is a lot of other stuff going on at the same time.Doug Cooler Master HAF 232 TowerGigabyte GX-X58A-UD7Intel Core i7-960 @ 3.44GHzCooler Master V8 HSF12GB Corsair XMS3 Dominator DDR3-1600AMD 5870 GPU300GB Western Digital Raptor6TB HDD Internal - Hitachi6TB HDD External - Western Digital2X Plextor PX-880SA2X Plextor PX-870AWindows 7 Professional 64-Bit

Hi,I am trying to update my thinking to match my new system (specs in Signature). Is it worthwhile adding another 3 sticks of 2g Kingston HyperX 1600mgz to my system for a total of 12g? I realize that at least one time 12g of ram would have been useless for FSX. Has opinion changed?Stephen

Opinion hasn't changed. 6GB is enough. And better as someone said - 12GB slow the memory system down. Self-experience.

I agree with >most of what every one has commented on, however get the feeling my post got read thru quickly, probably should not make them so wordy...I hope these memory speed captures are ok, as far as what can now be done with 12GB on aircooling.Ask Peter Dawson what he runs next time he's around, maybe he can shed more light on how slow 12GB of 2000-8-8-8-24 is since you cant take my word for it - notice the uncore frequency :( All the Green highlites are previous runs on the same system, the Yellow=Just benched:Aerosoft Manhatten High IQ settings full water no bloom and no ground shadows 8xsAA 16xAF MytrafficX loaded, FSDT JFK in the far distance

The most likely result is that an extra 6GB will just help heat the room and nothing more.

Another winter like the one we just had, and I think we can convince the wife that this is a good buy.

Thank you each of you,There is lots to think about from all your wise advice. So, far I have not had any memory issues, at least not the same way the earlier systems had, which were each suffering in a different way from it's predessor, winding way back through a dozen machines or so to an Apple 2e with stick airplanes that chugged at about 1-2 fps. This is my 4th system upgrade in 2 years, and I am still thinking...more...even though this is great performance, the best ever...yet...I am irritated that I still can't fly over whatever city I want, in whatever plane I want, as fast as I want without any FPS or performance issues whatsoever. I look at your guy's machine specifications...Like, how much money is that for hardware alone, not counting endless lists of advanced addons? Good grief, we could buy and equip a small private army with the cost of what we have humming beside us! But hey, flight nirvana is just around the corner, where we will slip the surly bonds of earth to dance in the the skies on laughter-silvered wings because bufferpools=0. We have been assimilated. Resistance is futile! Sleepless with slight stutter over Seattle,Stephen

Just as a for-what-it's-worth...I have 12GB of RAM and have never seen FSX use More than 3.6GB. As said earlier, FSX is a 32-bit application and can't get past the 4GB addressable memory limitation. Seems to me that 6GB would be just fine for FSX unless there is a lot of other stuff going on at the same time.Doug

"3.6GB for FSX"How much ram do we have left for the OS?Add a 1GB video card and now much addressable ram is left for the OS?Or maybe thats a 2GB card, now how much addressable memory is left for the OS after 2GB is reserved for memory mapping? OS footprint after adding all of your perifials that need to map memory?Hello, this is your OS talking "FSX has run out of system memory and needs to shut down"Thats my story and Im sticking to it. :(

"3.6GB for FSX"How much ram do we have left for the OS?Add a 1GB video card and now much addressable ram is left for the OS?Or maybe thats a 2GB card, now how much addressable memory is left for the OS after 2GB is reserved for memory mapping? OS footprint after adding all of your perifials that need to map memory?Hello, this is your OS talking "FSX has run out of system memory and needs to shut down"Thats my story and Im sticking to it. :(

The resident OS code (VistaPig x64 in my case) typically uses less than 1GB if you kill off some of the unneeded processes.Most memory mapping in a 64-bit OS occurs above the 4GB address boundary, so it's not an issue. Remember that memory mapping is only the assignment of an address, not assignment of physical memory. In 32-bit systems with 4GB of RAM it's an issue because the mapped addresses preclude RAM from using them...in a 64-bit system the memory mapped addresses are outside the first 4GB, so they don't block system RAM.I've never seen an OOM message with 6GB. I wonder what you're doing/running in addition to FSX to get to that?CheersBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

Another winter like the one we just had, and I think we can convince the wife that this is a good buy.

:( We're expecting about a foot of snow here tonight, so me thinks it premature to refer to winter in the past tense just yet!CheersBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

We're expecting about a foot of snow here tonight, so me thinks it premature to refer to winter in the past tense just yet!

I thought of that when I used the past tense. I live in Florida, so I probably don't qualify as someone who uses his computer heat output to survive the winter. However, we did just have our coldest winter on record, and temperatures are still below normal. Everyone, do enjoy Spring.

Everyone, do enjoy Spring.

Everyone on the southern hemisphere, do enjoy Fall :(