Hi, I'm thinking of upgrading my DDR3 RAM from 1600Hz CL7 to 2000Hz CL6.Will this give me any noticeable performance improvement in FSX or none at all?I have an i975 o/c to 4GHz and an HD5870.It's either that or upping the GPU to a GTX580...!ThanksDavid

Well going from a 5870 to a GTX580 is going to show zero performance increase in FSX. Could you link me to such CL6 2000MHz Ram, since I've never seen such low latency on such high speeds. I doubt upgrading your ram will increase performance in FSX, considering it's CPU intensive.

Hi, I'm thinking of upgrading my DDR3 RAM from 1600Hz CL7 to 2000Hz CL6.Will this give me any noticeable performance improvement in FSX or none at all?I have an i975 o/c to 4GHz and an HD5870.It's either that or upping the GPU to a GTX580...!ThanksDavid

Completely disagree with my friend above if you are going to use high Image quality settings,because you will get much more sustained smooth flight than with any video card available and I think that we all know is what FSX needs as far as large FPS increases sure not much, however it wont take much of a hit when using high filter settings including TSSAA in any scenario you can throw at it. I would reccomend going with the 580GTX except for the fact that the 570GTX is due out in a few weeks and will be a bargain as it wiil get pretty close to the same performance as the 580 at two thirds the price (think a just slightly better & quieter 480).As for the 5870,as great a card that it is, in FSX it doesn't out perform a 285GTX if the IQ is >equal (typical ATI FSX performance limitations in AG, weather and HD VC among others when using high IQ filtering - IF you can find a setting that even compares to choices you have in NV, its just a bummer). Ram is at good prices these days though for sure, but get the card, the 570 if you can wait or if you dont mind the xtra cash you will love the quiet and powerful 580GTX Faster Ram and low latency are also key to smooth flight, there almost seems to be this wall that low CL at high speed helps to knock down or help maintain stutter free flight.Get your DDR3-2000 CL6 Here

Completely disagree with my friend above if you are going to use high Image quality settings,because you will get much more sustained smooth flight than with any video card available and I think that we all know is what FSX needs as far as large FPS increases sure not much, however it wont take much of a hit when using high filter settings including TSSAA in any scenario you can throw at it. I would reccomend going with the 580GTX except for the fact that the 570GTX is due out in a few weeks and will be a bargain as it wiil get pretty close to the same performance as the 580 at two thirds the price (think a just slightly better & quieter 480).As for the 5870,as great a card that it is, in FSX it doesn't out perform a 285GTX if the IQ is >equal (typical ATI FSX performance limitations in AG, weather and HD VC among others when using high IQ filtering - IF you can find a setting that even compares to choices you have in NV, its just a bummer). Ram is at good prices these days though for sure, but get the card, the 570 if you can wait or if you dont mind the xtra cash you will love the quiet and powerful 580GTX Faster Ram and low latency are also key to smooth flight, there almost seems to be this wall that low CL at high speed helps to knock down or help maintain stutter free flight.Get your DDR3-2000 CL6 Here

can you please post a scenario where RAM timings make that much of a difference? just askingAnd to the OP, what is it that makes you think that you need an upgrade? have you tried Bojote's tweaks for ATI cards? namely, shader mod, Vsync tweak

To the OP: you might want to look at these 3 links, in this order: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1209121/fps_updated.JPG And this: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1209121/graph_updated.JPG And then this (reading from the start of the thread): http://forum.avsim.net/topic/255816-effect-of-ram-speed-timing-on-fsx-performance/page__p__1610977__hl__tfm__fromsearch__1#entry1610977 Tim

Ok, so 2000MHz CL7 ram has an average of 2FPS more than 1600MHz CL6. Is 2FPS worth $250+? A GTX580 upgrade will probably result the same, about 2-5FPS upgrade max. Is that worth $500+?

Ok, so 2000MHz CL7 ram has an average of 2FPS more than 1600MHz CL6. Is 2FPS worth $250+? A GTX580 upgrade will probably result the same, about 2-5FPS upgrade max. Is that worth $500+?

Actually it's worse than that: if you look closely at the "footnotes", the extra ~2fps at 2000MHz was achieved partly by the faster RAM but partly also by the associated slight increase in CPU speed. However, as I said in the original post over a year ago, IMHO it probably is not productive to ask whether or not the difference is "worth the money": I imagine that the OP and anyone else who is interested will simply make up his or her own mind based on his or her own circumstances and priorities in light of the limited data available about what benefits the new kit would actually deliver.Tim

Agreed. Here's hoping MS Flight will run like a dream on our extreme gaming systems.

Ok, so 2000MHz CL7 ram has an average of 2FPS more than 1600MHz CL6. Is 2FPS worth $250+? A GTX580 upgrade will probably result the same, about 2-5FPS upgrade max. Is that worth $500+?

Agree Chris and you make a good point, but there is the other side of that coin 1-3 here, 2-5 there and smooth flight AND higher IQ settings to enjoy at the same time to boot :) and it does all start to add up - You do get what you pay for, but this is FSX and the increases are small and we do need to be careful to not expect too much as well as misslead people to expect too much. But really its much more than that , take the scenarios we have that are sometimes the best part of flight, on an aproach to a busy hub when lesser hardware gets swallowed up alive under any complex scenarios, try flying into DreamTeamJFK+ManhattenX in your favorite Big Iron with a decent AI program running at 1920x1200 8QxAA with TSSAA on alphas and GSSAA, now want to add some weather to that? You absolutly will Kill lesser hardware where as all the above adds up to much much more cabability to keep it running in a tollerable way - the difference can be as huge as 30-50% not just your 2-5% average once your airborn or just sitting on the ground. Ever really notice what effect DDR3-2000 has to uncore and QPI and how that relates to FSX? There is very good benefit but maybe you wouldn't care, and its not related to FPS. On the other hand you can enjoy decent frames on a budget, but you will Have to drop the IQ and even then it still wont keep up, lesser memory-subsystems wont keep the LOD clear and loaded, the flights wont be smooth without sacrificing LOD on all levels not to mention the poor image quality of shimmering fragments and dead performance under heavy loaded conditions.So maybe there is a point, if you dont utilize your 580 by turning up the IQ its a waste, why buy it then? Same for CL6 memory, why not just go cheap CL6 1066? or stay with a duel-core or your old AGP...Why buy all those new add-ons with HD textures and complex models etc?

Thanks to all who have posted.So would the upgrade be worth it? On purely monetary terms probably not, but it figures that if we are here discussing hardware then I suppose we are what could be called PC "enthusiasts". As such we are often willing to make sacrifices to the god of cash to make our beloved machine perform even better.Personally I think moving from 1600@CL7 to 2000@CL6 has to give some improvement; faster memory and better timings.The 580 is more of a coup de coeur - my desire to get the best IQ possible, which seems these days to be with an NVidia card, and now that their flagship single GPU card is also now a quiet one, I'm interested! I've had the 5870 a year, time to move on. :)

Uhmm fact of the matter is the bandwidth is determined by the CPU.... why would you buy 2000mhz ram when even the Sandy Bridge doesn't support those speeds.... waste of cash honestly. Just because the motherboard supports, it means nothing to FSX. And I'd be suspicous of buying anything not on the QVL.. even if it says 6-6-6 on it the fact that it didn't make it through Asus means it actually doesn't perform as advertised.

Uhmm fact of the matter is the bandwidth is determined by the CPU.... why would you buy 2000mhz ram when even the Sandy Bridge doesn't support those speeds.... waste of cash honestly. Just because the motherboard supports, it means nothing to FSX. And I'd be suspicous of buying anything not on the QVL.. even if it says 6-6-6 on it the fact that it didn't make it through Asus means it actually doesn't perform as advertised.

Well that is a very simple way of saying it but really only applies to old cpus like the Core 2.More accurately the I7 is controlled by the Uncore frequency (you can select the multi for this or let the mem profile do it). The Uncore frequency clocks the L3 cache and the IMC (which BTW then allows the QPI to be opened up as well) this is not just for the xtreme I7s like the 975 but also the retail 920s and up that have been unlocked for more than 18 months. Thats the whole beauty of the I7, the bandwidth is not wasted like it was on a core 2.Arn't you a bit paranoid with the whole frequency thing?The I7 does not technicaly support 1666 either :Hypnotized: so what are you trying to say??? Anyway, have a good night everyone GT5 is on the PS3 tonight :)

I would agree that a couple of fps doesn't sound like much but 20fps and smooth vs 15 fps and stutters is a big difference.

More accurately the I7 is controlled by the Uncore frequency (you can select the multi for this or let the mem profile do it). The Uncore frequency clocks the L3 cache and the IMC (which BTW then allows the QPI to be opened up as well) this is not just for the xtreme I7s like the 975 but also the retail 920s and up that have been unlocked for

I asked about the uncore and it's roll in overall performance in another forum. No one replied but it could very well be a factor in FSX. I'm not sure about the QPI link though, but it might also be something to look at. Well, I tested what my system allows me to and tweaked my OC from:CPU: 4.2GHz (20x200) RAM: 1600MHz 6-8-7-22Uncore: (locked at x16) 3200MHzQPI: x16: 3200MHztoCPU: 4.2GHz (19x221) RAM: 1768MHz 6-9-7-24Uncore: (locked at x16) 3535MHzQPI: x18: 3977MHza 10% uncore and 25% QPI boost. a 1GB/s increase in memory thoughput (MaxxMem). From 55 to 60 GFlops in linkpack runs, but I still can't see no performance difference in FSX using my Heathrow benchmark with all the eye candy, 4096 textures and 100% MyTrafficXI know a 10% extra uncore speed is not much, but I mean, zero FPS increase in average, minimums ams maximums and no extra perceived smoothness either.I cant test KJFK since I don't have the addons, but I don't think Heathrow is a bad choice for testing demanding scenarios at all.Whatever, I could be wrong, actually if people like Nick Needham say that x58 is better... well, if I had to choose to trust what a noob like me posts vs him, no wonder I would do what Nick says. I just like to test things myself and I guess there's no way I can be sure untill I get me an x58 system, and that's just never gonna happen.Now with Sandy Bridge round the corner I wonder how those LGA1155 p67 dual channel systems will perform. The memory tests I've seen are impressive, even on just two channels, and I don't even know if there's an uncore anymore and if there is, what multi do those chips have their uncore set to, and if the K versions will have that unlocked too. Any news on that anyone?