Extra 1gb Ram! worth it for FS9? question.

[HoratioWondersocks 4]

Hello FolksFor years I have run FS9 with 1GB of ram. On the whole I am satisfied with the performance I get, however like must of us hapless sim addicts I am always thinking of those extra frames and smoothness of operation.My question is will I really notice any performance increase in FS If I add another 1GB stick of ram?.I am reluctant to spend about 60quid for the ram, AND to have to junk two perfectly fine 512k sticks (my motherboard only has two slots)If the performance increase is negligible.cheers Andy PS I notice there are various different types of DDR ram for my board.Can somebody explain these differences ie my current two sticks are something like 2100 - 133mgz 512k each.According to Crucial's ram check thingy program I could use 2700 0r 3200-400 in stead. I am no tech man but those bigger numbers equal faster performance to me .(no point in BIGGER numbers if things don't go bigger and better to is there? )MULTI CHEERSaNDY

[Hoang 108]

Wow, very rare do people now use 1GB for Fs9.For me,it's a huge difference, not only Fs9 but the whole O/S.

[HoratioWondersocks 4]

Wow, very rare do people now use 1GB for Fs9.For me,it's a huge difference, not only Fs9 but the whole O/S.

OK Thanks.This is what i need to know.One reason I ask is that my PC is quite elderly by PC standards and when I bought it it only came 512k ram which i immediately upgraded to 1GB ;hoping to see a BIG increase in FS performance however I was rather underwhelmed as it didn't really seem to make that much noticeable difference.Thanks for your thoughts thoughcheers Andy PS Please guys no "time to upgrade your whole system " comments. I like so many are living in busted UK no wonga anywhere land so a new PC is not an option at this time.WELL done you bankers (you bunch of greedy chaps) good job I aint no poet .

[Swoop 0]

My goodness Andy, how old is your box? I haven't seen PC's come with 512mb since the early 90's! At least that's what I remember :)Mark

[Glynn 405]

> I like so many are living in busted UK no wonga anywhere land so a new PC is not an option at this time.WELL done you bankers (you bunch of greedy chaps) good job I aint no poet .

HelloAs a UK resident I am struggling to see where the UK is busted.Seems OK to me.

[bobbyjack 61]

What kind of performance you get with more ram may also depend on your CPU. I think a dual core may show benefits more that a single. And go for the fastest ram you can. When I bought my Vista desktop, it came with 512 mb of ram. that would have been 2006 or so. And a 3.4 ghz single core Celeron cpu, which was totally worthless. Bob

[HoratioWondersocks 4]

My goodness Andy, how old is your box? I haven't seen PC's come with 512mb since the early 90's! At least that's what I remember :) Mark

Sir ! Insult me if you wish ,but my box....Seriously Its about six years old (05 poss 06) I think.And I can still see no reason to change it it does everything I need (as does windows XP ,your fault Msoft for creating such a good operating system )IF!!! Flight turns out to be the bees knees , and full of wonderfulness ,but only runs on today's PCs (which is fair enough) only then would I consider a new PC (even if it would men no heating in the Winter (that's what its coming to in the UK my US friends) and a diet of cold baked beans) A man MUST get his priorities right.SIMMING !not warm tootsies of course.cheers Andy

HelloAs a UK resident I am struggling to see where the UK is busted.Seems OK to me.

Good for you Sir!A

What kind of performance you get with more ram may also depend on your CPU. I think a dual core may show benefits more that a single. And go for the fastest ram you can. When I bought my Vista desktop, it came with 512 mb of ram. that would have been 2006 or so. And a 3.4 ghz single core Celeron cpu, which was totally worthless. Bob

More good stuff Bob thanks.My PC about same vintage as yours.512 but P4 2.8

[Graeme1873 3]

Andy Ive got a box about the same vintage as yourself and recently upgraded the RAM from 1Gb to 1.5Gb. In my opinion the change didn't make much difference to the frame rate in FS9 but i did notice an improvement in the smoothness around major cities / airports. Also reduced the demand on the hard drive which can only be a good thing given its 6 years old! All in all i was quite pleased with the impact the change made given that it only cost me £15 for the extra 0.5GB stick. Hope this helps Graeme

[Swoop 0]

No insult intended Andy...(don't know why you think it is one)...but I really haven't seen a PC come loaded with less then a gig in many years. Not saying that they don't or maybe it is that I just don't look at them if they do? On an interesting note, I've got my services down to a science here and get a clean WinXP32 SP3 boot with about 150mb. I can reduce it another 30mb or so if I want. So in other words, I'm wondering if I can get a minimal FS9 run with 512mb myself!Mark

[HoratioWondersocks 4]

Andy Ive got a box about the same vintage as yourself and recently upgraded the RAM from 1Gb to 1.5Gb. In my opinion the change didn't make much difference to the frame rate in FS9 but i did notice an improvement in the smoothness around major cities / airports. Also reduced the demand on the hard drive which can only be a good thing given its 6 years old! All in all i was quite pleased with the impact the change made given that it only cost me £15 for the extra 0.5GB stick. Hope this helps Graeme

GraemeThat's interesting. I didn't realise you could go for a 1.5 GB option,which of course would save wasting a perfectly good 512 stick.My only concern is that my current two 512 modules are not the fastest ram that is available for my Mboard.I assume all on board ram modules have to be the same spec.If I do decide to upgrade (Who am i kidding OF COURSE i am going to upgrade) then it will be with the fastest that my board can take (3200 -400 I think) .I suppose I could always go for 1.5 of 3200 ,but for that modest saving i may as well go for the full 2gb .Your input is much appreciated.cheers Andy

No insult intended Andy...(don't know why you think it is one)...but I really haven't seen a PC come loaded with less then a gig in many years. Not saying that they don't or maybe it is that I just don't look at them if they do? On an interesting note, I've got my services down to a science here and get a clean WinXP32 SP3 boot with about 150mb. I can reduce it another 30mb or so if I want. So in other words, I'm wondering if I can get a minimal FS9 run with 512mb myself! Mark

MarkI realise of course there was no insult ,I was just trying (and failing as usual )to be humorous .All positive feedback is welcome.Andy

[Superpilotv2 2]

When I bought my Vista desktop, it came with 512 mb of ram. that would have been 2006 or so. And a 3.4 ghz single core Celeron cpu, which was totally worthless. Bob

Sounds like our school computers! They suck!! Darn slow and keep chrashing all the time(maybe because of ubuntu, I don't know.). Well, back to OP: Yes, you'll definitely notice an performance increase! Not only in FS but over all. And it schouldn't be that expensive at all.

[ViperPilot 81]

Andy, Upgrading from 1Gb to 2Gb of RAM will make a big difference with the OS and with FS 9 as well. Don't feel bad... I have a P4 2.8 single core with 2Gb of RAM and FS 9 runs just fine for me. If it ain't broke, don't fix it; run it until you smell smoke! BTW the fastest RAM speed you'll be able to use would probably be 333MHz DDR, based on the MB's of that era. Alan

[HoratioWondersocks 4]

Andy, Upgrading from 1Gb to 2Gb of RAM will make a big difference with the OS and with FS 9 as well. Don't feel bad... I have a P4 2.8 single core with 2Gb of RAM and FS 9 runs just fine for me. If it ain't broke, don't fix it; run it until you smell smoke! BTW the fastest RAM speed you'll be able to use would probably be 333MHz DDR, based on the MB's of that era. Alan

Thanks AlanI think your post sways it for me.On a positive note there is not left in my PC that's original (including the MBoard ) and that's only about a year old ,and apparently can take 3200 - 400 MGzThanks to all contributors Andy updateHave just returned from my local PC shop having ordered two 1GB sticks of PC3200-400 MGz ram.cheersA

[Echofox 3]

Go to www.crucial.com and run a computer scan , it's free, and safe with no hassle. This will advise you on what your computer can take. I've used them over the years , and if you want to purchase from them their prices are good too. Echofox

[Glynn 405]

Thanks AlanI think your post sways it for me.On a positive note there is not left in my PC that's original (including the MBoard ) and that's only about a year old ,and apparently can take 3200 - 400 MGzThanks to all contributors Andy updateHave just returned from my local PC shop having ordered two 1GB sticks of PC3200-400 MGz ram.cheersA

Andy what MB and CPU do you have ?