Hello:

I am new to X-Plane. I have a Quad Core I5 with 8 MB of RAM and a VC w/ 2GB of onboard RAM. How important is it to upgrade to 16 GB RAM to handle more complex sceneries?

 

Thanks,

Dave

*GB is enough.

I use photoscenery at zoom level 18 and found I needed more than 8. I was using 8 with an i5 at the time. I bought another 8 before realising my cooler got in the way of the last stick so could only use 12 but that did the job.

 

 

How important is it to upgrade to 16 GB RAM to handle more complex sceneries?

 

At the moment, 8 GB are enough even with HD Mesh v2.

 

However, sooner or later the visibility will be increased. Laminar will be doing this by loading the double amount of scenery data (mesh etc.) into RAM. Thus, in future 16 GB will be better if you use HD Mesh and World2X-Plane or ZL 17/18 photo scenery.

As with any computer software, requirements will be higher in the future. The good news is that computer hardware also will get cheaper in the future, so by the time 32GB of RAM is needed, it won't cost more than 8GB does today.

 

For now, I would consider 8GB the "baseline" for a great experience, while 16GB will provide an even more optimal experience.

 

Unlike FSX/P3D, the X-Plane LOD (Level Of Detail) system is fairly simplistic - it renders a ring of high-detail scenery surrounded by very low detail scenery. Instead of creating more intermediate levels of detail, LR plan to extend the ring of high-detail scenery which will need more RAM.

Thank you all for your responses. I think you have all made it clear 8 GB is acceptable. BUT, will I get a better experience with 16GB or is it will just be an additional 8GB that X-Plane wont utilize?

16GB here, and it seems enough for me. 8GB, yes is too little when running highres photoscenery, HD mesh, and OSM stuff altogether. Also, with the upcoming versions of 10.35 which loads more tiles, you can't go wrong getting as much memory as possible.

Enough said then; 16GB it is....thanks!!