Upgrade: GTX 1070 SLI or 32GB Ram

[Griphos 138]

12 minutes ago, Jimm said:

Oddly enough, I found nothing in that article about simulators.

You're right.  You got me.  Simulators are a completely OTHER kind of software program and have NOTHING to do with any other kind of software/hardware interaction.  

Perhaps look on the page about games, and notice that several listed used more than 8 gb by themselves, and the system was also using several more gb for applications like browser tabs, and yet there was no real difference between 8 gb or 16 gb of RAM, particularly in terms of FPS in the games.  

What developers list as desirable specs doesn't necessarily indicate much of anything.  

I'm not wanting to argue here.  I'm just saying that the preponderance of actual evidence (and some minimal understanding of software/hardware architecture) (and the opinion of the majority of responders in this very thread) clearly shows very little benefit from more than about 8gb of RAM for most applications.  

But, if the OP wants to follow the sage advice of people telling him to buy 32 gb because they feel pretty sure it will come in "handy," that's fine with me too.  No skin off my nose.  

If the OP does buy more RAM, please be sure to let us know what difference it made.  That would be helpful information.  

[Cjr60611 31]

10 hours ago, nikit said:

Take more RAM,I think XP can't use SLI or Crossfire,you don't need another Gtx 1070.

 

Sorry for my english.

Thanks for the feedback!  Didn't know that!

[Colonel X 1,428]

Running stock X-Plane 11 (at any settings), 16GB is far more than enough. You can easily add scenery, traffic and complex aircraft - and a mesh product to a certain extent (HD3 mesh is no problem). First when you start using (on top of all that) things like UHD mesh and OSM generated scenery, you may run out of mem with 16GB. It never happened to me, and I at least test anything that's out there in terms of scenery.

 

[CarlosF 1,235]

27 minutes ago, Paraffin said:

It's documented by Laminar in the minimum and recommended specs, on their web site. Minimum is 8 GB. Recommended is 16-24 GB or more. Laminar wouldn't specify that if they didn't mean it, for current applications like HD mesh and UHD mesh and whatever they have planned during the XP11 cycle.

Try running the UHD mesh with 8 GB of RAM..

I'm well aware of the minimum requirements.

Wwhat is all of that have to do with raw performance?

Where does it say "Add more ram and your frames will increase"?

 

[Cjr60611 31]

8 hours ago, Jimm said:

First off, your system is perfectly fine for running XP11.  Your frames are about average for what you would get in XP11.  If there is any need to be had for an upgrade, increase to 32gb.  Your cpu and gpu are right on target for now.  Urban areas will eat performance for breakfast, so I suggest the increase in RAM, as well as checking your cpu and gpu timings to see where the bottleneck is, then adjust your settings in the sim to try and balance out the timings.  My system is pretty much on par with yours, despite being a laptop, and I get about the same frames as you do in urban areas.  Once you move away from those areas, do your frames increase?

Just to reiterate what the others stated, no, XP11 doesn't use sli, so don't go sumping cash into extra hardware that won't make any difference.  Save as much as you can for the little bundle of joy instead, because that's way more important. 

Thanks for the insight!  Not too familiar with CPU and GPU timing so I will investigate and follow your advice and look for the bottleneck.  Thanks again...

[Cjr60611 31]

3 hours ago, Jimm said:

Increasing system RAM will help, and yes, an increase of gpu RAM helps too.  It's a concerted effort for both the cpu and gpu, to which the fps counter outputs (hence the cpu and gpu timings that should be observed when setting the sliders in the graphics settings of XP).  16gb of system ram is quickly becoming the minimum for XP11, and with the influx of more detailed scenery, airports and aircraft, it's a good idea to upgrade that aspect of the system now, since memory is cheaper right now.  32gb is much better to have, to pad the system for the future.

Yes, that is what I have been reading as well.  Thanks for the advice

[CarlosF 1,235]

This is what I would recommend:

1. Definitely add more ram

2. Adjust your settings so the sim can maintain a steady 30+ fps

3 Lock your frames to 1/2 of your monitors refresh rate (assuming its 60Hz) and it will yield a butter smooth experience. 

[Jimm 437]

2 minutes ago, Cjr60611 said:

Thanks for the insight!  Not too familiar with CPU and GPU timing so I will investigate and follow your advice and look for the bottleneck.  Thanks again...

In the Tips and Tricks section of the X-Plane Forum here, I have a write-up dealing with this: 

 

[Murmur 3,941]

12 hours ago, Cjr60611 said:

I'm averaging about 20-30 FPS in most urban areas (KLAX, KATL, KMIA) and I'm not looking for large increase in FPS.  Rather, I would like to see the FPS stabilize around 30FPS, if possible.  Would two (2) GTX 1070's allow me to do that with my system?  Or, should I just upgrade RAM?

If your FPS decrease where there are a lot of objects (big cities, etc.) then maybe you are bottlenecked by the CPU, so having a more powerful videocard wouldn't help much.

[westman 257]

Sli not work, a bought a 1080ti instead of 2x1080 sli , run 32gb mem 3600mhz do nothing for fps.

But get a gpu with as much memory as possible , the 1080 used all memory 1080ti used in some parts 11gb.

Want a gpu with 16gb or more for xplane11 .

A run 4k.

[Paraffin 2,197]

2 hours ago, CarlosF said:

I'm well aware of the minimum requirements.

Wwhat is all of that have to do with raw performance?

Where does it say "Add more ram and your frames will increase"?

You're looking at it backwards, or maybe we look at this from different angles. 

If you're running vanilla XP with no add-ons that tax RAM, and you have only 8 GB RAM, then adding more RAM will not increase your frame rate. That's kinda what a minimum spec means. 😏

Now, Load up UHD terrain or high-res orthophotos and a plane or utility plugins with some RAM-hungry features on that same system. Note your frame rate. Now boost your RAM to 16-32 GB and your frame rate will be higher.

It's just how this works, it isn't rocket science. Although it will take some getting used to, for those coming from FSX/P3D, where the situation is completely different, and the consequence of hitting a RAM crunch is an OOM rather than the frame rate slowing down.

 

[CarlosF 1,235]

13 minutes ago, Paraffin said:

maybe we look at this from different angles. 

We are and no Im not looking it backwards.

What you are talking about is degradation of performance, which is not what I'm referring to.

What you are referring to is this:

Once your ram is depleted (8gb per your example)  windows starts to swap between ram and your hard drive (which compared to ram, is many times slower) this by itself will cause massive degradation.  Now of course if you add more ram, you are basically just eliminating the swapping between ram and disk and thus degradation no longer applies. 

Same applies to vram, its the exact same thing.

Look at this way and let me know what you think:

If you have 16gb of ram which is enough to keep windows from triggering swapping between ram and disk, are you telling me that if I add 16gb ram my frames are going to go up?...No sir, it will not..guaranteed!!

 

[gpb500 10]

I agree with CarlosF...extra RAM (starting at 16GB) won't buy you anything in the FPS area.  I believe his explanation is correct.  Also, DDR3 won't transfer to your next system (you'll need DDR4) so save the cash for your next motherboard (about the same cost at the lower end).  That's my strategy.  And it doesn't hurt to have your swap file assigned to your SSD(s).

[Greggy_D 935]

SLI is an afterthought for Nvidia.  They still can't get it right after 13 years.

[ryanbatc 12,816]

I have 8GB RAM.  I can tell you that 8 is not enough because I get many stutters as the hdd tries to take over.  Anyway what's more related to this thread is that I can tell you that my fps are the same if I have a surplus of RAM vs not enough.  The FPS remain the same but my system chokes as the HDD is a lot slower than the RAM.

For the OP - I wouldn't do anything - just save the money for now.