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upgrade to 16 gig RAM?

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I presently have 8 gig of DDR3 @ 1600 RAM, should I upgrade to 16?  If I do upgrade, should I get faster memory?  According to my motherboard manufacturer I can go  to 3200.  


10700k / Gigabyte 3060

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You might want to have a poke around the hardware forums, lots of good info on ram purchases over there.


Dave

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The speed of RAM makes very little difference. You could add 8 more gb of the same RAM you have if you have the slots for it and be quite happy. 

You can add to what you have with a different RAM module but you MUST match timings exactly (and speed of course) AND voltage. I did this recently as the brand I originally bought is no longer made. There's a reason RAM sticks are sold in kits though. 

DDR3 RAM is more expensive than the newer stuff, unfortunately, so upgrading isn't that cheap. I suspect that 8 gb is still sufficient for the new 64-bit P3D. It's VRAM that will be more important. 

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1 hour ago, Griphos said:

The speed of RAM makes very little difference.

This isn't always the case. In CPU intensive applications (like our simulators), faster RAM does help.

I will certainly get the fastest RAM I can afford when I upgrade next time.

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I had your config and alone moving to 2400mhz 16Gb i got 5fps more. That was 15% on my system 

 

Thanks Michael Moe 


Michael Moe

 

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Agree, RAM speed matters.  I saw an improvement when I set up my memory timing for the full DDR4 3400 MHz for which it was rated.  Each part of the system, CPU, memory, video, storage speeds are important but a big increase in one component could possible  not have an effect at all.  It depends on where the constraints or bottlenecks are.  Large memory cache and fetch ahead techniques can help mitigate memory speeds so you may not see a significant improvement but in my case I was able to take advantage of it and did.


Dan Downs KCRP

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Thread drift to an extent.....

Should he upgrade his actual size of ram from 8gb to 16gb


FAA: ATP-ME

Matt kubanda

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1 hour ago, ahsmatt7 said:

Thread drift to an extent.....

Should he upgrade his actual size of ram from 8gb to 16gb

I though the first response answered it.  Yes, if budget allows and possible with his mobo.  Consider Windows 10 without anything else running will use over 3 GB of memory.  I would say 8 GB was the minimum with a 32-bit flight simulator.


Dan Downs KCRP

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14 minutes ago, downscc said:

I though the first response answered it.  Yes, if budget allows and possible with his mobo.  Consider Windows 10 without anything else running will use over 3 GB of memory.  I would say 8 GB was the minimum with a 32-bit flight simulator.

Interesting, I currently have 8gb of ram on w10. So I really only gain 1gb of available RAM going 64bit because I'm limited to my physical RAM. Correct?


FAA: ATP-ME

Matt kubanda

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34 minutes ago, ahsmatt7 said:

Interesting, I currently have 8gb of ram on w10. So I really only gain 1gb of available RAM going 64bit because I'm limited to my physical RAM. Correct?

No, Windows will start paging memory when you use all your physical memory, which is swapping back and forth to disk and is going to slow things down but you will not run into an OOM.


Dan Downs KCRP

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Just now, downscc said:

No, Windows will start paging memory when you use all your physical memory, which is swapping back and forth to disk and is going to slow things down but you will not run into an OOM.

this stuff is so confusing. thanks for the response though!

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Matt kubanda

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Well, it's particularly confusing when you ask these kinds of technical questions on a flight sim forum and get these kind of answers that are all over the place from people who don't really know what they are talking about.  

Lots and lots of tests (read Tomshardware.com for instance) shows that RAM speed doesn't have much impact on most applications, particularly if you're not using integrated graphics systems (as you might be on a laptop).  Shoot, just do a google search on that.  You certainly wouldn't see a 10 or 15% FPS increase from RAM speed.  Anyone claiming that is subject to confirmation bias and doesn't know how programs interact with hardware, particularly CPU bound programs like FSX.  

Another point is that RAM performance is not just about speed, but also latency, and most RAM with higher speeds also have higher latency, offsetting the speed advantage to some extent.  Most tests show that 8 or 16 gb at 1600 with latency of 8 or 9 is the sweet spot for memory performance.  

And for almost all applications, particularly gaming, getting more than 8 gb of RAM doesn't affect FPS much either.  See, for instance: 

http://www.techspot.com/article/1043-8gb-vs-16gb-ram/

However, with new 64-bit sims and some terrain features generating a lot of scenery in memory, 16 gb future proofs your system to some extent.  If I were building a new system, I would certainly put in 16gb.  Uprading, though....

If you want to upgrade from 8 gb, and don't really know what you're doing, I'd replace the memory you have with new memory (so, say, two 4 gb sticks for two 8 gb sticks).  If you don't know what you're doing, adding memory to existing memory is full of pitfalls.  

1600 or 1866 ghz is fine.  You need to see what your motherboard will handle.  Since you are looking at DDR3, which means an older mb, like the L1155 socket perhaps, you may not be able to handle more than 1600 or 1866 speeds anyway. You'll need to check your mb manual (some can handle higher RAM speeds if you overclock).  

You have a good graphics card.  The next most important thing (and even more important than the graphics card for FSX since it is so CPU bound) is CPU clock speed.  You don't say what your CPU is or its speed.  If you're not at least at 4 ghz on the CPU, adding faster memory will gain nothing for you.  

 

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1 hour ago, Griphos said:

Well, it's particularly confusing when you ask these kinds of technical questions on a flight sim forum and get these kind of answers that are all over the place from people who don't really know what they are talking about.  

Lots and lots of tests (read Tomshardware.com for instance) shows that RAM speed doesn't have much impact on most applications, particularly if you're not using integrated graphics systems (as you might be on a laptop).  Shoot, just do a google search on that.  You certainly wouldn't see a 10 or 15% FPS increase from RAM speed.  Anyone claiming that is subject to confirmation bias and doesn't know how programs interact with hardware, particularly CPU bound programs like FSX.  

Another point is that RAM performance is not just about speed, but also latency, and most RAM with higher speeds also have higher latency, offsetting the speed advantage to some extent.  Most tests show that 8 or 16 gb at 1600 with latency of 8 or 9 is the sweet spot for memory performance.  

And for almost all applications, particularly gaming, getting more than 8 gb of RAM doesn't affect FPS much either.  See, for instance: 

http://www.techspot.com/article/1043-8gb-vs-16gb-ram/

However, with new 64-bit sims and some terrain features generating a lot of scenery in memory, 16 gb future proofs your system to some extent.  If I were building a new system, I would certainly put in 16gb.  Uprading, though....

If you want to upgrade from 8 gb, and don't really know what you're doing, I'd replace the memory you have with new memory (so, say, two 4 gb sticks for two 8 gb sticks).  If you don't know what you're doing, adding memory to existing memory is full of pitfalls.  

1600 or 1866 ghz is fine.  You need to see what your motherboard will handle.  Since you are looking at DDR3, which means an older mb, like the L1155 socket perhaps, you may not be able to handle more than 1600 or 1866 speeds anyway. You'll need to check your mb manual (some can handle higher RAM speeds if you overclock).  

You have a good graphics card.  The next most important thing (and even more important than the graphics card for FSX since it is so CPU bound) is CPU clock speed.  You don't say what your CPU is or its speed.  If you're not at least at 4 ghz on the CPU, adding faster memory will gain nothing for you.  

 

"people who don't really know what they're talking about"...

...Goes on to cite zero flight sim benchmarks (i.e. nothing relevant to the topic) whilst making specific claims as to potential performance delta not even approaching 10-15%

51 pages of hard data that say otherwise

I'm all for people in this community asking questions, reading, researching, testing, tweaking, and helping others.  I try to engage in all of those activities myself.  I take issue though when someone presents their opinion as fact when they clearly have not done the same. The intention may be to help another, but if you're giving wrong information the effect is the opposite.  

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51 pages of hard data....lol.  You and I have very different ideas about what constitutes "hard data."  

Show me where it shows that higher RAM speed makes a significant difference.

And what exactly did I suggest that you disagree with (other than that some people don't know what they're talking about, which is certainly the case)?  What is the "wrong information" I gave, and what is the proof that it is wrong?

And explain to me how a flight sim is so significantly different from other video games that test results are meaningless unless they are testing flight sims. 

I'm not presenting anything as fact.  And I'm encouraging the OP to do some real research, not take the word of whoever happens to respond to this thread, including me.  One difference, though, is that I give reasons for my suggestions.  I don't just say, do it, it's good, or don't do it, it's bad.  Not something you can say about most responses.  

Once he does, I think he'll find that the consensus is a lot closer to what I said in this thread than most of the rest of the responses.

And how have I "clearly not" read, researched, tested?  I'm responding to this thread precisely to "help," and most particularly help someone not spend money they don't need to spend just because some other people tell him to without giving any good reasons for their claims.  

What you appear to take exception to is me.  I doubt you really read my post past the reference to some people not knowing what they are talking about, which everyone knows is in fact the case.  It would be silly to deny it.  You need to let go of your grudge.   

 

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