Kaby Lake RAM sweetspot

[Djang0 1]

Thinking about an i5-7600K or i7-7700K build on Z270 M/B dedicated to flightsims:

• DCS
• X-Plane v10 / v11
• P3D v3 / v4
• VR in the future

Q1) Based on browsing users system specs on several flightsim forums am I right in thinking the current Kaby Lake "sweetspot" for RAM is:

16MB DDR4-3200???

Q2) Is anyone really going to need more than 16GB for current flightsims (anyone running the above sims with 8GB and no OOMs)?

Q3) Would VR need more system RAM?

[OneWhoKnocks53 51]

That was the conclusion I came to during my last build, 3200 was ideal. Gskill trident 3200 can be had in 16 and 15 CAS latencies, if you can find the 15 that would be my recommendation.  Can't comment on 8 gb tho, I currently have 32 gb of it.

[Djang0 1]

5 minutes ago, OneWhoKnocks53 said:

I currently have 32 gb of it.

What made you choose 32GB?

[OneWhoKnocks53 51]

It was a zero-compromise gaming rig, I put in 32 because I could!

[Raven9000 272]

2 hours ago, Djang0 said:

am I right in thinking the current Kaby Lake "sweetspot" for RAM is:

 

Not really sure why you would think this... there is no such thing as a "RAM sweet spot" for a particular CPU...

needed RAM will depend on what you want to run, and a "sweet spot" will also depend on what (I guess the majority of) users run ant the same time. 

Given the current 64bit, and the fact that your comouter does not "just" run the sim, I would,definitely get 32GB (well in fact I already do have that...)

[Raven9000 272]

2 hours ago, OneWhoKnocks53 said:

That was the conclusion I came to during my last build, 3200 was ideal. Gskill trident 3200 can be had in 16 and 15 CAS latencies, if you can find the 15 that would be my recommendation.  Can't comment on 8 gb tho, I currently have 32 gb of it.

There are no benchmarks that show RAM speed makes any significant difference in gaming whatsoever...

[OneWhoKnocks53 51]

20 minutes ago, Raven9000 said:

There are no benchmarks that show RAM speed makes any significant difference in gaming whatsoever...

You are probably right, but faster RAM won't slow it down.  It's all about what you want and what's on sale.  

[kevinfirth 1,392]

1 hour ago, Raven9000 said:

There are no benchmarks that show RAM speed makes any significant difference in gaming whatsoever...

Not quite correct, some apps benefit more than others from memory bandwidth improvements - even Phil Taylor from Aces has I think said that FSX was particularly sensitive in that sense.

[Raven9000 272]

6 hours ago, kevinfirth said:

Not quite correct, some apps benefit more than others from memory bandwidth improvements - even Phil Taylor from Aces has I think said that FSX was particularly sensitive in that sense.

Yes, maybe 10 years ago when FSX was released and ram technologies were quire different and new concepts coming out. Not now. 

[Raven9000 272]

7 hours ago, OneWhoKnocks53 said:

You are probably right, but faster RAM won't slow it down.  It's all about what you want and what's on sale.  

Right, of course not, but the thing is that "higher speed" RAM often comes with a premium in cost,with a big difference in some cases, and paying extra for no gain is just a waste of mony IMHO...

[Djang0 1]

21 hours ago, Raven9000 said:

there is no such thing as a "RAM sweet spot" for a particular CPU

I was thinking about price and useful performance gain for a given chipset and CPU speed.

[lownslo 592]

23 minutes ago, Djang0 said:

I was thinking about price and useful performance gain for a given chipset and CPU speed.

Indeed, and there may be plenty of folks who agree with your perspective.

Greg

[Raven9000 272]

2 hours ago, Djang0 said:

I was thinking about price and useful performance gain for a given chipset and CPU speed.

Again, there is no such thing. It all depends on what you want to run (or if you like, what users in average, use/run at a time. 

This has nothing to do with cpu type/speed/chipset

[martin-w 3,234]

On 6/10/2017 at 5:26 AM, Raven9000 said:

There are no benchmarks that show RAM speed makes any significant difference in gaming whatsoever...

 

Do a search on the forum. You're looking for tests done by "Saab340". He did a lot of tests, and I recall there was benefit from faster RAM. Not huge but benefit all the same.

[martin-w 3,234]

In regard to games, Linus did some tests. I'm not much of a fan of his, but he made some valid points.