My old machine is running P3D 4.5 very well at the moment but I can't help but wonder if I increased the 8gb ram to 16 or 32 if it would help scenery loading? (primarily ORBX) I have 4 ram slots with 2 slots currently filled with GSKILL Ripjaws V 8GB (4GBx2). I would like to keep the budget to under $100 if possible and supplement the two 4gb cards with two more identical ram cards.

I'm not the sharpest guy when it comes to computer internals so is this a wise, viable plan, or is there a better way to spend the money I have budgeted?

Win7 Pro 64

·  CPU: Intel® Core™ Processor i7-6700K 4.00GHZ 8MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1151 (Skylake)

·  CPU / Processor Cooling Fan: Corsair Hydro Series H60 120mm Liquid CPU Cooling System

·  Motherboard: ASUS Z170-K ATX

·  RAM / System Memory: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR4/3000MHz Dual Channel Memory

·  Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 (Maxwell)

·  Power Supply: 600 Watts - EVGA 600B 80 PLUS BRONZE Power Supply

·  Hard Drive: 512GB Samsung 850 PRO Series SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD

 

If you can find the same ram you could add 2 more sticks. But if not for probably under $100 you can get 16GB / 3600mhz ram and just sell the old stuff.

@mslim

Hello

Your PC isn't old, it's still good, I recommend the following:

If you want to get better performance on the scenery load use an M2 SSD , which have higher speed than SATA SSD , minimum 1TB. However, if your MOBO doesn't support M2 SSD, use a SATA SSD.

And also use an exclusive SSD for flight simulation or P3D, do not share it with other applications, ie, word, excel, w10 etc ...

On the other hand, I think P3D will take better advantage of the RAM if you use a dual channel configuration 2x8Gb= 16GB, instead of 4x4Gb.

The performance increase of 4x4Gb over 2x8Gb will not be important, you get better results with 2x8Gb.

And make sure that the ram is compatible with your MOBO and CPU, check the QVL of your MOBO.

I think you're going to need a bigger budget.

Greetings

Not sure I'd spend much time searching for an additonal two sticks of matching RAM... could lead to some real headaches if the new sticks don't play well with the old.  RAM is rather inexpensive these days, and per ASUS's QVL your motherboard can handle up to 3466MHz speed memory (though the choices aren't great at that speed).  Here is 16GB of Corsair 3200MHz/CAS16 on sale at NewEgg.  And the price is sweet too... 👍

https://www.newegg.com/corsair-16gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820233859?Description=cmk16gx4m2b3200c16&cm_re=cmk16gx4m2b3200c16-_-20-233-859-_-Product

Good luck with your upgarde!

Greg

 

Edited June 30, 20205 yr by lownslo
fix link

I ran on 8 gigs until last year and found the upgrade to 16 gigs improved the sim experience in terms of overall fluidity and loading times. Yesterday I installed 32 gigs (identical speed and latency settings to my 16 gig kit) and found no improvement whatsoever, and the sim (P3D5) and windows generally are using less then 16 gigs.
 

Conclusion:

I’d recommend a fast (3200 or better) set of 2 x 8 gig as the best bang for your buck. 

Edited July 2, 20205 yr by alepro21

Just to add to my point above: this is true for P3D only.  Not sure about X-Plane but I note that Asobo recommend 32gb for MS2020, so they situation may be different there. 

I followed the suggestions here and upgraded to 2x 8gb RAM and it seems to run smoother on my system. I'm very pleased with the improvemet.

I'm locked at 30 fps and I get down to 20-18 going over Orbx Los Angeles/BUR scenery with an occasional stutter or freeze but I'm OK with it. I'm more of a rural flyer.  I was intrigued with the suggestion of an M2 SSD. I'm about maxed out on my 512GB Samsung 850 PRO C drive. I'd like to move all my ORBX (currently about 75gb) and my P3D (about 65gb) install to a 512gb dedicated M2 SSD. I've got another 70gb of Addon Scenery left over from FSX on a Crucial SSD that I probably should move as well.

What spec M2 drive should I be considering to get the smoothest maximum loading times for my scenery?  I'm a little confused on specs? Am I looking for the fastest write speeds? This SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS 500GB is about at the top of my price range. Is there something better for the same or less money?

Orbx Central has a migration tool for the scenery so I'd use that. What about the P3D itself? Should I uninstall it and reinstall on the new M2 drive? That'll be a pain as I have customized a lot of the aircraft.cfg's but I have 'em backed up and could copy and paste once I have them installed. I've got it running good now and I don't want to muck it up making it "better" on its own dedicated drive.

Edited August 30, 20205 yr by mslim

On 6/30/2020 at 8:55 PM, E69_Brisafresca said:

@mslim

 

On the other hand, I think P3D will take better advantage of the RAM if you use a dual channel configuration 2x8Gb= 16GB, instead of 4x4Gb.

 

 

Both 2x8 GB and 4X4 GB are running in duel channel. Two slots for channel one and two slots for channel two. One slot filled would be single channel. Where all slots filled might be a disadvantage is in that it sometimes limits overclocking. 

Edited August 30, 20205 yr by martin-w