16GB Vs 32GB Ram Video Comparison

[MrFuzzy 2,118]

15 hours ago, Ricardo41 said:

The fact that the sim uses more RAM does not prove at all that the sim needs more RAM above 16 gig. 

Sure, it can use the swap file as well. Your choice.

[wthomas33065 994]

It’s not just the sim that needs RAM.  It’s the OS as well.

 Swap files are slower.  Period.  RAM it’s cheap.  Upgrading from 8gb to 32gb cost me less than $100.  And the sim will use it.  And if it’s using it, it’s not using the swap file.  Now if sim never uses more than 32 gb, then upgrading to 64gb is simply paying for a heatsink.
 

But remember also, if your GPU runs out of VRAM, it’s going to swap pages in system RAM.  How else do you think a 4Gb or 6gb card can get away with displaying 4K?.  If a 4GB card can get easily memory starved at 1080p.  And 4K users 4 times the memory....   How many consumer graphics cards are sporting 16GB VRAM?...math.

[jlebesis1 9]

22 hours ago, Dillon said:

I just upgraded from 16 to 32 after the release of FS and it was money well spent... Not sure how going from a 6gb 'video card' to an 8gb card would improve things.  Now that's the conversation...🧐

 

 

Hey guys, 

So I just want to add my own experience. 

I have a MSI GL65 Leopard gaming laptop. 

I just installed 32gb (up from 16gb)... and there is no question it makes a difference. 

I want to clarify... for those who  are on 16gb, and are seeing only around 14gb usage.. that's not because it can't, or doesn't need more.. as soon as I went to 32gb.. without altering ANY settings in the flight sim, the ram usage increased significantly, and I'm using a minimum of 17gb, right through to around 24gb, and I'm sure I'll see even heavier usage. 

I completely understand what some people mean when they are questioning wether the sim needs it.. but I think it's too easy to over analyse. We are not looking for 'on-paper' results here.. we are discussing practical results.. and they are most definitely there. Sometimes subtle, other times quite pronounced.. but the sim can, does, and works well with that extra headroom that 32GB provides. 

Would I say it's absolutely necessary? No.. if you are on 16gb with a powerful system and getting smooth gameplay.. you'll be fine.. but again, you will find benefit to giving this thing some more ram. 

Hope this helps someone  🙂

 

[bobcat999 8,477]

58 minutes ago, jlebesis1 said:

I want to clarify... for those who  are on 16gb, and are seeing only around 14gb usage.. that's not because it can't, or doesn't need more.. as soon as I went to 32gb.. without altering ANY settings in the flight sim, the ram usage increased significantly, and I'm using a minimum of 17gb, right through to around 24gb, and I'm sure I'll see even heavier usage. 

Hope this helps someone  🙂

 

The above makes perfect sense.  I had to enlarge my windows swap file to stop the sim crashing.  (I had my swap file small - about 2 GB, and I only have 16GB RAM).

Now the swap file is 20 GB, but I have had to put it on an older attached SATA hard disk (as I don't want to burn out my NVME SSD - not sure if this is a myth or not).

I can hear the disk thrashing about though, and the sim can occasionally pause/stutter for a bit whilst it is writing to the swap file I notice.

I may get another 16 GB of RAM, but the main thing stopping me at the moment is I am considering a new processor / motherboard combo anyway, with 32 GB in it.

The extra RAM will only allow me to run higher settings and give more stability of course.  I do not expect any more frames per second.

Edited September 14, 2020 by bobcat999
Clarity

[Ixoye 1,821]

9 hours ago, MrFuzzy said:

Sure, it can use the swap file as well. Your choice.

And with swapfile usage comes micro stutter and short pauses at heavy loads.

Edited September 14, 2020 by Ixoye

[Ricardo41 5,949]

Claiming that going from 16 to 32 gigs of Ram yields significant performance improvements is like slapping a second jimmy hat on your you know what and proclaiming: Now I'm really safe!

[Oldschool61 38]

On 8/24/2020 at 2:59 PM, hanhamreds said:

32GB is not useless - I've seen a peak usage of 27GB, that was over JFK using the drone cam - real world traffic and MP.

I've also experienced about 17-20GB usage more often than not 

What they mean is your fps doesn't really benefit from 32gb significantly

[Colonel X 1,430]

Has anybody with 32GB disabled the virtual memory completely? Wonder if that would help.

[wthomas33065 994]

23 minutes ago, Ricardo41 said:

Claiming that going from 16 to 32 gigs of Ram yields significant performance improvements is like slapping a second jimmy hat on your you know what and proclaiming: Now I'm really safe!

It depends what you call "significant performance".  In raw FPS, no, but anytime any application or the OS has to resort to a swapfile, then the HDD becomes the bottleneck.  And when you are attempting to simulate smooth lifelike motion, you want to remove all bottlenecks possible.  In the same way that people will invest in a SSD over a typical HDD.  Except that RAM is a lot cheaper.  

Also, changing scenery settings does affect how much VRAM I'm using.  If I set everything to Medium with 1080p and 80 percent scaling, I am already sitting close to my VRAM ceiling.  So if I want those extra details, I have to utilize system RAM to do it, which is slower, but faster than a swap file.  

As far as your comparison goes.  I'd say a second jimmy hat degrades your enjoyment greatly.  Something throwing an extra 80 bucks worth of RAM won't do.  

 

[Joshua Hedges 2]

I don't get stutters using 32gb of ram where as i was getting them when i only had 16gb

[JerryT87 22]

I put 32 in my new rig and am glad I did. HW monitor shows MSFS uses up to 21 gb of ram when the sim and my second monitor are running.

[Waldo Pepper 1,952]

For what it's work,  and this is just to interject a point of interest,  not a data point,   but I manually cached New York City last night and it was a 16gb cache.    I did Philly,  and it was around 12gb from very hazy memory.   I included the entire city and the river banks across from them.

I did TFFJ,  and it was around 850KB.

/I'm very interested in what the new nVidia cards like the 3090 might bring with it's massive Vram.

 

[Tuskin38 6,490]

On 8/24/2020 at 5:42 PM, Litmoose said:

JFK(default version, not the prem deluxe version)

Eh? There is no 'premium deluxe' JFK. The base game comes with a handcrafted JFK.

[aniiran 431]

Upgrading from 16 to 32GB has fixed all of my performance issues.  I was getting CTDs at Flightbeam Denver and occasionally over areas that had a lot of photogrametry especially when using the Airbus or 787-10, I have almost no stutters now.  This thing is RAM hog.  

[G-RFRY 1,711]

I don`t think the vid shows MSFS in 4K ULTRA he would have gone through the 16gb barrier.