16GB vs 32GB or RAM

[NZAA 18]

I’m getting conflicting answers, has anyone gone from 16GB to 32GB RAM? 
 

Ive had many people say in many places, get more ram. 
 

ive also see YouTube channels and others say it makes little difference.

 

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,799]

2 minutes ago, NZAA said:

I’m getting conflicting answers, has anyone gone from 16GB to 32GB RAM? 
 

Ive had many people say in many places, get more ram. 
 

ive also see YouTube channels and others say it makes little difference.

 

I did.

Do not expect any change in fps. Or any change at all if you tend to fly a 152 out of a bush strip.

The difference will be less stutters at high settings at large busy sirports in complex aircraft. For example at OHare in an airliner I have seen as high as 28MB in use.

[Theboot100 404]

9 minutes ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

I did.

Do not expect any change in fps. Or any change at all if you tend to fly a 152 out of a bush strip.

The difference will be less stutters at high settings at large busy sirports in complex aircraft. For example at OHare in an airliner I have seen as high as 28MB in use.

28mb???

 

I guess my 486 dx2-66 isn't going to cut it

[fogboundturtle 2,708]

More ram = less disk swapping.

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,799]

44 minutes ago, fogboundturtle said:

More ram = less disk swapping.

I suspect it also depends on how much VRAM you have, I suspect running a 24MB VRAM 3090 with only 16MB of system ram is like to result in a lot of disk swapping

 

47 minutes ago, Theboot100 said:

28mb???

 

I guess my 486 dx2-66 isn't going to cut it

lol I am not sure milli-bits was ever a thing ... the new server we just slotted into the main rack at work yesterday has 1.5TB of ram as any higher would need to go to LRDIMM (replacing one that was crashing on big runs as it "only" had 512GB 😄  )   but no it is not a 486 either

[MOD71 175]

For me, going from 16gb to 32gb has made a world of difference. I've got a very modest system by todays standards, 8700k and a GTX 1070TI, and I'm running at 4k. My settings are a mix of high to ultra with render scaling at 80, TAA and no texture super-sampling.  I get a very smooth experience both in 2D and VR.

[abrams_tank 7,457]

2 hours ago, fogboundturtle said:

More ram = less disk swapping.

This is only true if your applications use all the RAM on your system. If your RAM isn't fully used up based on your typical usage patterns, more RAM is just spending more money.

Edited March 6, 2021 by abrams_tank

[abrams_tank 7,457]

2 hours ago, NZAA said:

I’m getting conflicting answers, has anyone gone from 16GB to 32GB RAM? 
 

Ive had many people say in many places, get more ram. 
 

ive also see YouTube channels and others say it makes little difference.

 

I went from 16 GB to 24 GB of RAM.  I did not notice any difference in performance in MSFS for me.  I did notice MSFS will choose to use more RAM if you have more RAM on your system, but the performance seemed to be about the same for me between 16 GB versus 24 GB of RAM.

Why I got 24 GB of RAM was because I can now keep miscellaneous applications open when I play MSFS.  When I had 16 GB of RAM, I had to close all other applications before I played MSFS.  But with 24 GB of RAM, I don't have to close the other applications when I play MSFS.  My system specs are in my signature.

[MrFuzzy 2,123]

3 hours ago, NZAA said:

I’m getting conflicting answers, has anyone gone from 16GB to 32GB RAM? 
 

Ive had many people say in many places, get more ram. 
 

ive also see YouTube channels and others say it makes little difference.

 

32 GB is the optimal amount. It makes a difference in terms of stuttering even if the average framerate may be the same.

See here and note the fps 1% low and 0.1% low: 

 

Edited March 6, 2021 by MrFuzzy

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,799]

25 minutes ago, MrFuzzy said:

32 GB is the optimal amount. It makes a difference in terms of stuttering even if the average framerate may be the same.

See here and note the fps 1% low and 0.1% low: 

 

 

That sort of fits my feelings about it. my overall FPS is not improved at all, but in pay ware airports particularly, it sort of feels smoother like there are less of those micro stutters, particular on the ground or when landing.

But it is more of an impression thing than something I can pin down.

 

[somiller 694]

Mr. Fuzzy,

I've been contemplating adding another 16 to get to 32, but hadn't seen anything convincing enough to make me do it...until the graphic you posted. The 1% and 0.1% lows are a real improvement with 32 GB. Guess I'll be springing for another 16.

[D-Green 12]

My own experience was initially it didn’t seem to make much difference but then I noticed the PC wasn’t set up with the correct clock speed, so when I bought second matched stick I made sure they were both setup correctly in bios. Then I had slightly better performance and runs background stuff with no loss of performance.

[cianpars 1,174]

I did the 16gb to 32gb upgrade a couple of months back and noticed little difference other than a perception of a slightly smoother experience.  But since WU3, that smoothness has gone and I am seeing increased lags and stuttering.  I mainly fly in and around the UK.

I don't run at 4k yet and all my settings are at ultra using a 5600x CPU and RTX3070 video.

Edited March 6, 2021 by cianpars

[Tom Wright 438]

Mine seems to cope fine with 16GB, although I am only running at 1080p.

My board does have the capacity to increase it to 32GB but it's only DDR3 and I figured that there isn't much point in doing so this late in its life. I've been planning a full upgrade in the not-too-distant future anyway.

[NZAA 18]

17 hours ago, MrFuzzy said:

32 GB is the optimal amount. It makes a difference in terms of stuttering even if the average framerate may be the same.

See here and note the fps 1% low and 0.1% low: 

 

Cheers for this. So the overall 43 FPS here are the same. 

What's the L.1% and L0.1% data?

What exactly am I looking at?

I typically do A32NX flying and love the scenery so try max it out as best I can.