I have been trying to determine if I should upgrade for 32gb RAM as initially went for 16gb.
My system is 12400f and 3070Ti. Memory is Kingston Fury Renegade 3600mhz CL16 set to 3800mhz with XMP. I run default Ultra settings at 1440p with high glass cockpit refresh rate. Photogrammetry is off since it’s ugly. Live traffic I prefer to keep off to see GA traffic at smaller airports I more typically use (I don’t think that feature has changed no?). Cache is on and I put it on separate HHD, but I can’t say I’m seeing much performance difference either way.
But the thing is, while 32gb seems to be commonly recommended for MSFS, I’m basically never actually seeing the game hog all of my available memory in the dev mode or task manager. At best it takes circa 10gb (out of 11-12 that would be normally available) and usually it’s way below 10gb.
The biggest performance upgrade I’m hoping is to allow 40-50+ FPS nearly all the time (excepting being on ground at large airports or very near them in the air) with generic traffic. Currently I can manage that with live traffic, but generic is much heavier. For example, flying at low altitude over NYC in glass cockpit GA with the settings I mentioned before I get maybe 55 FPS with live traffic. With generic traffic at 50% setting I’m lucky to get 35 FPS. But it still does not seem to be hogging all my free memory?
I’ve not yet seen my MSFS use more than 14GB…, However, depending on what else you have running the system can easily go beyond 16GB. I think the maximum I’ve seen my system use is 24 (in total).
I don’t think RAM will impact your FPS at all in this situation. Traffic is, I believe, mostly dependent on your CPU. With a 12th gen already, not much you can do unless you want the minimal gain you might get going to an overclocked i7 or i9.
If you have two slots empty on your motherboard then buy two to stick in there. It certainly won’t hurt and it’s not very expensive. Nor does it take but a minute to “install”.
I have now. However it’s both for earlier version of the sim and I don’t think I’m seeing any inexplicable stuttering. Obviously it will chop a bit if I tune the generic traffic to 100 and go spawn myself into a large custom airport and then shake the view around quickly, but I think that’s just the CPU not keeping up with things and not memory issue per se.
I run it with just some control programming software and maybe a web browser on the background beyond usual system stuff, and in practice as I said I’m not seeing it hog all the available RAM. I’m basically wondering if there’s a catch somewhere, like 16gbs throttling the RAM allocation and by extension CPU performance. Though it might simply be that with my system, setting and the way I fly (I only fly tube liners or use big airports to see what kind of FPS I get with them :D) there is no practical need for more than 16gb.
Does someone have better idea for RAM stress test than flying over NYC?
I read recently (although I can’t remember where) that after SU5 there was an upper memory limit added i to the application so that it could be used on Xbox. While that sounds very plausible, I don’t have any firm proof. It would certainly explain why a 64bit application doesn’t seem to be using more memory where its clearly available.
Check this video out, he looks at all different kinds of configurations and tests various amounts of ram specifically.
Generally, more ram is better, but as you’ll see in this video, it’s makes less difference than you’d think.
Also don’t rush to fill extra slots with memory. You’ll more likely decrease performance. Most overclocked systems work better with 2 sticks of memory rather than 4.
Thanks, that was useful. Seems like 32gb is not anymore as important as it once was. I guess I’ll hold off for now to be revised as the sim evolves or at latest sometime next year when I buy Raptor Lake.
Traffic and Scenery are both CPU heavy. A boost to RAM will help load bespoke airports/PG Cities and cache traffic data and inject to the game quicker. If one were to buy a ram upgrade, it would be beneficial to be sure they clock at a higher speed than your current set (the minimum for higher performance would be 3200mhz but you can buy faster memory or OC your current sticks too)
Where in the world did you dream that up from? In modern OS’s, you can never have TOO MUCH RAM. When adding RAM, buy the same brand, speed and CAS as the RAM now installed and you will be golden.
Never populate just 3 slots; always 2 or four and read your MOBO manual to ensure you are using the right channels.
I didn’t say you can have too much ram. I responded to his direct question noting the specificities of his set up.
He’s running a 12400f with 2 x 8 GB 3600mhz CL16 with a further overclock to 3800mhz, that I presume he wants to keep.
If he adds two more sticks he’ll need identical 2 x 8 GB 3600mhz CL16 again.
He’s running a dual channel system which means if he adds two more sticks he still only has two memory channels transferring data to the processor cores, but now with double the traffic.
Path lengths to the controller will now vary, it will require slightly more power and he’ll likely need to change his timings.
The additional noise on the circuit board can cause instability problems, as the CPU has a harder job receiving the data and correcting any errors, especially on cheaper boards and he will probably find his current XMP profile is unstable.
Having all 4 slots populated allows for best capacity, not necessarily best performance or stability.
If he wants fast ram on an extreme XMP overclock profile he’s better off with 2 sticks.
The other night I ran the Egypt Discovery on my Linux drive and on my 32GB system Mangohud was reporting it using 26GB of ram and .4GB of swap just from starting the flight. I think this is the only game that has triggered my swap on Linux. I wasn’t even using that high of settings because I was doing my after something updated Linux run to see if performance improved. It didn’t, back to flying on Windows 10
For a desktop up to 128GB I think it’s safe to assume that a game like this will try to utilize as much ram as you have available. I’m considering maxing my system out to 64GB just because I can utilize it with this game as well as with ZFS, VMs, WSL2, containers, ram drives, etc.
One of my users runs a Supermicro server with dual Xeon Gold processors and 1.5TB of Ram.
He wanted more RAM but that involved removing the existing 1.5TB (all 32 DIMMs) and replacing it with larger low voltage DIMMs, needless to say, when the quote to take it to 6 TB came back at $30,000 the answer from upper management was an emphatic no.
I’m referring to his overclock. He’s got his ram running above the XMP profile currently. If he buys two more sticks he’ll likely have to lower the timings.
I had this happen to me. I wanted to replace my 32 Gb 3200 ram (2x16GB) with 64 GB 3600 ram (4x16GB)
Even though it was faster ram and double the capacity, my performance dropped in every single benchmark. Higher Mhz means higher CAS latency and poorer timings and combined with 4 sticks the additional traffic overhead actually meant it ran slightly slower.
My 3D Mark Timespy scored dropped to around 17500 which for a 3090 ssytem is poor.
Swapping back to sticks of 3200 mhz by score went back over 18000 again.
I sent all the 3600 ram back and stuck with my 3200 ram. 2 x 32GB sticks would likely have worked better for me.
Back to the OP, if you watch the video I linked to, in their benchmarks in a London stress test 2 x 8GB ram actually finished top above 32GB although within the margin of error.
It’s not that less memory is better, it’s just that extra ram does nothing if its not being used and the slower CAS timings required if using 4 sticks and a saturated bus can actually slow performance slightly.
If you ever watch VR Flight Sim Guy on Youtube, he bought a 10900k 3090 system but only had 16Gb ram. He eventually upgraded to 32 GB and reported that it made no noticeable improvement at all.
The Xbox Series X only has 16GB so it makes sense the sim is optimised for that. 32 GB is useful if you’re running lots of add ons, and maybe additional apps like Sky4sim, Sim EFB, ATC/traffic add ons etc, or if you want to stream. The default game on its own won’t use over 16Gb now.
I tried HE37->HE30 as regular flight going west at first and then skirting along Nile between Giza pyramid complex and Cairo proper before heading for the Faiyum basin. I got this:
Settings same as outlined before, generic traffic at 50%.
In this case the mobo isn’t quite from the cheapest end (Asus Tuf Gaming series). Is 3800Mhz really an extreme overclock? It’s only 200 past the factory setting.
On the other hand in the NYC test the 4 stick 32gb got the best, beating even the 2 stick 32gb slightly. He did have a word on RAM configurations there stating he didn’t notice difference between 2 and 4 stick setups, but perhaps he meant only at factory clocks.
In relation to the first point, SparkytheCat’s ram use, I’m not familiar with Linux systems or Mangohud but I suspect it’s not reported actual ram usage but rather just allocating an amount of ram. I remember some guy posted up a video on Youtube claiming a 2D Streetfighter game used nearly all of his 64GB of ram a couple years ago, because the programme he was using just allocated it. I suspect if Sparky had 128GB it would report 80 Gb in use or something silly, but it definitely isn’t actually using that much.
There have been reports of memory leaks in the sim too, so he might have experienced that but I know nothing about Linux or Mangohood so guessing.
Regarding your board, I have an Asus Rog Strix Z-490e and running 4 x 16 GB of 3600 mhz ram resulted in a downgrade in peformance over my 2 x 16 GB 3200 mhz ram. To be clear, 64 Gb 3600 ram is better, but if your system bus struggles with 4 sticks, and mine evidently did, that and the resulting lower CAS latency of faster ram can actually see your performance reduce in certain situations.
In your case, as you only have 2 8Gb sticks it might be that they are single channel, in which case adding 2 more might give better performance, even if at lower timings. Check out guys like GamersNexus and Hardware Unboxed for information on that as they are the best Youtube sources imo for deep dive stuff.
On the final point, I’m talking about factory overclocks. XMP profiles are technically factory overclocks and you are running above that already. With two extra stick you might need to bump those down.
If you get 2 x 16GB, all 16GB sticks are dual channel so there is no benefit of 2 over 4, but with your existing 2 8GB there might be, but again check Hardware Unboxed or Gamers Nexus to be sure.
My overall feeling is that upgrading your ram wont’ make much difference to the sim and you might need to lower your timings, your 3800Mh won;t likely work any more.
But if your current ram is only single channel 4 sticks might give you a little bump in performance anyway even at lower timings.
