Upgrade to 32gb

Hey, I have read some contradicting opinions about the upgrade from 16gb ram to 32. My spec is Ryzen5 3600, gtx 1060 6gb and 16gb. I know my main bottle neck is the gpu, but since the ram is relatively cheap I wonder if I can get an fps gain from the memory upgrade. Thanks!

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if video cards were cheaper I’d tell you to get anything that ends with a number larger than xx60
 yea, even a 1070 will make a fool of a 1060
 And a 2060 isn’t really much better than a 1060, but a 2070 is a giant leap.

It is all about those last two numbers.

But, GPU prices right now are insane so you’re right to wait.

Memory helps, but its not going to be a real world changer. Will it be faster? yes. Will it be shocking OMG faster
 no.

CPU and GPU are where the fast comes from
 Memory helps a bit
 But 16gb is not bad. 32 is optimal for sure, and you’ll see a bit of change. But it is not the real bottleneck.

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Why and how does increasing RAM increase fps?

Thats like asking why and how much does an apple make your doctor happier than if you eat a candy bar.

It depends on pretty much everything else in your system.

More ram is less time spent shuffling data around.

On low end systems, a sudden demand for a mess of data from storage can bottleneck work that would have been running smoothly on a system with more ram or more speed overall.

There is no exact answer, but more is generally not a bad thing.

Think of it like this, if you can hold more information in your brain, you don’t have to google everytime someone asks you the airspeed of an unladen African Swallow because you have that already in memory. If you have to go look it up because its not in memory, you’re slower.

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That extra RAM is going to help you when it comes to stutters. I run 32 GB DDR4 @ 3200 MHz and in MSFS, P3D, XP, DCS on an SSD it helps, I have little to none. Can’t say the same when I used to run 16 GB DDR4 @ 2400 MHz (though back then running on an HDD didn’t help matters).

For what its worth, memory clock speed (MHz) is a very small factor in speed over all.. 3200 is faster than 2400, but most of your noticeable speed increase came from doubling the total RAM.

Pretty sure it came from my entire PC upgrade, not just the RAM, lol. Anyways would I suggest someone go from 16 GB to 32 GB in 2021? Yeah, I see it as a “why not” given how cheap you can get it and the aggravation it can save you. 16 GB is barely cutting it in DCS (The Syria map will eat RAM for breakfast) and I’m sure it would help in MSFS.

You didn’t tell us about any other upgrades prior to right now, so I’m not sure the point of this little ‘Gotcha’ moment.

You only said you changed the RAM.

Hi all.

I have moved this topic to #self-service:pc-hardware forum.

For what it’s worth since I started using this simulator I went from 16GB of DDR4-2400, to 32GB at 2666. While I don’t think I have noticed the sim use more than 18GB, it does provide me with lots of wiggle room for other tasks at the same time like nosing around in Chromium or working on code.

I have also upgraded my GPU from a GTX960 4GB to a RTX3070 ROG OC. While I noticed a change there, the 960 still did a decent job. So with that in mind, I would look at your RAM, CPU, and storage drives and wait until the GPU market stabilises a bit, assuming you want the better GPU.

Oh no, my last PC was capable though stutters did happen. I’m just saying that going with 32 GB this time and at 3200 MHz defiantly helped. If I had kept those two RAM sticks and the HDD I would be still be having the stutter problems. So if you ask me for the price that RAM can be bought do I feel the upgrade is worth it? Yep.

Yeah, agreed, SSD is huge, and extra RAM is a bonus.

Still, CPU and GPU are doing the heavy lifting. Which is a drag for anyone on a budget, because GPU especially is stupid expensive right now.

Just checked and my system uses between 12.9 and 13.3GB RAM when MSFS is running.
I don’t understand how doubling RAM to 32GB could increase fps and/or reduce stutters.

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I’ve seen usages north of 16.

Really? You’re right the gpus are very expensive these days. But 2060 is much better than 1060 according to benchmarks that I saw for msfs. 2070 is best value for money but they don’t sell it in my country these days for some reason.

With DDR prices where they are right now it worth considering a jump from a 16Gb kit to a 64Gb kit. (ideally 2 sticks dual channel)

I was seeing some performance issues even with 32Gb and an increase to 64Gb appears to have smoothed some of those away.

I still see big FPS drops, I’m not seeing the horrific 3 second long stutters so much any more.

My mistake though was simply adding another pair of 32Gb rather than sell the old and replace with a 64Gb pair.

Problem 1 = G.Skill changed from Samsung B Die to Hynix so even though these are exact same SKU with exact same performance parameters they aren’t the same memory.

Problem 2 = My CPU (memory controller) really doesn’t like 4 sticks and now won’t go past 4.8Ghz at reasonable voltages. (It was never a golden sample chip anyway)

Problem 3 = 4 sticks reduce surface area for cooking around the ram. TridentZ is quite wide and I have had to massively increase fan speed to keep them in the happy temp zone. They run at ok temps now
but pc runs really loud.

I think the system uses a % of your ram rather than what the game may truly need.

The amount used has increased since upgrading from 32Gb to 64Gb

I may previously have been seeing in the region of 16Gb being used. Now I see more. It’s not exactly 50% of ram used
but I’m definitely seeing more ram used than before upgrading.

Your computer is never just running one thing. It doesn’t really matter much what one program is using at one particular moment in time. Windows is relatively smart about not maxing out too hard on ram. But if more is available, you better believe the system would use it.

More headroom means better performance in general. I’m not saying you’re going to benefit from it every moment of every day. And as I said at first, memory is not a major player in the equation. Just one of many.

Definitely the 2060 is much faster than a 1060.

But look at the difference between say 1060 and 1070 and 1080
 or between 2060, 2070, and 2080. You’ll see that the processor generation (10, vs 20 etc) often doesn’t make as huge of a difference as you might expect, but its performance within a generation is vastly different depending on which specific one you’re looking at.

A 1080 will flat out smoke a 1060 and will do it for a fraction of the cost of a 3080
 Yes, the 3080 is a lot faster than a 1080. But I’m trying to speak about this in terms of ‘what can a person reasonably afford’ rather than ‘what is the absolute fastest’.

When I had 16GB of Ram I usually saw it using about 14GB(ish) with occasional 15 or so over photogrammetry cities etc
 I upgraded to 32GB and it then used up to around 24GB in the same locations.
I’m guessing the sim will use more if you have more and it tries to keep it below the maximum you have.
It certainly improved any stuttering I had.

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Looks like I should upgrade