My laptop came pre-installed with 64GB RAM 2666mhz. Would upgrading my RAM sticks to a higher frequency (64GB 3200mhz) show noticeable improvements to FPS? The CPU is an AMD 3700X, and GPU is RTX 2070 Refresh. Overclocking is not an option to prevent voiding the warranty. My computer’s MOBO can only support up to 3200mhz.
Getting around 20-30FPS in complex airport/cities. Laptop is NH58AF1 from XoticPC.
Ryzen CPUs use infinity fabric, and that benefits from ram speed and low memory timings. Ideally you would get fast memory and ultra tight timings. But its generally expensive to get high clock speeds and low timings, so most people choose a sweet spot around 3200-3600 Mhz and timings of 16-18-18-xx or lower.
Basically what I’m saying is, the RAM frequency is only half the equation. If the 3200MHz memory you plan on buying has very long timings and your current 2666 MHz memory has nice short ones, you probably wont see any difference at all.
That being said, I personally don’t think it would be worth the cost of swapping out 64GB of memory. The performance percentage increase would probably be in the single digits unless your current memory has awful timings and you’re planning on upgrading the highest binned premium memory.
It will give you a boost, but it depends on what the rest of the hardware just like BubblyDruid56 said. Lots of stuff are being read from memory, like textures, scenery so any advantage in that area helps to a degree: Fast CPU + Fast memory + Fast storage + Fast internet + Fast GPU are all part of that equation.
But if you expect MSFS to run fast regardless of how it is coded now and avoid the lag when it downloads or loads new scenery, you’re in for a disappointment, regardless of what space alien technology you may find and put in your computer. I’m sure they will address that and optimize it given time, but you may have to wait for those.
In short no. I wouldn’t think that the extra cost of replacing your RAM would be worth it in terms of FPS gained.
If I was you I would wait a bit anyway to see what optimisations MS come up with before improving your system.
Do a google on ddr 3200 vs 2666. You’ll find that the boost is minimal. Since you already have 32 gig I would recommend using the money on something that would give better increases. Like a pcie SSD
@JCflyboy, what resolution and GPU are you running? I would personally spend the money on other things first. 2666mhz isn’t that bad. And DDR5 will be more common soon™.
Tom’s Hardware updated their FS2020 testing with different memory benchmarks. Not sure if you have seen it, located towards the end of this article.
Based on some of the earlier test results, we expected memory capacity to be a relatively important factor. Turns out that’s not the case. Memory speed on the other hand can make a big difference.
Starting at the top of the charts, the 16GB DDR4-4000 kit tends to lead all of the other kits on the Intel platform. Not too far behind is the 32GB DDR4-3600 kit, followed by the 16GB DDR4-3200 kit. Bandwidth is clearly the leading criteria, but latency and memory timings still play a role.
Capacity also matters somewhat, mostly at higher resolutions. The 32GB DDR4-3600 tends to have better minimum fps at 1440p at least. At 4K, however, GPU bottlenecks basically level most of the playing field, with very little difference between the various memory kits — though minimum fps still fluctuates more, especially with only 8GB.
The slower memory kits really do poorly. DDR4-2133, which is what some boards will run some memory kits at if you don’t enable XMP profiles, ended up dropping performance by 20-25% in most cases for both AMD and Intel. It was only at 4K where it didn’t matter as much. If you haven’t enabled your motherboard’s XMP profile (which sometimes goes by other names, particularly on AMD platforms), you should check that right now.
Use CPU-Z and look at the Memory and SPD tabs. Ideally, you want to be using the highest speed your RAM supports, so if the Memory tab doesn’t match the far right column of the SPD tab, and particularly if you’re only seeing DDR4-2133 to DDR4-2400 as the speed of your RAM, you should look into fixing that.
64GB didn’t help, incidentally, as populating our test PCs with two DIMMs per channel results in lower overall memory performance. This is expected, though if you have an X99, X299, X399, or TRX40 platform using quad-channel memory is a different story.
I’d be surprised if you’d notice a difference.
You have a Ryzen cpu.
Yes definitely, or at least overclock the infinity fabric and uncouple it, that was shown on LTT to mostly make up for it
OP – you will most likely find that it doesn’t improve your FPS too much.
3200 will help with a Ryzen. However, if you do not have an NVMe SSD - and your board supports one - I’d go for that first.
Overclocking what is not an option?
The 3700X (My CPU actually) basically has no overhead to overclock it to. So overclocking it won’t do you any good anyway.
The RAM speed overclock via XMP or whatever is technically “overclocking” the RAM but if you don’t do that you may as well not have higher spec RAM because it all defaults to 2666 or whatever. You buy new 3200-3600 RAM that advertised speed is an overclock, and if you don’t enable XMP you wasted your money because it’s only going to run the board default unless you activate that speed, which IS overclocking.
Watch this:
What is your GPU? That is where your FPS gains are likely to be had. Ample and fast RAM is most likely going to contribute to overall stability, but I doubt it will affect FPS to any measurable degree.
My personal setup is the Ryzen 3700X, 32GB 3600mhz RAM, and a 2070 Super. MSFS runs quite comfortably on my system in most situations. I’ve seen over 70fps on occasion, but usually high 50’s.
@Airmapper I bought a Sager NH58AF1 laptop from XoticPC with a 3700X, RTX 2070 Refresh, and 64GB RAM at 2666mhz. The reason why I should not consider overlocking memory is that XoticPC will void my warranty. This memory stick is one of the few that comes with 3200mhz/1.2V stock and is approved by the laptop OEM: https://www.newegg.com/samsung-32gb-260-pin-ddr4-so-dimm/p/0RM-002H-00157#
I get around 20-30 FPS around heavy complex airports/cities.
GPU is RTX 2070 Refresh and Resolution is 1920x1080 16:9. This is the NH58AF1 laptop by Sager so there is only limited upgrade potential. Granted in MSFS2020, the GPU is under-utilized.