Do I need 32GB of Memory now?

[joebloggs]

I currently have 16 GB of RAM, but would I benefit a lot more from having 32GB and how would this benefit me? Thank you!

[Buzzles]

No, you don't.

 

If you have a pile a cash to burn, sure, go to up 32gb and future proof the PC as more RAM never hurts.

 

You'll not really see that much benefit for DCS though at this point. Doubly so with the recent news ED are about to release a much improved memory manager.

Edited April 15, 2018 by Buzzles

[Gladman]

Yep, you will. It was a very noticeable difference. I certainly am not the only person that will tell you this.

[Aluminum Donkey]

I currently have 16 GB of RAM, but would I benefit a lot more from having 32GB and how would this benefit me? Thank you!

 

You really should put all of your system specs in your signature, so that way it's easy for people to answer these questions :D

 

The newest version of DCS 2.5 uses much less memory, both system RAM and video card RAM. So, if you *really* wanna beef up your rig, get a killa video card like a GTX 1080 Ti which has 11GB of video memory, and stick with 16GB system RAM.

 

With the 11GB vid card, I'd suspect that DCS will run just fine on only 8GB system RAM.

 

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[Fisherman82]

You really should put all of your system specs in your signature, so that way it's easy for people to answer these questions :D

 

The newest version of DCS 2.5 uses much less memory, both system RAM and video card RAM. So, if you *really* wanna beef up your rig, get a killa video card like a GTX 1080 Ti which has 11GB of video memory, and stick with 16GB system RAM.

 

With the 11GB vid card, I'd suspect that DCS will run just fine on only 8GB system RAM.

 

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How do you mean that ED have released a update with the memory issue fixed? Did this just happen? (im not with my computer)

 

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[KungFu]

You really should put all of your system specs in your signature, so that way it's easy for people to answer these questions :D

 

The newest version of DCS 2.5 uses much less memory, both system RAM and video card RAM. So, if you *really* wanna beef up your rig, get a killa video card like a GTX 1080 Ti which has 11GB of video memory, and stick with 16GB system RAM.

 

With the 11GB vid card, I'd suspect that DCS will run just fine on only 8GB system RAM.

 

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This: DCS uses at the most 5GB even in hosting/connected multiplayer on my rig (even pre lastest patch)

[FragBum]

Well in SP using VR DCS uses about 6 to 7GB of RAM and about 8GB of Video RAM, in MP system RAM seems be around 7GB of RAM and 11GB of Video RAM.

 

Whilst system RAM usage is below 8GB there are other reasons to have more RAM as Windows attempts to manage whats loaded into system RAM and what Windows pages away to HDD/SSD in it's page file.

 

With DCS running and a few other apps loaded I generally have about 11 to12GB of system RAM in use so even if you have 16GB of system RAM Windows will still use it's paging file hence why 32GB is better. Having said that in my experience I would say 16GB would be beneficial 32GB even better.

 

So do you need 32GB, no. Will DCS and most anything else run better? Yes!

 

It's the same with the argument for an SSD over a conventional HDD simply put. Yes! DCS runs better with an SSD.

 

It really is a no brainer, more RAM and faster hardware will improve anything but you have to consider the return on investment. :)

 

Be aware some older CPU/mother boards combos may not support more than 16GB most will support 32GB but few will support 64GB of system RAM.

 

YMMV

Edited April 15, 2018 by FragBum

[Yurgon]

I currently have 16 GB of RAM, but would I benefit a lot more from having 32GB and how would this benefit me?

 

I believe 16 GB is quite sufficient now.

 

Unless one actually runs out of RAM while running DCS, I just don't see how more RAM would boost DCS by even a single FPS.

 

Like the others said, if you give your complete specs, it's easier to give good advice, but right now, I think 32 GB of RAM is overkill.

 

How do you mean that ED have released a update with the memory issue fixed? Did this just happen? (im not with my computer)

 

This was announced just recently, and should come with one of the coming patches. It's not out yet, but shouldn't take too long.

[Gladman]

You may want to ask yourself, who actually has 32 and who is speculating about it.

[FragBum]

An easy way to check whats going on is to use Task Manager and see if what RAM is allocated and what is being paged out to SSD/HDD

 

[Kev2go]

An easy way to check whats going on is to use Task Manager and see if what RAM is allocated and what is being paged out to SSD/HDD

 

 

if thats all the RAm one is using when running DCS than its clear that 16gb sufficient, and 32gb isn't needed.

[FragBum]

if thats all the RAm one is using when running DCS than its clear that 16gb sufficient, and 32gb isn't needed.

 

 

You may have missed the point and sure in that session I probably didn't have Chrome open it's a bit of a memory hog itself, however Windows memory management will start paging stuff into it's page file (virtual memory) and would have done so even with 10GB used and a total of 16GB available it's just the way it works.

 

All we are doing with 32GB is playing the numbers game putting off the requirement to commit stuff to page file and even better still, avoiding the necessity of swapping data between the page file and actually writing it back to RAM.

 

I think a lot of people miss what we are saying, will 32GB increase frame rate not likely, will it reduce stuttering and pauses, depends whats causing it, over use of CPU/GPU no different ball game, waiting for data to be read and written back to RAM,. Yes!

 

I don't think anyone has stated you need 32GB other then to say it will help and that the user needs to make that value choice based on return on investment. For me I also do photography and other stuff so it makes sense to have 32GB (64GB if I could afford it but that would be a ROI choice on my part.) when rendering RAWs to jpegs. It's just that even with 32GB I might get very occasional writes to the page file but under DCS I get no reads from the page file. :)

[MainSail]

I would say wait at least until ED has released the patch with optimized memory management and then decide.

 

I decided not to spend almost 200 euro's for possibly a bit shorter loading time and maybe less micro-stutter (not that I really noticing any stutters).

 

I play almost exclusively single player campaigns in VR, DCS is installed on a SSD and windows/pagefile/dcs-user folder is installed on another SSD.

[Nooch]

I'm running VR and have noticed several times that my RAM was hitting ~15GB out of the 16GB I currently have.

 

I would say go for the 32GB if you can easily afford it.

Edited April 16, 2018 by Nooch

[FragBum]

I'm running VR and have noticed several times that my RAM was hitting ~15GB out of the 16GB I currently have.

 

I would say go for the 32GB if you can easily afford it.

 

Well I'm guessing people can slice and dice it any way they want however here's my memory usage online MP from tonight.

 

Teamspeak

Itunes

Chrome

DCS

Rift

Explorer

Task Manager

The usual suspects ;)

 

 

I'm not saying 32GB is required it is what it is, just saying. :D

[sze5003]

A buddy of mine has 16gb and I have 32. We have the same system, i7 8700k, 1080ti. He constantly says his ram is eaten up similar to the posts here. I haven't checked but I'm able to run slightly higher settings than him. We both use the Samsung Odyssey and he said he's had to turn down settings. Lately I've noticed some heavy usage too, causing some not so smooth head movement on all high settings and pixel density of 1.5.

 

I may need to turn off msa as I have it at 2x right now. Dcs needs to be a bit more optimized. They are working on the memory issues I've heard.

[FragBum]

Just try dropping PD down to 1.2 or 1.3 and see how that goes to start with. It's all a bit of a compromise at the moment. :)

[Noface]

I have a very good performance with 16GB, gtx980TI FTW and i7. I get about 120 fps. It all depends on the other componets of your pc

[sze5003]

Just try dropping PD down to 1.2 or 1.3 and see how that goes to start with. It's all a bit of a compromise at the moment. :)

Yea I tried pixel density of 1.0 in the odyssey. Everything is still nice and readable but with 1.5 you can see everything much crispier. I like 1.5 and don't want to go below that. Perhaps 1.4 PD may make my head movement a little smoother.

[Sarge55]

@ FragBum, gotta ask.

 

Why are you running iTunes and Chrome while flying in DCS? It unnecessarily bloats your system resources. Just seems odd is all.

[Greyman]

I know this isn't a hardware forum, but for those that have gone from 16gb to 32gb, did you just add another 2 modules, totalling 16gb or did you have to replace your existing RAM with 4 modules, totalling 32gb. In the past I have had issues with unmatched pairs and wondered if this was still likely to be a problem?

[sze5003]

I know this isn't a hardware forum, but for those that have gone from 16gb to 32gb, did you just add another 2 modules, totalling 16gb or did you have to replace your existing RAM with 4 modules, totalling 32gb. In the past I have had issues with unmatched pairs and wondered if this was still likely to be a problem?

I bought the ram that had the same serial number as the 16gb sticks that I had. So another 16gb set but made sure it was the same exact ram. If you mix two different model numbers you can have issues.

[Greyman]

Yup, I had the problems when I had bought 2x2 sticks of "exactly" the same RAM and each pair worked fine in isolation, but putting all 4 in caused all sorts of memory related issues. The RAM supplier suggested that I should have bought all 4 as a matched set.

 

It might have been BS, but I'd rather not get my fingers burned again.

[Gladman]

I was doing a new build so I bought 4 sticks.

[sze5003]

Yup, I had the problems when I had bought 2x2 sticks of "exactly" the same RAM and each pair worked fine in isolation, but putting all 4 in caused all sorts of memory related issues. The RAM supplier suggested that I should have bought all 4 as a matched set.

 

It might have been BS, but I'd rather not get my fingers burned again.

You have to make sure the model number of your old ram matches the model number of the ram you are adding. I've been running mine like this for a while and everything works fine. Same timings, frequency, etc but most importantly same model number.