16 gigs of memory v. 32 gigs

[maxTRX]

I've installed and been running the Hornet for 3 days on my new rig: I9 7900x with 16 gigs of DDR4, 2 SSD's in raid 0, Oculus and Warthog. I didn't even bother OC'ing anything. CPU is still at 3.3 and will probably stay there. The sim is running smooth with visibility set to extreme, sliders all the way to the right (except smoke and Gamma), MSAA x2 (x4 makes it even more fuzzy in Oculus). The only major problem I had was the sim crashing upon exit from main menu after flying any mission... just about every time! Yesterday's big update didn't fix that issue either.

 

 

Today I decided to put 16 more gigs of memory and after 4 hours of tinkering with different scenarios, flying multiple long missions without rebooting, etc. - haven't experienced any crashes or hiccups whatsoever. Hopefully that continues. I have no idea whether adding more memory was the real fix but that was the only thing that changed.

[ouPhrontis]

Having excessive RAM never seems to be a bad thing; overclocking RAM though can be, people seem to obsess lately with overclocking allthethings like it's 1998 again, totally unnecessary and potentially counterproductive (typically RAM pushed beyond its normal parameters will show data corruption), from DDR3 onward you'll not notice any humanly measurable difference betwixt DDR3 and anything later through gaming, it only starts to become noticeable if you're using it for CAD/video encoding/CGI work etc.

 

Having said that, I'd not seen DCS use anything more than ~15GiB RAM, even on this rig, I do need to retest. Unused RAM is wasted RAM!

[TonyG]

I added 16GB (to 32GB) more shortly after the release of 2.5. I’ve got a 6700k @4.6gHz and a 980Ti running the oculus rift.

 

I didn’t notice any discernible benefit from it. I never really experienced any crashing beforehand. I haven’t run any benchmarks, this is just my seat of the pants feel of it. Expensive addition to the computer with no noticeable benefit.

 

YMMV....

[javelina1]

Would rather go with an HDD to SSD, vs the 16GB to 32GB debate. (for anyone who hasn't gone with an SSD as of yet).

[Kayos]

My ram usage with dcs has never gone over 14gb or so.

[BitMaster]

Truth to be told, DCS if not the current OB can well use more than 16GB but that got fixed in OB, so there is now no urgent need to go over 16GB as the OB now only grabs 10GB, regardless how much RAM you have installed, I tested with 2 x 8GB and 4 x 8GB inserted, ZERO difference.

 

This might change and 32GB is no bad idea in general, just if money is tight, get 16GB and pump the bucks into the GPU.

 

I highly recommend to use the OB, just because of RAM and a few more fixes.

[firmek]

Would rather go with an HDD to SSD, vs the 16GB to 32GB debate. (for anyone who hasn't gone with an SSD as of yet).

Valid point.

 

Unless there are components that would be bottlenecking others -> GPU then SSD then CPU then RAM

 

I didn't see much of an improvement after updating from 16 to 32 GB. At least not in respect of FPS gain - which obviously could be expected. If only then maybe improvement in stability and reduced macro stutter. The former most probably due to an increased pre-load radius.

I'm not running a really big missions though.

 

As for SSD it does marveles to DCS startup time, mission loading and even scenery loading times while in flight.

[maxTRX]

Good points... I should have mentioned in my post that the decision to throw in another 16 gigs was not entirely based on troubleshooting DCS Hornet but it worked out well :D

It would be nice though to figure out why this event coincided with fixing the sim exit crashes. I'll try to tinker with it some more or... perhaps I shouldn't ;/

[Mars Exulte]

Don't fix it if it ain't broke. The Gods were pleased with your monetary sacrifice, don't test them!

[Pilotasso]

Having excessive RAM never seems to be a bad thing; overclocking RAM though can be, people seem to obsess lately with overclocking allthethings like it's 1998 again, totally unnecessary and potentially counterproductive (typically RAM pushed beyond its normal parameters will show data corruption), from DDR3 onward you'll not notice any humanly measurable difference betwixt DDR3 and anything later through gaming, it only starts to become noticeable if you're using it for CAD/video encoding/CGI work etc.

 

Having said that, I'd not seen DCS use anything more than ~15GiB RAM, even on this rig, I do need to retest. Unused RAM is wasted RAM!

 

Maybe on Intel CPU's thats true however on AMD side of things you can get 20-30% more performance due to memory speeds because the interconnects between the 2 quad core modules operate at the speed of the memory. This is huge, the bad part is that pricing hikes coincided with Ryzen launches. Otherwise that would be a cheap way to get more performance.

[Pilotasso]

heres an interesting article about RAM speeds influence on AMD processors performance (On intel also happens albeit much less pronounced).

 

HsQAtsKX3mE

[BitMaster]

Earlier in this thread I said ED fixed the huge mem hunger with OB and 16GB was plenty again as it never exceeded 10.x GB since...NOT ANYMORE !

 

 

I just got my Hornet and PG Map, joined 104th and BOOOM 15GB RAM and 26GB swap again.

 

 

GO THIRTYTWO !

 

 

16GB is a thing of the past for DCS if you fly the Hornet online with PG.

[ouPhrontis]

I just got my Hornet and PG Map, joined 104th and BOOOM 15GB RAM and 26GB swap again.

 

GO THIRTYTWO !

 

16GB is a thing of the past for DCS if you fly the Hornet online with PG.

 

That it went to swap is interesting, though better that OS crash.

 

I am all for RAM getting used, so long as it's not due to poor coding, because if RAM is sat there not doing anything; it's wasted.

 

On that video, eye opening, though I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Consider me schooled.

[Django]

DCS if not the current OB can well use more than 16GB but that got fixed in OB, so there is now no urgent need to go over 16GB as the OB now only grabs 10GB.

 

Is there an official statement from ED about "fixed" memory management in 2.5OB because I can't find it???

[BitMaster]

Is there an official statement from ED about "fixed" memory management in 2.5OB because I can't find it???

 

 

 

 

From Chizh:

 

 

Introduced two new features:

 

The first version of the video memory manager is presented, which will purge the video memory when the video memory budget allocated by Windows is reached. The resources that were not used in the last 10 seconds are first to be purged.

 

New OFFLINE mode is now implemented. User can turn on OFFLINE mode that allows the game to be used without internet identification and without a time limit. Note: user must turn off OFFLINE mode on the same PC. OFFLINE mode cannot be turned off from another PC even with the same user's login.