Is more RAM going to make enough of a difference?

[dws82]

Hi all.  I just started playing DCS recently. I'm currently using my laptop to play the game, and I am under no illusions about this severely limiting my experience, but I'm trying to get the most out of it for now to see how much I like the game (and how much time I have to spend on it).

 

My current specs are:

 i7-9750H CPU
16GB DDR4 2666mhz RAM
GTX1650 GPU (4GB VRAM)
2 x M.2NVMe SSDs (one currently dedicated to DCS)

Short of spending a ridiculous amount to get an external GPU, I'm really limited to upgrading the RAM.  I use this computer for CAD drawings, and I'll be upgrading the RAM anyway, but would 64GB total help?  If I could get a year before building a new machine, it would be great, but if this isn't going to make that much difference I'll just stick to 32GB and wait.

Currently I'm just doing single player stuff, and I don't mind sticking to that if I have too.  There hasn't been many issues so far, but I'm guessing the training missions are less draining on the system than larger stuff.  I don't mind turning down the graphics either.

As I'm pretty much limited to RAM upgrades, is this going to make that much of difference?

[Thinder]

2 hours ago, dws82 said:

Hi all.  I just started playing DCS recently. I'm currently using my laptop to play the game, and I am under no illusions about this severely limiting my experience, but I'm trying to get the most out of it for now to see how much I like the game (and how much time I have to spend on it).

 

My current specs are:

 i7-9750H CPU
16GB DDR4 2666mhz RAM
GTX1650 GPU (4GB VRAM)
2 x M.2NVMe SSDs (one currently dedicated to DCS)

Short of spending a ridiculous amount to get an external GPU, I'm really limited to upgrading the RAM.  I use this computer for CAD drawings, and I'll be upgrading the RAM anyway, but would 64GB total help?  If I could get a year before building a new machine, it would be great, but if this isn't going to make that much difference I'll just stick to 32GB and wait.

Currently I'm just doing single player stuff, and I don't mind sticking to that if I have too.  There hasn't been many issues so far, but I'm guessing the training missions are less draining on the system than larger stuff.  I don't mind turning down the graphics either.

As I'm pretty much limited to RAM upgrades, is this going to make that much of difference?

I don't think it will make much difference, it would for CAD design but not so much for gaming, the rest of your laptop is really at the limit of the minimum requirements but your RAM capacity is already twice what is needed, I run multi-missions in VR with 32 GB of RAM but it is optimized for my CPU.

Frequency matters more for Intel CPUs and being limited to DDR4-2666 is an issue, you could ask Intel support to know if your CPU controller can take Cl14 RAM providing it exists for laptops because it was used by many Intel players to increase the frequency of their RAM before the Intel CPU could take 3200 MHz RAM.

Intel: How to Overclock RAM

Everyone dreams about playing DCS multiplayer missions, but they are much more demanding on player's systems, I've been playing solo for years with a system probably twice as fast than what you have now and only started doing multiplayer stuff recently after upgrading my PC several times over, starting with the PSU, CPU and RAM.

In my humble opinion, you should keep the money and start saving for a mid range gaming PC, not hesitate to look for second hand gear in good conditions, which is what I've done (EVGA GeForce® GTX 1080 Ti) and so got myself some seriously good deal, then upgrade gradually if your budget is limited.

Laptops are not the solution to play DCS, otherwise, home-built is cheaper but you'll need to know what you're doing if you want to put one gaming PC together, players like myself occasionally have some gear available after upgrades such as PSU or GPU, if you're lucky motherboards, CPUs and RAM.

If you're in the UK, you could look here. CEX their gear comes under 2 years warranty.

Edited January 22, 2023 by Thinder

[dws82]

@Thinder

Thanks for this advice.  I knew this system would be heavily limited and was wondering how close those limits are to what I have now.  I can overclock the RAM, but given this is an ultrabook, I'm worried its going to cause bigger problems from overheating, and for something that won't make much difference anyway, I won't even try that. 

I'll probably go to 32GB for work and stick to the single player stuff for now.  I've played a couple of the Hornet missions without any issues so far, but they are pretty basic.  Would the missions in some of the campaigns with other maps cause  large drop in performance as well, or is it mainly the multiplayer stuff that will be affected? If they won't work well, I won't purchase them until I have a newer system built.

[Thinder]

48 minutes ago, dws82 said:

@Thinder

Thanks for this advice.  I knew this system would be heavily limited and was wondering how close those limits are to what I have now.  I can overclock the RAM, but given this is an ultrabook, I'm worried its going to cause bigger problems from overheating, and for something that won't make much difference anyway, I won't even try that. 

 

You're right, first you'll need the right RAM for O.C, second in an enclosed space such as your laptop, overheating is most likely to occur, for little gain it's not worth it.

Keep it for work and bite it until you have a reasonable budget for building a mid-range gaming PC, there are solutions for finding the right gear for you but a bit of advise, do your home work seriously before spending any money, such as Power Unit requirement for the whole planned system, CPU support etc.

Quote

I'll probably go to 32GB for work and stick to the single player stuff for now.  I've played a couple of the Hornet missions without any issues so far, but they are pretty basic.  Would the missions in some of the campaigns with other maps cause  large drop in performance as well, or is it mainly the multiplayer stuff that will be affected? If they won't work well, I won't purchase them until I have a newer system built.

Multiplayer missions can be more demanding because of the number of objects present in the mission, if you start with let's say 2 or 4 buddies from a ground base, you'll have other aircraft, vehicles, characters such as base guard around you from start up, so my 180Ti was struggling a bit to load all of this up despite my CPU/RAM combo being optimized.

Your system is limited, better not hope to play the most demanding missions even in solo with it, look for a proper gaming solution and keep it for work it serves you just fine.

It's a combination of things, your CPU controller manages all other channels, the other devices can be faster, if there is a bottleneck it will throttle down and it matters little if you have 64Gb of 3200 MHz RAM or a 4090 GPU, it won't make a difference under load, precisely the area of the game you'll find yourself in multiplayer missions.

Bottleneck Calculator

First you could post a topic for request of info for different systems, Intel based or AMD based or mixed CPU/GPU from both, be aware there is a little war between the two communities, personally I have been playing with a mixed system and cannot prize enough the quality of the EVGA GPU I used for all that time, but I was on AMD and decided to upgrade AMD.

It's a question of choice, right now, the best solution I would go for is an AMD based PC with an B450 GAMING PLUS MAX and AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, that would be the cheapest of solutions to start with, then you can chose either standard RAM or pay a premium for B.die Cl14 kit, gain is substantial and it did really help me with heavier load missions.

I got my 1080Ti from CEX, it still work and I might put it for sell through Ebay, I also have 2 Corsair PSU, one 750W and one 850W, I'll give priority to DCS players and just opened a topic on the subject after sending a request for information to CEX about purchasing from out of the UK. PC upgrade solidarity.

My advise, if you can buy from CEX their gear are thoroughly tested and come with a 2 year warranty, my self I can't guaranty that my 1080Ti will work for long, it's been serving me for a good while now and might not, plus even if it was probably the best card of its generation it is still limited for what you'd like to do with it, with the basic system I suggested I'd go for a second hand RTX 3080 at least.

That's all I can say really, the most important thing is for you to know where you step, because mediocre performances are often caused by bad bounding and BIOS settings, if you understand how your planned system will work before spending the money it will save you a lot of time and frustration, if not money.

CEX 1080Ti 11Gb

CEX 3080Ti

Edited January 22, 2023 by Thinder