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Do I need 32GB of Memory now?


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Okay now try turning off your page file...

I may try it later on just for sake of testing but overall I'm rather against turning the page file off. It's not only used as an backup, additional memory in case hardware RAM runs out but also to allocate memory for non performance critical applications. In other words, even with a lot of hardware RAM it is generally not advised to turn the page file off.

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I used to run without a pagefile when I had 16gb. But I also have a regular hard drive so I set the pagefile on that. Now with 32gb, I think I turned off my pagefile on the main drive.

 

You are more likely to get blue screen errors without a pagefile if a program uses too much of your memory. Dcs does that most of the time so try with and without and see if you notice anything.

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Ordered RAM arrived today and I had an opportunity to do some simple tests.

Starting DCS and joining a Blue Flag server with a clean booted Windows 10 and just the Track IR running.

 

With 16 GB

DCS loads for around 4 minutes, eventually showing only partially (not fully rendered) role selection table and finally failing by exiting back to main menu and staying unresponsive. No other option than just forcefully close the application.

Memory RAM max / peak total commited - 12 GB / 22 GB

 

With 32 GB

During the first try DCS fails in similar way to join the BF server as in case of 16 GB RAM but now it exists back to main menu after around 5.5 minutes.

Memory RAM max/peak total commited - 12.5 GB / 21 GB

 

Second try - after the first crash, without restarting the PC. DCS loads role selection table in around 1 minute. The table screen is almost not responsive - FPS counter shows 1-2 FPS only. It takes around next 2 minutes to get into the cockpit and arrive to stable, normal FPS.

Memory RAM max/peak total commited - 15 GB / 23 GB

 

Conclusion.

Non decisive at the moment but looking on the numbers 16 GB should have been enough for DCS to load. 32 GB didn't seem to solve the problem. I think the issue is also connected with loading time which may also depend on the internet connection. Or just the MP loading algorithm needs fine tuning. I had no issues while playing SP DLC campaigns with 16 GB.

 

If that matters, I have 2 SSD drives - one is OS and swap file dedicated only, second used by DCS. GTX 1070.

 

 

thanks for sharing this !

I encounter similar behaviour with SSD and 24GB RAM , DCS is running fine atm, but on busy Servers I had issues sometimes.

 

 

The biggest perfomance gain for me was to follow the recommendation of NineLine (thanks!) to reduce preload radius..

 

I set my preload to about 60% and now even busy MP servers are really enjoyable.

 

 

will test with the new additional 8GB RAM block asap


Edited by JABO2009

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I may try it later on just for sake of testing but overall I'm rather against turning the page file off. It's not only used as an backup, additional memory in case hardware RAM runs out but also to allocate memory for non performance critical applications. In other words, even with a lot of hardware RAM it is generally not advised to turn the page file off.

 

By chance you cannot turn pagefile off.

You can only turn virtual memory off (virtual memory makes pagefile to be handled by physical drives instead of ram)

So if you turn virtual memory off (because you have plenty of ram) you still have a pagefile, handled by ram, so "allocate memory for non performance critical application" (I don't know what it is ?) should still work.

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The biggest perfomance gain for me was to follow the recommendation of NineLine (thanks!) to reduce preload radius..

 

I set my preload to about 60% and now even busy MP servers are really enjoyable.

 

 

I dont remember me being the one that pointed it it, so dont want to take credit for it, BUT it cant be stressed enough... cutting down preload from 150000 to half that makes a HUGE HUGE difference for me personally.. throwing more RAM isnt going to do as much as in many cases we are not hitting RAM limits... I have 16GB and I dont hit my limit... although I can come close in some cases.

 

As I said though, I will never stop someone from upgrading their machine, its generally never going to hurt :)

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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.

 

AD

 

I'm playing with the editor right now. If I put a lot of units all over the place the performance goes to crap on me at 16 GB. I really have to make an effort too. I think for the most part you won't have an issue with 16 GB. 32 GB would be good for missions where the author was extremely wasteful with resources. Like simulating a war with a bunch of units fighting even though you or nobody else is going to be in the area to see anything.

 

I can't wait to see what they've done with the update to optimize the performance.

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I'm playing with the editor right now. If I put a lot of units all over the place the performance goes to crap on me at 16 GB. I really have to make an effort too. I think for the most part you won't have an issue with 16 GB. 32 GB would be good for missions where the author was extremely wasteful with resources. Like simulating a war with a bunch of units fighting even though you or nobody else is going to be in the area to see anything.

 

I can't wait to see what they've done with the update to optimize the performance.

 

How do you mean the performance goes crap? Do you get very low fps? Im asking because you seem to have the same problem as I have, I have asked about it in other threads in the forum but got no answers.

 

I upgraded from a gtx 970 to a gtx 1080 yesterday, I have got a FX8350 cpu and 16 gb ram. I can now run free flight missions with max settings in Caucasus with 70 fps, but when I run missions I did in 1.5 where I had alot of units like the ones I you are describing I get drops down to 25-30 fps, same as I had on my gtx 970. Im not hitting the roof of my 16 gb ram, are you?

I have discovered that even uncontrolled units at the ramp at Nellis causes this eventhough Im flying north of Rachel.

 

Im hoping that it is related to the memory issue that ED is working on and not the CPU so much that I have to upgrade that.

 

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Edited by Fisherman82
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You may want to ask yourself, who actually has 32 and who is speculating about it.

 

32GB doesn't add any benefit over the 16GB. I would even claim that 12GB would be enough for DCS, but just to be sure 16GB should run all missions fine.

 

Why to have 32GB? It is for all other reasons than DCS. Like 3D rendering and video/image editing loves a lot of RAM. But even today most games run fine at 8-16GB as limitation is totally elsewhere than in amount or speed of RAM.

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32GB doesn't add any benefit over the 16GB. I would even claim that 12GB would be enough for DCS, but just to be sure 16GB should run all missions fine.

 

Why to have 32GB? It is for all other reasons than DCS. Like 3D rendering and video/image editing loves a lot of RAM. But even today most games run fine at 8-16GB as limitation is totally elsewhere than in amount or speed of RAM.

 

I play with 12 GB.. It never goes beyond 10 GB RAM, even online with 30 players.

 

But I must admit that I play on Medium details, so larger textures might require MORE Ram.

 

So I would say 16 GB is Fine, but if anyone can afford 32 GB then why not... but there won't be any difference.

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I play with 12 GB.. It never goes beyond 10 GB RAM, even online with 30 players.

 

But I must admit that I play on Medium details, so larger textures might require MORE Ram.

 

So I would say 16 GB is Fine, but if anyone can afford 32 GB then why not... but there won't be any difference.

I can confirm, no difference.

16GB for DCS is enough.

 

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So I would say 16 GB is Fine, but if anyone can afford 32 GB then why not... but there won't be any difference.

 

sry but this cant be generally said.. at least on my end, RAM makes a difference,... even in the range between 16 to 32 GB.

 

Im playing on High settings (with some minor Med settings and shadows low)., and I sometimes get up to 22/23 GB RAM usage on crowded MP servers,,

 

I was playing DCS with 24GB over the last weeks, which was fine, but now with 28GB its even better..

 

- DCS MP join gets a bit faster

- "low FPS phase" when selecting Role in MP server got shorter

- smoother Track IR

- overall smoother feeling when flying low over terrain


Edited by JABO2009

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Running DCS on latest OB version 

 

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Wow my irony meter is deflecting into the red zone here, with people who run 16GB or less arguing that more RAM is not needed yet, Windows and applications benefit from having more RAM as far as performance of Windows and applications running on it goes. :doh:

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Wow my irony meter is deflecting into the red zone here, with people who run 16GB or less arguing that more RAM is not needed yet, Windows and applications benefit from having more RAM as far as performance of Windows and applications running on it goes. :doh:

 

There's no irony. OP was asked if it was needed. It is not.

 

I don't see anyone saying having more would be a bad thing, aside from the dealing with the hugely inflated cost at the moment.

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16 is good for me, never gets to 13, but then it would page slightly, same as the 12GB users that don't go over 10GB, it's Windows managing it. It's the effect of a lot of paging that will cause performance dips, so you need to call it yourself, depending on what you may be running simultaneously and type of mission etc.

 

I don't see many folks needing 32 and given the cost of RAM it's not particularly attractive in cost per performance. Certainly nothing else I use on this computer is going to need it, right up until I run VM's for work or something.

 

Best expenditure you can make for the same price is to get into the Coffeelake Intel's. My 8600K goes like the clappers and it was an excellent purchase for the price, very pleased with the difference in performance in DCS particularly.

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Best expenditure you can make for the same price is to get into the Coffeelake Intel's. My 8600K goes like the clappers and it was an excellent purchase for the price, very pleased with the difference in performance in DCS particularly.

 

I 2nd that great chip and 16Gb Ram is plenty ATM for myself using VR :)

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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?

 

As long as the speeds and everything like CAS match, you should be ok, otherwise ram will usually slow itself down to the slowest speed stick and you end up getting lowered performance.

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You might have to shift your Point of View at how you look at it.

 

It highly depends how you use the Simulator, if you fly small missions offline, large missions offline or even dare to try the biggest and heaviest servers out there with 40-50 players and all sorts of airframes, ground targets, scripts, voice comms, YouTube export & recording, etc.

The amount of RAM needed to do all this only goes one way, and that is UP.

 

You should also NOT look what DCS uses alone, that is of no worth. You have to look what your total RAM usage is, that can easily be twice as much or more than what DCS uses. THAT number is what you look for.

 

There are screenshots ( including my own ) in this forum showing RAM usage beyond 14GB, into the twenties. With 16GB total you will never be able to use that much RAM and keep latency and throughput at highest levels. A system with less RAM will likely stop grabbing more RAM and start offloading lots of stuff into the swapfile so 12GB of 16GB may be used, with the downside of heavier offloading to swap. In both scenarios the actual data needed is both loaded to RAM, just the system with more RAM could just ADD it to the other data already stored whereas the lesser system needs to make place first. Make no mistake, even a 32GB needs to offload A LOT, my swap is usually way above 20GB, sometimes over 30GB ! with 32GB RAM installed and up to 20-22GB RAM in use. If RAM was as cheap as buns, we could all use 1TB and just load all of them uncompressed textures and what not else to RAM ( takes 10 min, so dont moan !! haha ) or we face reality and learn that systems need to offload LOTS of stuff if the app is a heavy app with a very high RAM demand, which DCS is nowadays.

 

Is 32GB our rescue. NO !!!!!!!! it just SHIFTS the Offload 1 step higher, aka 16GB further up.

 

Does it help anyway ? Tbh, I havent reid 16GB in a long time and some with 32GB say they have lots of RAM issues ( which I think are PageFile issues ). So prolly yes & no, it depends on how you have your system configured and if you understand what it does when it does it and can adopt to it with changed settings. Some can do that, most actually can not and are victims, more or less.

 

Would I buy 32GB ? Yes, no doubt. I'd even look at the 64GB shelf if the price drops.

 

I wish that ED would make this RAM offload thing a feature you can tick OFF or adjust.

 

Like 8-12-16-24-32-48-64GB System presets, that would benfit all, low end to top end.

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I guess it's all in the way you phrase the question or what you consider beneficial. DSC officially only needs 8GB referring to min specifications. :cry:

 

Windows loves memory and if it has enough available RAM it will allocate as much as it can, and there are benefits of this, improved response as the applications run because well it's all loaded into RAM already.

 

I did some more testing, I'm already happy with 32GB and at that RAM capacity DCS is quite fluid, being that I was curious and opportunity knocked and I tried 64GB. Oddly this also gave another benefit, interleaving and if your MB supports it, do look into it it can effectively increase memory throughput AKA faster! I haven't done any serious overclocking and think I might be able to squeeze maybe 2.6Ghz out of the RAM and maybe a bit more out of the CPU.

 

So what does 64GB bring to the table even faster load times, much faster reload times even on MP servers. No change in FPS well I didn't expect that however in game feels more fluid perhaps that is just better memory bandwidth??

 

So 15.8GB allocated

 

28.3GB committed

 

I'd be sure if I had of loaded 8 slots with 4GB DIMMS, 32GB total to gain benefit from interleaving memory addressing 32GB would still be the sweat spot in performance.

 

So I guess it depends what you consider a benefit. :D

 

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YMMV :)

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If RAM was cheap I'd run 64GB, no doubt !

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There is no doubt on my old system that I saw a noticeable difference when I went from 16 to 32GB of RAM. I think some of it depends obviously on the system you have and how high your running your settings. I have everything maxed out in 4K in DCS and more RAM make a serious difference. Now I'm not sure I needed 64 but I wanted to go all out on this latest build and I plan on going to 4K VR hopefully with Pimax 8K-X. I don't think RAM prices are ever coming down since that increase is due to the Cell Phone market now that they are putting higher performance RAM in phones. I don't see that ever going away...

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