Best MOBO, SSD etc for DCS

I upgraded to 32 GB RAM a few months back. Seems more stable on an subjective level. Have not actually tested though. On an objective level if you want a 100% reproducible crash due to lack of memory, try rendering an .AVI from a .TRK in the mission editor at a high resolution for a movie. You'll see RAM usage in Afterburner just keep stacking up till it crashes. Granted that's a limited use case. All else equal DCS uses more RAM when you have it, even on same module and map usage can go up by a GB or two if it's available from what I have seen. And that's all in single player. If you play online, that's a whole other variable to consider.

High binned RAM that is stable at higher clocks can get expensive real quick. You can typically get 32GB of memory at a cost approximately equal to 16GB at faster frequencies. At 32GB you are more stable and future proofed. The faster RAM is maybe getting you a frame or two if you are lucky my best guess. I already sold my faster sticks so nothing to benchmark anymore. You don't NEED 32GB but Eagle Dynamics put that specification in the recommended hardware for a reason. Especially if you are playing Early Access modules in Open Beta. RAM usage can be all over the place from build to build.

For the original question, any decent brand name motherboard will be just fine. Buy one you think looks cool and is Z390 chipset. AMD might have some interesting options later this year if they can improve single thread performance. I'm partial to ASUS boards because of the BIOS. The high end OC boards really only make a significant difference in Benchmark scores if at all depending on what kind of chip you have. Generally speaking you are paying for cosmetic features more than build quality. The fanciest OC board in the world won't matter if you don't get a good chip. The price difference on a midrange board and a high end board could be used to buy a faster CPU. The DCS engine likes fast CPUs. The motherboard in my sig cost $150 US and OC's to 5.0Ghz just fine. A lot of the posters on this board probably don't even realize that their CPU is holding them back if they have a fast Pascal or Turing graphics card even at lower frame rate, higher resolution settings. Even without proper tuning my Titan Xp can put out more fps paired with my 9900k than with a 7700K which was the fastest gaming CPU at the time of Titan Xp's release. When I paired my 2080 Ti with the 7700K the performance bump was less than 10% when air cooled. If I had only bought the 2080 Ti without the new motherboard/cpu I would probably have returned the GPU because of the disappointing performance.

EDIT: With a quick check on the US website of Amazon and Newegg RAM prices are definitely more reasonable than GPU prices at the time of this writing. High end cards have been marked up by a $100+ recently except for direct from Nvidia.

If you sink that much money in a GPU I would also consider 32GB to eliminate any cause for lag, stutter and what not else. Just to make sure my 2080ti could run well.

 

the chain / link rule comes to my mind

 

just my 2 cents

Precisely why I added another 16GB of ram to my system when I did. No sense not to have at least 32GB with all this beef in my case.

16GB for a 2080ti systems ?

 

 

speechless

Yes, be speechless all you want :)

The 2080 Ti has 11GB of graphics memory, so that's a total of 27GB. With that much RAM, there will be no memory limit issues as you fly around.

I'm using a 1080 Ti, also 11GB, with 16GB system RAM. When running DCS, I use almost all max settings, and I find I use only about 8GB of VRAM at the absolute max (rare occasions) and only about 8-10GB of system memory. That's for big "furball" type dogfight missions over the Normandy map. All others use less memory, so 32GB is very excessive.

There are people on this forum with ultra-expensive computers with 9th-gen X-Pensive Edition CPUs, 1080 Ti or 2080/2080 Ti cards, and 32GB of RAM or even more. They still get stuttering, even though DCS World doesn't use much of their system resources.

So, going drastic overkill on system memory is *not* going to improve performance and/or stuttering in DCS. The stuttering is probably related to memory management or a Windows bug/oversight, and not lack of excessively expensive CPUs or enormous amounts of memory.

AD

Many say 32gb helpful for multiplayer , allows 100% preload radius , and future-proofing . Buying matched memory now is safer than upgrading in the future .

Best MOBO, SSD etc for DCS

don’t future proof if you value money.

it’s the same as buying the $1200 betamax machine.... completely useless.

Many say 32gb helpful for multiplayer , allows 100% preload radius , and future-proofing . Buying matched memory now is safer than upgrading in the future .

I don't run multiplayer, but I do use 100% preload radius, and DCS World barely uses half of my 16GB system RAM. I have an 11GB graphics card and it hardly ever uses more than half of that, too. All max settings except for Medium shadows, Flat terrain shadows.

I'm not sure why everyone seems to think DCS uses massive amounts of memory. I hardly see it using that much. Some people have 32 or even 64GB of memory, so DCS is barely using any of it, and they still get stuttering.

AD

I'm not sure why everyone seems to think DCS uses massive amounts of memory. I hardly see it using that much. Some people have 32 or even 64GB of memory, so DCS is barely using any of it, and they still get stuttering.

:lol:

Because they need a 16-core CPU and 3 separate SSD? :D And 8GB of VRAM is not enough...

Whilst ED have been tweaking DCS World memory usage over the last year or so I have seen memory usage drop from mid 20GB down to about 6GB for a simple mission, I regularly see 16GB usage on MP servers.

Despite having 64GB installed (some of that will come out for another build) DCS will get away with 16GB take that to 32GB if you regularly do big MP missions or indeed develop missions.

At no time have I seen my virtual memory being used or recently DCS using much more than 16GB.

VRAM usually around 6 to 7GB on SP mission but will go up to just over 10GB usage on server, again if your GPU has only 8GB I don't know what the effect would be, would you really notice I don't know.

I'm in the give your system 32GB camp mainly because when I do other stuff like editing RAWs or video or audio, Windows just works better not saying it wont work with say 16GB.

One thing is DCS (I guess most other software too) will benefit form faster RAM and higher CPU clock. Whilst SSD is great I really don't see any disk activity when running DCS, that may be different with 16GB and a GPU with 8GB or less VRAM, but once your mission is loaded AFAIK it's the holy trinity of CPU Clock, RAM speed and GPU horse power especially for VR.

YMMV. :D

don’t future proof if you value money.

 

it’s the same as buying the $1200 betamax machine.... completely useless.

Did anyone ever actually use Betamax back in the day? ;)

What about best CPU coolers?

Noctua 15 is always great but has some fitting issues.

Anyone use the Kraken 72?

Thanks

What about best CPU coolers?

 

Noctua 15 is always great but has some fitting issues.

 

Anyone use the Kraken 72?

 

Thanks

I'd check reviews at retailers checking occurrences of hardware failure and also look read up on warranty experiences, as well as the details of the warranties themselves. Biggest concern with an aio is pump failure.. but I'd think most available AIO units do a better job than air alone. Looking at the demensions of that thing @ 394mm, you better have a roomy case. But with a pump capable of 2800 rpm and a radiator that large it should be at least a few degrees cooler than a 240mm. I wouldn't go less than a 240mm rad with 8th gen or newer personally if there's any desire to overclock.

I'd check reviews at retailers checking occurrences of hardware failure and also look read up on warranty experiences, as well as the details of the warranties themselves. Biggest concern with an aio is pump failure.. but I'd think most available AIO units do a better job than air alone. Looking at the demensions of that thing @ 394mm, you better have a roomy case. But with a pump capable of 2800 rpm and a radiator that large it should be at least a few degrees cooler than a 240mm. I wouldn't go less than a 240mm rad with 8th gen or newer personally if there's any desire to overclock.

Just spent way too much time on Youtube,

Looks like the EVGA CLC280 performs as well as the Krakens for $70 less.