32Gb vs 16Gb?

From ED, recommended system requirements include RAM: 16 GB.

So, my question, as I wait for the release version to update to 2.5, is how much of an improvement would 32Gb make? Unfortunately, memory is much more expensive than a couple of years ago when I got the first 16Gb... almost double the cost.

Other specs include i7 6700K @ 4.6. 1080TI, Rift and / or single 1440P monitor.

If the extra ram would really make an improvement, I'll grab some but I can't think of any other reason at this point to go to 32.

Thanks.

When i run single player my ram sits anywhere from 5gig usage on my task manager to say 9 gig.When i load into multiplayer it goes up to 15.9 gig and i get stutters( not just when someone joins the server) these stutters can be anywhere from micro to seconds long, which if happens at take off or landing means almost certain crash.If you have the money get 32 gig, better to have more than less.Btw i have 16 gig.I was saving for a replacement for my CH HOTAS to get a warthog as my HOTAS is old and starting to fail.But now I'm saving for new ram so i see what you mean about the price of Ram it's very expensive at the moment.Good luck and happy flying:)

I would`nt rush out and buy more RAM yet, it`s beta, and ED should optimise 2.5 and find the RAM hog, no game in this age should consume that amount of RAM, FSX/P3D/Xplane in the past use to but they optimised the memory leaks and refined the code and scenery.

My 2 cents

I play MP in 1.5.8 and now in 2.5 ob with 16gb RAM ddr4 and I've never experienced a crash caused by RAM lack. Btw I also have my preload radius to 100'000 which is fine for me.

Cheers

Thanks.... Hmmm, I'd like to be able to do 2.5 online.... Nothing worse than stutters at the wrong time....

I have 32gb of Corsair Vengeance DDR4 2400 MHz (2x16) which I got last year for $165 now it is $350 I will tell you if you have VR 32gb really helps for all games I use SteamVR supersampling on 3.0 and have no stutters on any game.

As long as you don't have much running in the background 16GB would be enough, DCS 2.5 might be different but GDDR is far more important to have over 4GB because NTTR can go to 5.5GB, and the new Caucasus 2.5 probably similar, so it's recommended to have an 8GB RAM GPU.

It's tricky because not everything that's needed by the game is always loaded in it's executable, but does stay in windows standby memory and is loaded quicker that's why additional RAM would help with more response in ME, but I've seen a lot of the ME is effected by a lot of other factors such as if you land on a buggy situation and the storage speeds, in my case I had big laggy and stuttery problems with a numer of things on Win7 (which is like loaded with all kinds of dev programs, but I keep optimium maintenance that most people dont) and trying it on a slower storage with Win10 actually worked better with same exact hardware.

It's hard to say for me without doing proper test and calculating which I did approach just never finished completely, but it's all obsolete because it was a year ago on older version, I would have to redo everything on DCS 2.5

The speed up would only be in certain places where you are expected to wait anyway, it won't actually speed up FPS when you're in the core gameplay action.

I play MP in 1.5.8 and now in 2.5 ob with 16gb RAM ddr4 and I've never experienced a crash caused by RAM lack. Btw I also have my preload radius to 100'000 which is fine for me.

Cheers

You wouldn't get a crash even if you were over the limit, because you're probably using default windows pagefile settings which would make your game slow down or even grind to a halt, but it wouldn't crash it.

I have 24Gb DDR3 and although it did completely freeze up on me last night, I haven't had any huge issues with it yet. Haven't tested it out in Multiplayer yet. ;)

I would not build a new machine with 16GB but 32GB.

Try it out, 2.5 is brand new, bugs are present a little, wait I'd say, maybe you can keep the 16 and get happy, tho I doubt it.

I often enough see and saw it using 12-14GB, not good if u only have 16

For VR, defo 32GB

That yes, for new machine 32GB, but upgrading from 16GB to 32 just for DCS isn't worth it at the current DRAM prices.

I often enough see and saw it using 12-14GB, not good if u only have 16

You saw DCS.exe using 14 GB of RAM, can you post a screenshot of that?

2.5 makes me think about upgrading to 32gb.

Watch the memory performance stats when you play. My PC was at 20gb of used ram (not all dcs) and needed to do a lot of loading and loading to keep everything running.

It's easy to see if you need to upgrade, especially if you have a second screen.

Ignore the task manager memory usage.

When i run single player my ram sits anywhere from 5gig usage on my task manager to say 9 gig.When i load into multiplayer it goes up to 15.9 gig and i get stutters( not just when someone joins the server) these stutters can be anywhere from micro to seconds long, which if happens at take off or landing means almost certain crash.If you have the money get 32 gig, better to have more than less.

That was exactly my experience, went to 24Gb, maxed the preload and got rid of the stutters.

Yeah I'm going to upgrade to 32 gig and fingers crossed it works for me also.Also thinking of upgrading cpu and motherboard while I'm going to the expensive and trouble.

i7/6700k OC 4.7 ASUS Z170 DELUX/16 DDR4 FAST MSI 1080TI.

15 yr old nephew who builds his own rigs since 12 yanked 16 out of his machine and into mine.

Saw no difference with 32. He did notice my SSD had only 75 gigs free so he freed up 150g and set the virtual memory to the rec but static where both numbers are the same.

That test saved me $300+ for the ram. I run smooth as silk VR. Some tried/true for stutters are stop overclocking and ram ocing to stock see if it helps., Blow out the machine for dust, turn off anti virus, reload vid drivers and try prev version. Turn off any sound card enhancements. Run sim at bare minmums and start adding things one by one. Disable those "voodoo" tricks and run vanilla and see. Disable any magic programs that promise better fps/cores/etc. Simming is like frying bacon naked.

Simming is like frying bacon naked.

Best quote I ever read on here JimJam! lol.

i need to upgrade....

Prices are silly now, and they seem to keep climbing.

The 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) I bought in 2015 was under 90, up to about 170 late 2017, now over 200.

Guess I should have just went with 32 then!

I'm running on 16gb of ram + system managed page file. In MP my page file usage gets up to about 13gb. Have been able to fly MP servers with 80-100 fps.

As long as your SSD's and drives aren't filled to capacity, and they have room for paging and then some (because ssd's perform better when they have free space to operate) 16 gb of ram should be fine imo. Upgrading to 32gb of ram mostly eliminates the need for large page files.

Biggest things that effect performance currently is any MSAA at all while using deferred shading, and as usual - Civ traffic is something I instinctively set to off.

I also run my shadows flat. I'm most certainly maxing out my 980ti... but.. new gpus may be around the corner and it's almost impossible to find a reasonably priced 1080 Ti at present.

That being said - sim's running plenty smooth for my tastes, minus the weirdness when first connecting to a server that I'm pretty sure ED's already aware about.

To make up for the lack of MSAA, I've enabled FXAA in NV control panel as well as set the texture filtering quality to High quality with almost no impact on framerate. I've just kind of learned to accept the shimmer/jaggies from anything outside of a certain distance. Game's still gorgeous even if I think the sim needs some kind of post-processing AA (SMAA?) that works better with Deferred rendering.

Guys, you don't need 32Gb.. It's just a waste of money. As many here have mentioned, when you open task manager and track your memory usage it rarely peaks and even more rarely will it spike to 20Gb or more. Plus, if you're running SSD's the most I would say you need is 24Gb to be future proof. The rest is just bragging rights. ;)

I know that Linus Tech tips on YouTube has an excellent explanation regarding this issue so have a look there before forking out the cash for 8 more Gb DDR4 RAM.

This is silly talk. You don’t need 32GB to run DCS...

I have 16 and run it fine with high settings in VR and it runs very smooth.

As other have pointed out, you don’t need more than, like, 6GB RAM for any video game and 8GB RAM is more than enough.

That much ? I run 640kB + himem with 384kB...in config.sys and autoexec.bat

16GB is what you need today for DCS, there you are right.

Many think that VR and Streaming loves 32GB.

I need 32GB for other reasons as well ( VMware ), so it was easy for me, I would have taken 128GB if it was dirt cheap.

If you buy fancy DDR4 RAM, 2 x8GB, you will struggle to find a matching pair that runs with XMP together with your 1st pair a year from now, or two. That is one vague thing you cant rule out, been there a few times. That's why I buy more RAM than I will need if I can afford it, to never run out of it.

Displacement and RAM are hard to substitute.

As a side note; I measure my system every time I play anything and even without the leak we currently have, back in 1.5.x I had RAM usage up to 14GB when playing online.

If you only have 16GB total, DCS will NEVER ever grab that much RAM, it can't. YOur system will then start to swap, back and forth, back and forth.

Like 2 -->3rd gear..steeeeep hill..back to 2nd gear..rev it up-->3rd gear ehhhh-->back to 2nd gear. If you had some more Torque, you'd just cruise up the hill with a trailer and 2 horses, like if it was empty.

YOu should run more than 16GB to see if it needs more, with 16GB you have limited "view" and will never see if it would ever grab more, no way. Then, 640kB is always enough..LOOK it wont take more ! Only 640kB ;)

Think logic, not in a box

:thumbup:

The system requirements for this game are getting insane. Are we gonna need computers capable of high-end professional video editing and 3D rendering soon?