I run FS2020 and other sims in VR and need RAM upgrade advice

Birdseed007 · 20 Mar 2024 at 10:13

Last year I had a purpose built gaming rig built but due to budget constraints I had to re-use some of my old system bits including the RAM. I'm now wondering if there's any worthwhile improvement to be had by upgrading my memory given I run FS2020 in VR using my HP Reverb G2 headset. I'm actually an airline pilot but the simulator is used to practice for upcoming sims and also to just noodle around in the skies in the kind of aircraft I don't get to fly around in real life!!

Performance is usually pretty solid on my existing rig with around 40fps in VR but I do get occasional stutters which are a bit annoying and break immersion.

System spec is as follows:

Lian-Li Lancool II ARGB mesh case with USB C £116.95
MSI MPG A850G PCIe5 Fully modular Gold power supply £129.98
MSI Z790 Tomahawk DDR4 wi-fi motherboard £229.99
Intel I7-13700K CPU £377
3x Lian-Li 120mm ARGB cooling fans (in addition to the 3 already in the case) £34.99
Western Digital Black 2TB SN770 M.2 PCIe v4 NVMe SSD £89.99 - primary drive for simulators and Windows
Lian-Li Galahad 240mm AOI ARGB CPU liquid cooler £119.99
Gigabyte Radeon RX6800XT (from Alienware)
2x 16GB HyperX FURY Black Memory 2666MHz DDR4 CL16 (from Alienware) (I think it's memory timings are CL16 16-18-18)
256Mb M.2 drive (from Alienware)
1TB Crucial SSD (from Alienware)
2TB 7200rpm 3.5 storage drive (from Alienware)
Windows 11 Home

I'm thinking of upgrading to this memory:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/king...-28800c17-3600mhz-dual-channel-my-291-ks.html with timings CL17 16-20-20

I am no tech expert but I'm just curious if I will see much improvement in FPS or stutters with the new memory before I drop the best part of £100 on it...

I'm just aware that I'm running a pretty high end CPU and a fast motherboard and a decently fast graphics card so common sense says that my old memory could be holding the rest of the system back...

If anybody thinks that there are other things that would make a bigger difference I would be happy to hear those too. My longer term plan is to upgrade the graphics card but that's a whole lot more expensive!!

Grateful for any advice,

Birdseed

Armageus · 20 Mar 2024 at 10:32

As long as your memory is running at "Gear 2" then I don't think it will make much difference

Article referencing 12th Gen, but don't believe 13th Gen is much different

Best RAM for Intel 12th-Gen Core: DDR4 vs. DDR5

A close look at memory scaling performance with Intel Core 12th-gen CPUs, to help you choose the best DDR4 and DDR5 memory kits for Alder Lake.

www.techspot.com

Tetras · 20 Mar 2024 at 12:06

You'd need to be mainly CPU bottlenecked for the upgrade to matter, which I can't say how much you are right now unless you monitor your usage.

Low latency 2666 (especially if dual rank) is surprisingly competitive with modern single rank sticks at 3000-3600 (though I believe those particular Kingston sticks are dual rank, from the datasheet).

In other words: it might help with the dips/stutters, but it also might not. If turning the graphical settings down makes no difference to the performance, then you're more likely to be CPU-bottlenecked.

Personally, I'd not upgrade from 32GB to 32GB.

Birdseed007 · 20 Mar 2024 at 12:32

I am really interested to read your replies so thanks for those. It sounds as if it's unlikely I will notice much difference in most people's view. When I check using the FS2020 system developer tool/FPS counter it shows I am main thread limited on the CPU, not the graphics card. This is highly sensitive to the terrain level of detail setting as that determines how far away and in how much detail scenery is loaded. Given I am running the HP Reverb G2 at native resolution and thus already pushing around 9 million pixels per frame this has a big impact.

I found this thread quite interesting https://forums.flightsimulator.com/...erformance-guide-su12-update-7-26-2023/132407

It seems that running object level of detail at higher settings to increase scenery detail uses RAM heavily so maybe I would notice some difference. I guess the only way to tell is to buy it and try it... Could be £100 down the drain though...

Birdseed007

Tetras · 20 Mar 2024 at 13:15

Birdseed007 said:
It seems that running object level of detail at higher settings to increase scenery detail uses RAM heavily so maybe I would notice some difference. I guess the only way to tell is to buy it and try it... Could be £100 down the drain though...

This is part of why I dislike RAM speed upgrades, at least if you went for 64GB then you'd have a capacity upgrade too, though I can understand not wanting to sink much into DDR4 at this point. That said, you can get a pretty decent 64GB kit for around £120.