Thinking of upgrading to 6GB RAM. But will it make a diff to games & FSX?

KatanaDV20 · 7 Nov 2010 at 14:50

Hey guys

Could you memory-nerds

share your thoughts on this.

The specs of my system are in my sig below. Im thinking of upping the RAM to 6GB. The main reason for this is:

1. In 3-screen Eyefinity mode Fallout 3 stutters like mad
2. In 3-screen Eyefinity mode FSX Acceleration stutters when using addon high-rez scenery.

None of the above happens if I disable 2 screens and game on just the center screen.

Will having 6GB RAM help me...or is this a case of lack of VIDEO memory..in which case Im sunk cuz I only just got this HD5850 1GB.

Sometimes I wonder if I should have just got a single 27" display, oh well. My Eyefinity setup does work well in GTA 4, FSX with default scenery but I cant enjoy the higher-rez gamin without it becoming a slideshow

Exsurgo · 7 Nov 2010 at 15:42

I think 6GB would help a bit with an i7 and Windows 7, as many games + OS seem to like to use 4~4.5Gb of RAM if they can, but I think the GPU stress is the main reason for such stuttering. Do remeber though that 5040x1050 is a pretty insane resolution and using Antialiasing will push any 1Gb Graphics card pretty hard.
I would test to see if things run okay with 0AA.

franco_22 · 7 Nov 2010 at 16:45

It's not the memory.

Even a 5870/6870 struggles at that resolution let alone a single 5850.

I suggest you crossfire your 5850 since your MB has 3 16x pic-e lanes. You should notice a big improvement. Although a memory upgrade would also help since you only have 3gb but trust me, the gpu is the problem.

shadow_boxer · 7 Nov 2010 at 17:00

For fsx you really need to be overclccking your i7!!

You don't need to hit the magical 4.0GHz but get it to 3.6, most D0 processors should do that with just a few changes in the bios and no voltage increase! You'll see a jump in performance. FSX is widely recognised as being largely cpu dependent. With a single screen even a 9800GT is fine!

KatanaDV20 · 7 Nov 2010 at 22:44

Thanks for the replies guys....I did have a nagging feeling it was not really a RAM issue but more a card one. The warranty on my rig runs out in a month after that I can try to overclock! However Im an utter n00b @ it and dont have a clue so I have to be careful. Will have a lot of reading to do!!! Maybe will try by tweakign it in small stages...like take it to 2.7Ghz or something hee hee.

mediaman · 8 Nov 2010 at 13:12

FSX wasn't coded for multi core CPU's. You will get a big performance increase if you can up your clock speed. Im not saying the graphics card/resolution isn't also a problem for you, but I have a 4870 1GB and only run FSX at 1360 x 768 and even that struggles the game is coded so badly. I have 8GB RAM and reckon if I just had 4GB my performance difference in FSX would be hardly noticeable if at all. I clocked my Q6600 to 3.6ghz and saw a massive improvement in performance. Admittedly, still can't max the autogen settings but at least some proof that FSX is more CPU dependant than GPU. Now looking forward to the next release of Flight Sim which will support multiple cores, hopefully then top end hardware will pay dividends.

KatanaDV20 · 8 Nov 2010 at 13:49

I will definetly go in for an Oc on the i7. Thanks for that info mediaman. The 4870 1GB is a good card, I had that before upgrading to the 5850. I agree on how FSX was not optimized to harness multicore CPUs, a real pity. If I bump up the i7 to say 2.8Ghz to start with will a stock cooler handle that? Now I need some n00b-friendly software to let me do that ha.

Now looking forward to the next release of Flight Sim which will support multiple cores, hopefully then top end hardware will pay dividends.

Tell me about it. Im fed up of how ancient default FSX looks (stupid leopard-print ground and such). I hope someones working on a truly next-gen sim. FSX is fun no doubt but we are in the stupid position of have blisteringly powerful machines but stuck with a sim that cannot harness that power.

mediaman · 8 Nov 2010 at 14:28

At the time they was making FSX they must have been thinking CPU's would keep getting faster and faster in clock speed, 4 to 5ghz as standard and then they released FSX right when dual and quad core CPU's were coming out with slower clock speeds. I would have loved a patch that would have enabled quad core support. I was disappointed when I built my system and couldnt max everything in FSX, but after a bit of reading realised people with sli and extreme clocked cpu's were still struggling. There is more performance to be had with clocking your CPU but the real fun will start when they release Microsoft Flight with proper multi core support.

KatanaDV20 · 9 Nov 2010 at 13:51

Oh thats right I had forgotten about Flight. Is it the same team behind MSFS thats working on this? I hope they completely bin the ancient engine used in FS9 & FSX and create a new one from the ground up. We will have to wait for more videos to appear on YouTube as development progresses. In the meantime Im gonna put the brakes on buying scenery addons for FSX. Got enought for now and with Flight on the horizon (albeit a far one) at last I have an incentive to stop purchasing!

Having said that I must say that the scenery from Orbx is just brilliant - those guys should be given the reins for Flight's scenery!