RAM - Previously asked question

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kiwis

794 posts

Ultimate Geek

#284459 23-Apr-2021 11:38

I've asked this before but the RAM I was hoping to get became unavailable so I left it.

I'll ask again as I'm now thinking about buying some and the last thread evolved into another sub topic which was helpful but feel I need a fresh thread to seek fresh thoughts

I currently have 2X 8GB Crucial Ballistix Sport 3200 MHz DDR4 DRAM, so 16GB in total.

The only game "Sim" I play is Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. I'll explain my PC specs at the bottom but I'm thinking about increasing RAM as it's something I can afford now vs other upgrades. While running this application I usually have several other things open as I have a multi screen set up.

I do game a bit outside of this, FIFA, GTA and I'm really happy with the performance there.

My Questions are:

1. Can you match RAM on size and speed alone or does brand match needed as well? For example would this boost my capacity to 32GB at 3200mhz with this?

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/MEMPNY12016/PNY-XLR8-RGB-Desktop-Gaming-16GB--2-X-8GB-3200Mhz?qr=app_share

2. Is 4x8GB equal to 2x16GB or which is better and why etc?

3. Is 3600Mhz vs 3200Mhz much different in speed or is capacity better

Preempting the obvious question... What am I trying to achieve?

I run MSFS on High/Ultra settings and I'm reasonably happy with the performance. Actually I really like it.

With more and more pay ware 'addons' becoming available especially in the scenery space I want to keep the performance high and reduce stuttering especially with other applications on.

PC SPEC:

Motherboard: B450 Pro
CPU: AMD 3600X
GPU: RTX 2060Super
Disk: 1TB SSD
Screen: 1080p HDMI/DVI output

Other things on my radar.

CPU upgrade to something like a Ryzen 5900X or 5800X but is a big investment.
GPU: 3000+ series when the price comes down and supply picks up.
Move OS onto M.2 drive
Dedicated disk for MSFS
Liquid cooling - not sure how to do this.

Lenovo

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SpartanVXL

843 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2697155 23-Apr-2021 12:37

1. Brand and product should match to get best equivalence, but as long as the timings are identical you shouldn’t have issues. You’ll find people recommend against it as you won’t know how it runs till you test or you find someone else who has done exactly the same.

2. In terms of memory yes, it’ll be four ranks of 8GB memory usually. In terms of motherboard no, depending on the topology of your mobo you could potentially have issues running higher speeds even if the sticks are advertised as such via XMP

If you have a spare 15min watch or read up on daisy chain vs t-topology. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3vQwGGbW1AE

I vaguely remember that your mobo is a Gigabyte b450 in which case it’s likely daisy chain. You may have issue reaching higher speeds with 4x8 compared to 2x16 in just the two preferred slots.

3. 3200 vs 3600 at the same timings, 3600 does provide better performance. Not just due to memory speeds but by increasing Infinity Fabric interconnect frequency that the CPU uses.

In practical performance gains this can be anywhere from ~5% lift to a increase in 15% to just the 1% fps lows for games. You’d have to take a look at benchmarks for your specific application.

Addendum, according to the review from guru3d done recently it doesn’t look like MSFS benefits much at all from an increase of physical memory. I’d take a guess that they’ve somewhat limited it to their recommended specifications so as to play nicely with latest gen xbox. 16GB and a fast SSD for paging is enough it seems.

https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/ms_flight_simulator_(2020)_the_2021_pc_graphics_performance_benchmark_review,5.html

timmmay

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#2697222 23-Apr-2021 14:54

My research a little while back was RAM speed makes relatively little real world performance difference. I'd try for the same brand / model of RAM to avoid issues. Before you buy more RAM you should check to see if you need more - do you run out of RAM and go into swap? If you buy RAM you don't really need it acts as disk cache, which can help in some scenarios, more for servers / databases.

K8Toledo

640 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2717502 3-Jun-2021 03:38

kiwis:

I've asked this before but the RAM I was hoping to get became unavailable so I left it.

I'll ask again as I'm now thinking about buying some and the last thread evolved into another sub topic which was helpful but feel I need a fresh thread to seek fresh thoughts

I currently have 2X 8GB Crucial Ballistix Sport 3200 MHz DDR4 DRAM, so 16GB in total.

The only game "Sim" I play is Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. I'll explain my PC specs at the bottom but I'm thinking about increasing RAM as it's something I can afford now vs other upgrades. While running this application I usually have several other things open as I have a multi screen set up.

I do game a bit outside of this, FIFA, GTA and I'm really happy with the performance there.

My Questions are:

1. Can you match RAM on size and speed alone or does brand match needed as well? For example would this boost my capacity to 32GB at 3200mhz with this?

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/MEMPNY12016/PNY-XLR8-RGB-Desktop-Gaming-16GB--2-X-8GB-3200Mhz?qr=app_share

2. Is 4x8GB equal to 2x16GB or which is better and why etc?

3. Is 3600Mhz vs 3200Mhz much different in speed or is capacity better?

2. Is 4x8GB equal to 2x16GB or which is better and why etc?

Both are OK however 4x 8GB is the optimal configuration. Why? Because with all DIMM slots populated the Memory Controller can use Bank Interleaving as well as Channel Interleaving.

Memory Interleaving is similar in principle to the way storage controllers work; e.g. I/O with 4x 2TB HDD's is potentially higher than with 2x 4TB HDD's (all else being equal).

For Interleaving to work properly when running Dual Channel with different size DIMM's each channel pair MUST have the same amount of memory, and the pairs must be mirror inverted.

Anyway Dual Channel is Dual Channel - it works the same way it always has no matter the CPU.

You can read more about it here.

HP Z440 Memory Configuration guide.

AMD docs

3. Is 3600Mhz vs 3200Mhz much different in speed or is capacity better?

Depends on the workload. In gaming you may not notice any difference between 16GB & 32GB (although if you have 20GB of mods you may because the OS will use the extra RAM for file caching).

DX11/12 engines can also take advantage of WDDM UMA. So a GPU can reserve system memory for GPU use. The more VRAM the card has the more is reserved.

That why you'd hear gamers with 8GB VRAM & 8GB-16GB RAM complaining about running out of memory.

If you're a heavy torrent user or run a home server the RAM will improve file access times and depending on file size could improve download speeds (with write caching enabled).

Also w/ 32GB installed I recommend disabling the pagefile.

Batman

Mad Scientist
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#2717521 3-Jun-2021 09:05

iirc assuming you have 4 ram slots

put your current pair in 2 of the paired ram slots

get another 2x8gb of a pair and put in the other 2 paired ram slots this pair needs to be the same as each other but does not need to be the same as your existing pair but needs to be 8gb

the paired slots are usually not adjacent, but usually alternated, but should be colour coded - or just check the mobo manual

that was a while ago when i looked into this however things might have changed

Involuntary autocorrect in operation on mobile device. Apologies in advance.