RAM and all that.

[PaulC]

Hello All, hope you are well.

I have a Dell Inspiron 530i which I have upgraded by changing the graphics card for an ATi Radeon HD4870 and uprating my power to a unit that is quite powerful (Helpful aren't I? I can't remember the wattage but it's largish and more than I'll need for the life of this PC... )

I run Windows 7 on a 64OS and the processor is a AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core Processor 5000+ 2.6GHz with 2GB of RAM. Monitor wise it's the Dell standard 19" which works at 1440x900 resolution I think.

I have my frame rates externally limited to 25 in FSX and can get most things mid slider coupled with Active Sky 2012 which gives me ok performance. I do get blurries though if I'm rattling along at low level in the Buccaneer or Hunter over land. Over the sea at the x2 High setting it's ok.

Now hold my hand and guide me through this (The inside of computers are dark places that I only go with the help of a good friend and a life line, and although I changed my own power supply and graphics card I had a sweat on when I came to power it up for the first time!) but what I want to know is;

1. Will getting more RAM improve things a lot, or is it not going to be worth it and;

2. If it is a good idea, how do I go about it?

3. Is there anything other than RAM I can change that will make a difference?

Cheers chaps,

Paul

[TSR2]

If you take your RAM up to 4 or 8 GB you should see a noteable improvement. FSX will never use much more than 2GB of RAM, even on a 64bit operating system, so really what you want is have enough RAM for the OS and all the other bits and then +2GB for FS. 2GB for the whole system is probably at the low end of the scale these days, certainly for FSX its below par.

[Paul K]

From what I can gather, FSX performance is more dependent on CPU cycles than RAM. So presumably a faster CPU brings greater benefit than increasing RAM above the minimum requirement.

[TSR2]

Hi Paul, your sort of correct, but if you only have 2GB in total, that will be the biggest bottle neck. Once you have 2GB to dedicate to the sim (over and above the OS / other applications) the CPU cycles do indeed make a difference.

[Paul K]

Ah yes Ben, I see what you mean.

[PaulC]

So with that processor, is it going to be worth getting the extra 2 GB RAM?

[TSR2]

The question always boils down to how much do you want to spend. Increasing the RAM will probably cost no more than £50 and you should see a significant performance improvement, not just in FS, but throughout the PC. If your trying to justify spending more money, yep, you can spend as much as you like and while you will see improvements, its usually proportional to how much you spend. In short the RAM is a quick and reasonably inexpensive performance booster

[PaulC]

I've found a 2GB upgrade kit, guaranteed to be compatible with my system, £25. Does that sound reasonable?

Thanks for the advice, I 'll give it a go.

[TSR2]

Sounds Grand

[PaulC]

Got the RAM, and amazingly for me, got it fitted in without scorching myself or my surroundings!

I've seen a bit of a difference; for example, I took the Buccaneer up high, then came down quick and at speed into the Lake District and I wasn't just confronted by blurries when pulling turns etc.

So we'll see what difference it makes with a bit of testing.

Thanks for the advice.