16 ram vs 32?

[Cugino83]

View attachment 15813

It doen't look good at all man, you defenetly need at least 24Gig of ram, 32 will defenetly be better since there is more room for other program and SO itself.

If you have oonly 2 stick and have a couple of slot free you can easily add a couple of 2x8 RAM bank, it doesn't matter if the producer is different, but it nedd to be the same speed (or faster, but then you need to check if your MB support it), if you can install the same exact RAM model will be even better.
You can read the model number form the stick iteself or retrive it by Poweshell command:

PowerShell: Getting RAM Info by manufacturer, speed, serial number, capacity, DUAL-Channel …

If the memory is to be upgraded, then you have to find out whether the new memory is compatible. And you have to find out the type of your currently installed memory. The device manager does not pr…

sid-500.com

Don't get scared from the command like thing, as long as you stick to the Get-something command you can't do damage, so just run:
Get-WmiObject Win32_BaseBoard

and take notice of the PRODUCT value, that is what you need to search.

 

[Radegast74]

The only other thing(s) I can think of before getting more RAM would be to quit out all browsers and other memory hogging apps before running SC....I normally quit my browser, have 3GB of RAM being used before I launch SC, and after playing SC never go above 11GB RAM usage (out of my 16GB).

The other thing is, I'm sure your aren't getting 80+ FPS everywhere, but, how much more in the way of frames do you want (or expect)?

 

[Talonsbane]

My last PC had a quad core AMD FX-74 with only 3gb of RAM & a 1GB HIS AGP 8x video card. The rig I upgraded to several years back has an AMD 8350 with 32gb or RAM & a Strix 480 OC 8gb. I'm most likely going to wait to upgrade again until AM5 with DDR5 is available & affordable, to again skip a generation. Then again, I might wait until that is released, to buy the best I can afford of the current generation as it goes on sale from the new generation taking it down a few pegs.

 

[LoicFarris]

It would be really interesting to have somebody with 32GB RAM *pull out* 16GB of their RAM and do a "Before and After" test. You can definitely run it with 16GB of RAM, and I'm sure 32GB would be better, but *how* much better would it be? Would the cost be worth it?

Enquiring minds wish to find out!

I can say as a matter of fact that the game will run just fine with 16GB of ram. Now, there's a caveat to that... I run a super clean build, nothing auto-starts, the computer gets turned off every night and I don't leave a browser open with a million tabs. As a result, with 16GB of RAM, I had no issues running SC, while streaming or recording with OBS and running Discord. I would also occasionally have a browser open on one of my monitors.

If you're the kind of user who leaves programs open, has loads of agents running in the background then 16GB will feel tight.

NOW... I recently upgraded to 32GB of RAM because when I built this box 3 years ago, I didn't realize that my main-board couldn't over-clock the RAM to 4133, which it's rated for. It turns out this main-board, CPU combo is maxed at 2400 MHz. So I ordered 4x 8GB sticks that were rated for that speed and installed them. In addition, filling all of your DIMM slots allocates memory to the CPU more efficiently... I'm not really able to explain beyond that... So what did this do for Star Citizen with my setup... honestly not much, but I will be honest the game is a little smoother. Instances where my system would swap for a fraction of a second to load assets are now smooth, but I'll be honest in saying that those instances were few and far between. The game is also cashing a lot more to memory, after 3 hours of play the game will show about 28GB of committed assets to memory and yes that will improve performance... but again, not by much. So if I got 64GB of RAM would the game run smoother? I would say absolutely, but not by much and certainly not by enough to merit the cost, unless you make a 6 figure + income and are single without an alimony or child support payment... in which case knock your self out.

Other important notes... my OS drive is an M.2 500GB drive, that supports ONLY the OS and personal files which are backed up to my home NAS. Star Citizen and other games are installed to one of two 500GB SSDs installed in the system.

 

[Radegast74]

So if I got 64GB of RAM would the game run smoother?

What we really need is somebody to put in 128GB of RAM, so they can put the game on a RAM Disk, and report back to us...any takers?

 

[Jolly_Green_Giant]

Just to add my experience. Maybe on paper theres no noticeable difference, or as explained earlier it depends on how you utilize your system. Me? I don't have too many processes open, but 16gb was enough for SC to tell me I needed at least 8gb of ram (or something like that) every time i launched the game. I had a memory controller issue with a MB (4x4gb DDR4 @3200), and when I bought my new one, I also bought 32gb (4x8gb) of ram. Made a noticable difference to me. Didnt get that pop up message anymore either. While playing Anno 1800 ive had up to 18gb system ram usage, with like a couple tabs open in my opera browser and stuff. Nothing crazy, but that game will load your ram up if you max out the settings.

I Have a 9900k @5.1ghz under load, 500gb 950 pro nvme drive, 2080 Ti, and my ram clocks are 2933. Why 2933? Looked at a lot of benchmarks and practical apllication scenarios and it didnt make sense to spend more money. (also the ones i got were readily in stock on amazon). I mean I'd love to have 4+ghz clock speeds on my ram, but the hell if I think it's worth it.

If you're tight on money, then by all means, go with 16gb. For a little bit more, that peace of mind and (possible) future proofing i'd say go with 32gb. Don't go much less than 2933 on your clock speeds though. I couldn't tell you what good timings are on ram now days, but you preferably want to find a set with low latency. AMD seems to benefit the most from RAM specs, but I couldn't give you any detailed answers on any of it.

As far as SC performance goes, it may be a placebo affect but there was a difference. Couldn't tell you what, probably loading and stuff, but I think the thing that stood out was my system responsiveness when I alt-tabbed out.

 

[Radegast74]

but 16gb was enough for SC to tell me I needed at least 8gb of ram (or something like that) every time i launched the game.

Really? I've never gotten that message. I pretty much always close my browser before playing, and I've turned off all the M$ crap apps that run in the background, so my RAM usage is minimal right before I start SC (normally about 2.5 ~ 3GB RAM being used).

 

[Bruce]

just my two cents - I tried to have 16GB ( 2x8 GB) .. figured out it isn't enough (as well as many others said here) .. so got +16GB (another 2x8 ) .. tried it .. figured out that memory speed deteriorates due to secondary RAM channel being not so fast as first ... "donated" my 32 GB to my kid and bought 2x16GB so that I use only one RAM channel .. now this is my advice to anyone - till we get better CPU / MoBo pairs that are able to utilize both channels in a same manner - try to get only 2x16GB - this should be good for quite some time

 

[Jolly_Green_Giant]

Really? I've never gotten that message. I pretty much always close my browser before playing, and I've turned off all the M$ crap apps that run in the background, so my RAM usage is minimal right before I start SC (normally about 2.5 ~ 3GB RAM being used).

Yeah, I wasn't sure exactly what was causing it. I checked system stats and everything looked good, but for some reason it kept telling me SC needs X amount of RAM. It would still let me play, but it would always prompt me.

 

[Aramsolari]

just my two cents - I tried to have 16GB ( 2x8 GB) .. figured out it isn't enough (as well as many others said here) .. so got +16GB (another 2x8 ) .. tried it .. figured out that memory speed deteriorates due to secondary RAM channel being not so fast as first ... "donated" my 32 GB to my kid and bought 2x16GB so that I use only one RAM channel .. now this is my advice to anyone - till we get better CPU / MoBo pairs that are able to utilize both channels in a same manner - try to get only 2x16GB - this should be good for quite some time

It's recommended that when you buy RAM it's better to buy them as a set. If you already have 2x8 of 16 GB, buying another 2x8 of the same doesn't always work well. Even if you get the exact same kind of RAM, you often won't be able to POST or reach the advertised RAM speeds. I made the mistake of getting 2x8 of 16gb thinking I could upgrade months down the road to 32gb. I did get the second set but it wasn't matching properly. Decided to just shell out the money and get myself 4x8 of 32gb RAM. No issues with stability or reaching advertised speeds ever since.

 

[Cpt_Trips]

Appreciate everyone's input here. You guys are awesome! Got a couple of ram upgrade options I have been checking out.

G.Skill 32GB DDR4 PC4-28800 3600MHz Ripjaws V for Intel CL16 (16-19-19-39) Dual Channel kit (2x16GB)

or

Corsair CMW32GX4M2C3200C16 VENGEANCE RGB PRO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200 (PC4-25600) C16

 

[Aramsolari]

Appreciate everyone's input here. You guys are awesome! Got a couple of ram upgrade options I have been checking out.

G.Skill 32GB DDR4 PC4-28800 3600MHz Ripjaws V for Intel CL16 (16-19-19-39) Dual Channel kit (2x16GB)

or

Corsair CMW32GX4M2C3200C16 VENGEANCE RGB PRO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200 (PC4-25600) C16

I would go for the Corsair. I have that exact same kit and it works perfectly. Don't be fooled by the 'speed' of the kit, the timing of the Corsair kit is actually a bit better than the G.Skill one. At that point It comes down to personal factors like looks (ie. RGB, design, etc) and how much you can get it for. Another reason I went for the Corsair kit is because I'm running mostly Corsair components (Case, CPU Cooler, etc) so yeah...form over function baby.

 

[Cugino83]

Appreciate everyone's input here. You guys are awesome! Got a couple of ram upgrade options I have been checking out.

G.Skill 32GB DDR4 PC4-28800 3600MHz Ripjaws V for Intel CL16 (16-19-19-39) Dual Channel kit (2x16GB)

or

Corsair CMW32GX4M2C3200C16 VENGEANCE RGB PRO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200 (PC4-25600) C16

The G.skill have amore hight frequency, if your system does support that speed I'll recomand that.
Another thing you whould like to search is, if yoou have 4 RAM slot on the motherboard, a 32GB kit that is composed by 4 stick (4x8GB), that way you can use all the four RAM channel, not a huge difference unless you use RAM intensive application, but since the price is more on less the same, why not?

 

[c0sign]

Just follow the simple rule of "If you have to ask, its not enough" lol

32 will help it run a lot smoother