Does FSX take advantage of VISTA system Ram?

[gixxer76]

I was wondering if FSX takes adavantage of VISTA system Ram or does it simply use the ram from the video card.

Thank you very much,

Gixxer

[loki]

All applications, including FSX, use system RAM for the main application work. Video card RAM is only used for graphics and DirectX/OpenGL rendering (well, nVidia and ATI are pushing video cards into other areas, but for most people the above is true).

loki

[gixxer76]

Thank you very much for the assistance.

Gixxer

[scott967]

Are you referring to the system cache? My understanding is that any physical ram not allocated to the O/S or running apps' working set gets allocated to system file cache. Have no idea if this helps FSX at all.

scott s.
.

[gixxer76]

Scott,

Thanks for the reply. I guess there is some debate here. Basically I have 2GB of Ram now and I want to upgrade to 4GB. I am running Vista Home Premimum 32bit with an EVGA 8800 320MB 1.6GHZ video card. I am hoping the extra 2GB will make a difference.

Thank you for your feeback it is helpful.

Gixxer

[Nsidious9]

you don't want to upgrade to 4GB of ram because your 32bit os only recognizes and uses 2.5GB. Everything else is pagefile usage.
If you're going to spend the money, spend it on better ram.
What ram do you have?

[remind]

Yes what he says is right

However it depends on how your system has been set up.

For example I have a Dell XPS-710 wth a Intel Quad core 6700 cpu with 4gb of ddram 667MHz but only 3065 is avaliable, Dell tells me because of some of it is being used by cpu's.
Not sure if that is right or how to check if that is the case though.
Also have Nvidia Ge Force 8600gts 256mb
On Vista's score 5.0 for memory is the lowest.
I just had a suggestion for you, what does your system score say?
You access it in Vista via start contrl panale, performance info and tools.

Phil

[gixxer76]

Hello Thank you all for your help so far.

I have the following ram:

K-Byte PC3200 DDR DT (1GB X2)

My Memory scores a 4.9. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

I just orderd the following memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145579
Can you please give me your feedback.

I ordered 2 2GB kits = 4GB. I will be more than happy to return one if it is recommended.

Again, thank you for all your help as I am very new to Flight Simming and enjoy every second of it. I'm so hooked I'm already making plans to take my REAL lessons next summer.

Thanks,

Gixxer

[ve3ega]

Gixxer,

Vista (32bit) reserves about 500Mb System RAM for housekeeping and Graphics.

If you install 4GIG RAM as I have, Vista will only report about 3.5 GIG on dual-core machines.

The 'sweet-spot' for todays new generation (Vista) Games seems to be 2 GIG RAM, however a Year or so down the road you may have a desire to run 64 bit applications (who knows?) and the full 4 GIG of RAM can then happily be addressed by the OS.

At this time, (especially with dual-core machines) you may want to use the $250 to enhance your GPU with a DX10 capable card?

Or do as I did just throw the RAM in there and forget about it for now :)

Happy Flying...

Terry

[remind]

I agree with Terry, put the ram in and don't worry about 64bit Vista until more hardware and software are compatabilite with it.
I made the mistake , (well not a mistake, just was to eager) of buying the Ge Force 8800GTX card 756mb, it doesn't give me any better performance than a Nvidia 8260 256mb one.
Reason? Direct X 10, the 8800 card and others like it and since are designed to take advantage of Direct X10.
Which according to Phyl Taylors blog will be known as
FSXsp2 Direct 10 x, due you sometime during Autum in Northern Hempshire( spring for me)
Check out he is blog here.
http://blogs.msdn.com/ptaylor/default.aspx

Phil

[paulhigg]

You said 5.0 for memory is the lowest, I have 2 GB of RAM and I have a score of 5.9. I was just wondering what a good memory score was and what the highest score could possibly be.

Thanks.

Paul

Compaq Presario SR5050NX
Vista Home Premium
Base board ASUSTek Computer Inc.
Chipset Intel i945P/G
2 GB RAM
Dual core 3.0 GHz Intel processors
250 GB Hard drive
Radeon X1650 with 512 MB RAM
0GE0 Pinewood, Douglasville, GA

[loki]

There is no max score for the Vista performance numbers. As faster hardware comes out, you will get higher scores.

loki

[loki]

No, the reason isn't because DX10 is not out. The 8800 series are the fastest DX9 cards out there, in some cases faster than two of the previous top end models in SLI mode. Without knowing the rest of your systems specs it is hard to say why your performance didn't increase, but it likely has to do with you processor being the bottleneck, or you're running at a lower resolution.

loki

[remind]

Hi I was only saying what I had read about these generation of cards from MS FS Insider and people at Nvidia, but yes it of course works with Direct X 9, but the 8800 will work even better with Direct X 10 as aganist a 7 series or earlier 8 series Nvidia card.

My system specs are
Dell Dimension xps 710
Intel Quad core 6700 cpu
Vista Ultimate 32bit
4gb 600mgz, ram.

Phil