MajesticEagle98 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 (edited) I'm pretty new to KSP started just 2 months ago and have landed on the mun once (i didn't get back). The computer I play on is very slow, it crashes a lot which is frustrating, especially when you build a huge rocket that you forgot to save. I'm currently looking for an upgraded computer, but i can't find a decent one for about $300. So, can you guys help out. Thank you for all your help! Edited April 17, 2017 by MajesticEagle98 mistake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linuxgurugamer Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 (edited) Any good gaming laptop would work. Since a laptop is integrated, you need a good graphics chips etc (nVidia) a fast Cpu and at least 4 gig of memory Razer has a line, so does Alienware and others. Be prepared to spend some money, they aren't cheap Edited April 17, 2017 by linuxgurugamer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightside Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 I play on a ultrabook style Lenovo laptop and it works well enough. Major upside on my system is the SSD hard drive which loads the game very fast. Major downside is the Intel virtual graphics card which means I can't use graphics mods like Scatterer without a big hit to performance. Oh and an external mouse is helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MajesticEagle98 Posted April 17, 2017 Author Share Posted April 17, 2017 1 minute ago, Nightside said: I play on a ultrabook style Lenovo laptop and it works well enough. Major upside on my system is the SSD hard drive which loads the game very fast. Major downside is the Intel virtual graphics card which means I can't use graphics mods like Scatterer without a big hit to performance. Oh and an external mouse is helpful. Thank you so much, I'll look more into this laptop and maybe buy it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deddly Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Hmm, I can't think of anything in your price range, @MajesticEagle98. Perhaps a secondhand fairly modern machine in that price range will be better performance and quality than something new. As for the GPU, modern integrated is absolutely fine for KSP. I have HD520 graphics and usually don't have any GPU slowdown for KSP. Remember you need something with a CPU good for single-thread processes. That's good for you if you're looking for a cheaper machine because you don't need anything more than dual core for decent KSP performance. EDIT: I have a Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga 460. KSP runs very nicely, but it's out of your price range. EDIT2: @Nightside makes a good point that upgraded graphics in Scatterer or (who knows?) future updates of KSP will be more GPU heavy. But for stock KSP, integrated is OK. In my opinion, put your money on the CPU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziporama Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 (edited) For a laptop, something with a discrete video card is what you want, and an SSD, and memory. Most gaming laptops will have that, and some workstation class laptops. Light laptops or anything with long battery life typically work completely against the needs of gaming which are all fastest and biggest and most power hungry. An integrated graphics is horrible in general regardless of the marketing materials compared to dedicated graphics (granted there are also dedicated graphics cards out there are are total gimmicks). Non-SSD storage in laptops has usually very low RPM, low power drives - very good for battery life, horrible for throughput. SSD is what you want in a laptop as it's reasonably power efficient, plus if you drop the thing, no mechanical parts to break. Memory matters too - 16Gb is what I'd go with. Fastest processor you can get. Discrete graphics card. HD resolution display (1080p) is more than sufficient. Unity physics will be probably the most limiting aspect in KSP over graphics here because laptops don't have a lot of CPU headroom compared to desktop counterparts. It's already taxing on a high end desktop so more so on laptops. Just load a ship with lots of parts and watch the FPS nose dive even on very high end equipment. The mobile version of a desktop component tends to be a highly neutered part designed for power efficiency. For a while there, laptop vendors were using the same video card model number as the desktop, but you weren't getting the same chips at all, not even close, so while the model number was the same, but with an "M" next to it, you in fact got a card with completely different hardware and much lower end (for the same or higher price than the desktop card I might add). You can get close to desktop horsepower, even identical, if you're willing to shell out the big bucks for the mobility privilege - visit Originpc.com for an example of high end laptops that are designed for gaming - all the way to dual GTX 1080 cards in SLI in a laptop. At that level, it's more of a luggable but these things are designed for gaming. Z Edited April 17, 2017 by ziporama Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deddly Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Everyone's saying discreet graphics, but seriously, modern integrated graphics is more than enough for stock KSP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qzgy Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 I think for around 300 dollars, no laptop is going to be suitable for KSP, unless you want to get into the used or refurbished laptop market. Also, what is your current system? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkOwl57 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 I'm having the same issue man. 5 game crashes for a 250-ish part space destroyer for the Naval Battle Club thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deddly Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 If you're really fortunate and nobody else bids on it, this is currently a steal at $300: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T450-20BUS09209-8GB-RAM-128GB-SSD-Core-i5-5300U-/122449822854?hash=item1c82940486:g:ILkAAOSwhQhY6oE0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkOwl57 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 *Makes eBay account* MEIN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deddly Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 This one has a poor screen resolution and doesn't have the build quality, but it's more powerful and it's new: http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/itemdetails/80SN0003US/445 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Rhodan Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 2 hours ago, Deddly said: This one has a poor screen resolution and doesn't have the build quality, but it's more powerful and it's new: http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/itemdetails/80SN0003US/445 The Processor is slower as the i3 lacks turbo. It has less RAM, no SSD and is of the inferior consumer series of Lenovo notebooks. The price is nice but the T450 you linked earlyier is a much better deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrbitalBuzzsaw Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Well, my potato of a craptop has a Core i5-6600k, 16GB of RAM, and a SATA SSD. Barely able to run the 126 mods I use, but it works. For now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qzgy Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 21 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said: my potato of a craptop has a Core i5-6600k, 16GB of RAM, and a SATA SSD thats actually pretty good. My current DESKTOP only has 8 gigs of ram Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrbitalBuzzsaw Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Just now, qzgy said: thats actually pretty good. My current DESKTOP only has 8 gigs of ram 16GB of DDR3... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qzgy Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 (edited) 2 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said: 16GB of DDR3... Yeah, mine also has ddr3. Also still rocking devil canyon (i5-4690k).. Edited April 17, 2017 by qzgy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrbitalBuzzsaw Posted April 18, 2017 Share Posted April 18, 2017 (edited) 55 minutes ago, qzgy said: Yeah, mine also has ddr3. Also still rocking devil canyon (i5-4690k).. Clock speed? Mine's 2.8gHZ Edited April 18, 2017 by OrbitalBuzzsaw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qzgy Posted April 18, 2017 Share Posted April 18, 2017 40 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said: Clock speed? Mine's 2.8gHZ 4.3 ghz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deddly Posted April 18, 2017 Share Posted April 18, 2017 Let's keep to the topic of helping him find a system. There are other threads for comparing your computer specs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoSBoL Posted April 18, 2017 Share Posted April 18, 2017 (edited) If I can give one word of advice from a bit of experience... Don't get a laptop which has an CPU that end with a 'U', the 'U' stands for Ultra Low Voltage which is great for battery time, but bottlenecks KSP, the CPU's will throttle down due to both heat and power restrictions. I've got a laptop with an I7-4600U and a Laptop with an I5-5300U which even has an dedicated Nvidia 840M GPU. Not only are both laggy when playing, they both get pretty hot, throttle down, drain battery and the first one even sounds like it wants to launch itself. I did however find a very good solution on playing KSP on both machines (or any older laptop for that matter) without lag, heat, throttleing, noisy fans or batterydrain. It even works great on an 7 year old laptop with an 'Intel Atom' cpu and it's called 'Steam inhouse streaming', you can stream pretty much any game with the Steam client and you don't even have to own a game from Steam for that. What you do however need is an dedicated PC to stream from, you can get more performance per buck out of an dedicated PC than you can get from a same priced laptop. Edited April 18, 2017 by LoSBoL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Fecyk Posted April 18, 2017 Share Posted April 18, 2017 A second-gen (2012) MacBook Pro seemed good to run KSP 1.2.2. That's a four-core i7 with integrated graphics, but if you avoided the crazier visual add-ons it runs acceptably. I imagine the current MacBook Pro 15 inch would do the job as well, and that comes with discrete graphics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diomedea Posted April 20, 2017 Share Posted April 20, 2017 Thread locked. Reason: subject is not Technical Support stuff, and should be discussed in this thread instead: Reason for not merging this to the above thread, posts here would have been differently worded if written on that thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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