Game runs better on MacBook than on Mac Pro. Why??

[AbacusWizard]

I'm currently running KSP 1.0.4 on a 2010 Mac Pro (desktop) and a 2012 MacBook Pro (laptop), using the same save file and same mods on each, and I'm finding that on the desktop, it frequently freezes up (especially during vehicle assembly and when changing scenes) with no recourse but to force-quit, while the only problems the laptop encounters are slower initial loading times and a lot of heat on the underside of the case (and no, the in-game radiators don't help ).

Here are the specs:

LAPTOP

MacBook Pro, 13-inch, Mid 2012

Processor: 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory: 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000 1024 MB

Software: OS X 10.9.5

DESKTOP

Mac Pro, Mid 2010

Processor: 2 x 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

Memory: 14 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC

Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB

Software: OS X 10.7.5

So what's going on? The differences seem pretty minor to me, and I would have expected a top-of-the-line desktop to surpass even a two-years-later laptop in overall performance. Any idea what changes I should make to the desktop to avoid the crashing-all-the-time-to-the-point-of-unplayability problem?

[cfds]

Simple answer: your laptop has the faster CPU. The bottleneck in KSP is the physics calculation that is single threaded

[AbacusWizard]

Would an extra 0.1 GHz make that much difference?

Also, will the update to the new version of Unity allow the multiple processor to help?

[steve_v]

Would an extra 0.1 GHz make that much difference?

Also, will the update to the new version of Unity allow the multiple processor to help?

Maybe, but not because of clock-speed alone - the i5 has better single-threaded performance, and this is all that matters for KSP at present.

Again, maybe. Multithreading is supposedly improved, as is physics performance in general. But physics will most likely still be on a single core (per craft?).

We'll have to wait and see, but I'm not overly optimistic.

Edited October 5, 2015 by steve_v

[AbacusWizard]

The thing is, when I'm flying a ship--even with several hundred parts; even when docking with a space station of similar complexity--it mostly works fine on the desktop, if a bit slowly. The problematic crashes usually seem to arise during vehicle design and when switching between scenes at the space center, returning to the space center from a craft, reverting to vehicle assembly, or switching to a distant craft via map view.

[bsimms606]

I just upgraded to El Capitan and did the 64-bit workaround for OSX and it's running better on my Macbook now than it does in Linux. Seriously, it's awesome. Have you tried either of those yet?