How to get the best performance on my computer

[CitizenVeen]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for help of how to get the best performance out of the game with my computer. I'm using a lenovo u410 notebook. These are the specs:

3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3537U (3.10GHz 1660MHz 4MB)

8GB Ram

NVIDIA Gforce 610M (1GB)

Windows 8.1 64bit

(http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/u-series/u410/#tab-tech_specs)

I am playing with all RO, RSS, RP-0 mods installed plus KAS/KIS.

I am running the game 1680x1050 (same as my external monitor), with most quality settings set to low or lowest. And using open-GL (is that a good idea? I read that running open GL can also cause your FPS to drop, depending on your system?) and dynamic texture loading.

Currently, my game runs kinda sloggish. When launching rockets the game kinda 'slows down', what should take ~30s (I know cause, for example, my SRBs are set to burn for 30s), sometimes takes more like ~2mins.

You guys have any suggestions on what to do to make my game run more smoothly? (apart from getting a better computer) I don't have a lot of knowledge when it comes to games/performance.

Few things: when looking at the kerbal base (where you can click VAB, research center etc, so when not in flight) the game is running at 7fps, with all settings to lowest ( I think), flying crafts in atmosphere is kinda hard, as the FPS is so low and the game responds so slowly, performance seems to increase when reaching space. Don't really know why my comp has such a hard time running RO. Stock KSP runs fine with low settings, and I think 8 GB Ram should do be enough..?

EDIT: Ram usage (according to windows task manager): KSP does not seem to use more then 1,5-2g of RAM when playing. Another thing I noticed is that when I have no programs open, windows task manager still tells me that arround 50% / 4gig of ram is being used. Anyone know why this is? All the programs listed in the task manager only add up to about 1.5gig Ram, no idea where the remaining 2,5gig goes...

Help would be very much appreciated!

 

 

Edited January 11, 2016 by CitizenVeen

[maceemiller]

Make sure your laptop is plugged in and not in power saving mode. I regularly use Auslogics Disk Defrag to optimise my hard drive and CCleaner to clear junk files and keep my registry in order.

Also I find using GBoost a great help. Without it my game is quite jerky. It shuts down nonessential programs running on your computer and frees up a little RAM.

If you try GBoost you may get the error "GBoost no boot list". The link below shows how to fix this

https://youtu.be/biaHjoDd7YU

[Benoit Hage]

Concerning the video settings, the terrain details, the anti aliasing and the v-sync are the most resources consuming. The rest do not slow your PC. You can also lower the resolution of your game and played in window mode if you want to keep pixels corresponding to your screen.

You can also lower the time between 2 physic ticks. It's somewhere in the setting area. First page I think. And while you are there and have a lot of flying debris, lower their count.

The weak part of your computer is the GT610 ( I have the same one ). The rest is fine. Just be sure that your processor can get into turbo mode and isn't stuck at 1,66GHZ. Normally if you haven't changed it in your BIOS, you should be fine.

Concerning RSS and the RO mod list, the one that I found to be quite resources consuming are Smoke Screen and Real Plume. To my knowledge, it is possible to play without them. Cloud packs can also slower your game, especially in low orbit ( >250KM)

When you mean external screen, do you duplicate screens or do you just transfer from one to an other?

I never noticed any performance issues when it comes to OpenGL.

And lastly, there is your ship design. If your rocket is mainly made of struts, this may also slow things a bit. If your try to put 1000 pieces in orbit, don't worry about it, even newer PC can have trouble to do so.

Normally when 1.1 is out, you will notice an increase in performance. And for the task manager, don't forget to display all users on the list.

 

Edited January 26, 2016 by Benoit Hage
few things more

[CitizenVeen]

On 26-1-2016 at 8:26 AM, Benoit Hage said:

When you mean external screen, do you duplicate screens or do you just transfer from one to an other?

 

Thanks guys!
I did a reinstall of the game, and copied the settings from my normal (non RO, but still modded version), the settings are actually higher, but the game runs smoother, dont know why.

I have an external screen, I set my screen settings to 'show on external monitor only' (My laptop is lying closed behind it). So yeah, its exported to my external monitor.