How do I add more RAM to KSP?

[Thorn_Ike]

So, I just installed A LOT of mods:

• BDArmory
• CameraTools
• Chatterer
• Stock Visual Enhancements Pack
• Kerbal Engineer
• KerbalX
• PhysicsRangeExtender
• Targetron
• TweakScale
• And Vessel Mover

Quite the shopping list, eh?

So that means that it'll take a big hit on my FPS, but that's kinda unfair, since I have 8GB of RAM.

So how do I give KSP more RAM?

[Jas0n]

That's.... not that many mods. 

Make sure you're running the 64-bit version of the game, not the 32-bit. the 32-bit can only access 2 GB of RAM. 

[Geonovast]

RAM isn't the problem.  The biggest influence of lag is going to be your processor clock speed. (Not number of cores.  More cores won't help you with KSP.)

Even if RAM was the issue, you can't "give it" more RAM.  It'll use what it needs if available.  8 is more than enough.

[Piatzin]

Visual enhancements causes a lot of lag, from what I've seen.

You could try disabling all the terrain details (trees/rocks, etc) and lowering the quality of the textures themselves. Clean up any debris and/or unnecessary bases and ships that are just hanging around

[DrLicor]

Hey welcome to the forums ,  

Seeing the answers above given by @Jas0n, @Geonovast, @Earthlinger. They are right, I'll explain it a bit more indept;

(Stock) KSP is mostly run by your CPU (processor). The game needs to calculate all the physics per part, a few times per second. That's mainly the reason why the games starts to lag more and more after passing the 100-200 parts (depending on the CPU you have.)
These calculation are mostly done single treathing, this means, when you have for instance an I7 with 8 cores or a I7 with 4 cores, you won't notice the difference. It's like you have a long formula, you can only use 1 calculator for it, using more calculators won't speed up the proces. It's not about the cores, it's about the clockspeed. (3.4 Ghz for instance)
The RAM is used to store the textures and other data of the game. Why, because you can load those much quicker from RAM than from your hard drive. 
The GPU (videocard), is used very little in the stock KSP, but it is used to run the visuals of the game. 

Now here's where things get tricky, KSP normally starts in 32bit mode, this limites the RAM usage. Which should not be a problem in stock, but mods require more than 4gb of RAM. 
Starting KSP in 64bit, will allow your game to use the RAM it needs (8gb is more than enough with your current mods). When playing KSP with mods, it's recommend to play in 64bit.

Spoiler

Starting KSP in 64x instead of 32x (running as Admin can be a wise thing too):

When launching manually:

1. Go to the KSP main folder. For steam users it is: 
2. Right-click on KSP_64.exe.
3. Create shortcut and place it wherre you want it.
4. Run the game in the future by that shortcut.

When launching via Steam:
https://imgur.com/a/pQw6h#JVDeqtx

When launching via CKAN:

1. Click Settings.
2. Click KSP command-line.
3. Replace KSP.exe by KSP_x64.exe.

You're done now
you can bring up the task manager to make sure (ctrl-shift-esc). You should be running KSP_x64.exe 

 

 

PhysicsRangeExtender - can be a FPS-killer when you have to much parts in the range, that means the game has still to calculate all the part physics on a bigger range.
Stock Visual Enhancements Pack - can be an FPS-killer when you have a weak GPU.

Could you give us the specs of your current pc/laptop/patato or whatever you play KSP on.   
It would help us to see where the problem of the FPS killer is. 

Your modlist is still quite small, I'm running KSP on +100 mods right now. It's always smells like baked CPU around my pc. 

Hope this helpes you a bit.
 

 

[Thorn_Ike]

On 10/30/2017 at 7:12 PM, Jas0n said:

That's.... not that many mods. 

Make sure you're running the 64-bit version of the game, not the 32-bit. the 32-bit can only access 2 GB of RAM. 

Done. Not helping.

On 10/30/2017 at 8:19 PM, Geonovast said:

RAM isn't the problem.  The biggest influence of lag is going to be your processor clock speed. (Not number of cores.  More cores won't help you with KSP.)

Even if RAM was the issue, you can't "give it" more RAM.  It'll use what it needs if available.  8 is more than enough.

Oh...

Then how do I see the clock speed, and how do I improve it?

On 10/30/2017 at 11:16 PM, Earthlinger said:

Visual enhancements causes a lot of lag, from what I've seen.

You could try disabling all the terrain details (trees/rocks, etc) and lowering the quality of the textures themselves. Clean up any debris and/or unnecessary bases and ships that are just hanging around

I'll try that.

[DrLicor]

2 hours ago, Thorn_Ike said:

Oh...

Then how do I see the clock speed, and how do I improve it?

Clock speed can't be improved mostly without buying a new one. Unless you're overclocking, but not all CPU/motherboard allow that. 
There are a few programs that allow you to see everything you want to know about your hardware, but for windows 8 and 10, you can see your CPU clockspeed in taskmanager. 
If you want to see everything; here's a link:

https://www.cpuid.com/

[Agustin]

You could try to move to the right the slider which says something about the delta min physics in advanced settings. That'll help you with CPU processing physics in game. Trust me. As for your graphics card, you could try overclocking ir a bit, or buy a new one, or install SCi fi performance visual enancements rather than SVE, and it' is really beautiful nonetheless...

Edited November 2, 2017 by Agustin

[Thorn_Ike]

On 10/31/2017 at 3:45 AM, DrLicor said:

Hey welcome to the forums ,  

Seeing the answers above given by @Jas0n, @Geonovast, @Earthlinger. They are right, I'll explain it a bit more indept;

(Stock) KSP is mostly run by your CPU (processor). The game needs to calculate all the physics per part, a few times per second. That's mainly the reason why the games starts to lag more and more after passing the 100-200 parts (depending on the CPU you have.)
These calculation are mostly done single treathing, this means, when you have for instance an I7 with 8 cores or a I7 with 4 cores, you won't notice the difference. It's like you have a long formula, you can only use 1 calculator for it, using more calculators won't speed up the proces. It's not about the cores, it's about the clockspeed. (3.4 Ghz for instance)
The RAM is used to store the textures and other data of the game. Why, because you can load those much quicker from RAM than from your hard drive. 
The GPU (videocard), is used very little in the stock KSP, but it is used to run the visuals of the game. 

Now here's where things get tricky, KSP normally starts in 32bit mode, this limites the RAM usage. Which should not be a problem in stock, but mods require more than 4gb of RAM. 
Starting KSP in 64bit, will allow your game to use the RAM it needs (8gb is more than enough with your current mods). When playing KSP with mods, it's recommend to play in 64bit.

  Hide contents

Starting KSP in 64x instead of 32x (running as Admin can be a wise thing too):

When launching manually:

1. Go to the KSP main folder. For steam users it is: 
2. Right-click on KSP_64.exe.
3. Create shortcut and place it wherre you want it.
4. Run the game in the future by that shortcut.

When launching via Steam:
https://imgur.com/a/pQw6h#JVDeqtx

When launching via CKAN:

1. Click Settings.
2. Click KSP command-line.
3. Replace KSP.exe by KSP_x64.exe.

You're done now
you can bring up the task manager to make sure (ctrl-shift-esc). You should be running KSP_x64.exe 

 

 

PhysicsRangeExtender - can be a FPS-killer when you have to much parts in the range, that means the game has still to calculate all the part physics on a bigger range.
Stock Visual Enhancements Pack - can be an FPS-killer when you have a weak GPU.

Could you give us the specs of your current pc/laptop/patato or whatever you play KSP on.   
It would help us to see where the problem of the FPS killer is. 

Your modlist is still quite small, I'm running KSP on +100 mods right now. It's always smells like baked CPU around my pc. 

Hope this helpes you a bit.
 

 

Well, thx fam!

Here are the specs:

Windows 10 Home v.1703

OS build 15063.674

Processor: Intel Core i5-6200 CPU @ 2.30Ghz 2.40 Ghz

8.00GB RAM (7.89 GB usable)

64-bit OS, x64 based processor

Tell me if this isn't what you were looking 4.

 

[DrLicor]

5 hours ago, Thorn_Ike said:

Well, thx fam!

Here are the specs:

Windows 10 Home v.1703

OS build 15063.674

Processor: Intel Core i5-6200 CPU @ 2.30Ghz 2.40 Ghz

8.00GB RAM (7.89 GB usable)

64-bit OS, x64 based processor

Tell me if this isn't what you were looking 4.

 

And do you also have a videocard in your rig or is everything running from the intergraded graphics?

Spoiler

 

 

Looking at your processor I think you're playing on a laptop right?
Make sure the laptop is on performance mode for the power, that way it doesn't limit the processor anymore on the 2.4 ghz but runs it to 2.8ghz. (turbomode)

 

 

 

[Thorn_Ike]

17 hours ago, DrLicor said:

And do you also have a videocard in your rig or is everything running from the intergraded graphics?

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking at your processor I think you're playing on a laptop right?
Make sure the laptop is on performance mode for the power, that way it doesn't limit the processor anymore on the 2.4 ghz but runs it to 2.8ghz. (turbomode)

 

 

 

Yea, it's a laptop.

It tells me, "Intel(R) HD Graphics 520".

So IDK about any GPU.

PS: I didn't rig this. #Amazon

[Harry Rhodan]

10 hours ago, Thorn_Ike said:

It tells me, "Intel(R) HD Graphics 520".

That is basically the slow and cheap on-chip solution for every Intel CPU. Unless there's another dedicated video card you really shouldn't try to use graphics mods like Stock Visual Enhancements.

[Kerbinchaser]

On 10/30/2017 at 9:35 PM, Thorn_Ike said:

So, I just installed A LOT of mods:

• BDArmory
• CameraTools
• Chatterer
• Stock Visual Enhancements Pack
• Kerbal Engineer
• KerbalX
• PhysicsRangeExtender
• Targetron
• TweakScale
• And Vessel Mover

Quite the shopping list, eh?

So that means that it'll take a big hit on my FPS, but that's kinda unfair, since I have 8GB of RAM.

So how do I give KSP more RAM?

A lot? Really?

A lot? 

 

Buddy, that is nothing. I currently have 124 mods installed. 

[linuxgurugamer]

My streaming game has about 225 mods installed.

[Thorn_Ike]

4 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

My streaming game has about 225 mods installed.

HOLYMOLYITSLINUXGURUGAMEROMGOMGOMG

5 hours ago, Lo Var Lachland said:

A lot? Really?

A lot? 

 

Buddy, that is nothing. I currently have 124 mods installed. 

Ah. Getting dissed by the KSP community. I'll get used to it.

20 hours ago, Harry Rhodan said:

That is basically the slow and cheap on-chip solution for every Intel CPU. Unless there's another dedicated video card you really shouldn't try to use graphics mods like Stock Visual Enhancements.

Can I add a videocard to this?

[linuxgurugamer]

2 hours ago, Thorn_Ike said:

HOLYMOLYITSLINUXGURUGAMEROMGOMGOMG

Ah. Getting dissed by the KSP community. I'll get used to it.

Can I add a videocard to this?

Sorry, when I saw the "long list" I just had to chime in. 

Not an expert on this parts, but, here are my 2 cents worth:

• You most likely can not add an internal video card to the laptop
• You can add an external, usb3-based video card/interface.  It's not a great solution, and may cost more than a new PC, but you can check it out.  Here is a link to start your reading:  https://www.computershopper.com/feature/2017-guide-the-best-external-graphics-card-boxes-egpus

[Gordon Fecyk]

On ‎10‎/‎31‎/‎2017 at 5:45 AM, DrLicor said:

(running as Admin can be a wise thing too):

No. No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no .. I don't want to encourage reckless computing behaviour here just to play a game.</rant>

What KSP needs is read/write access to its installation folder, as explained here. Steam users don't need to do anything as the Steam client does this, but KSP Store users and people who clone their KSP installations only need to grant Modify permissions to BUILTIN\Users. I haven't yet seen a mod or add-on that needs more than this, even Principia, which is probably the most complicated add-on KSP has.

Back to @Thorn_Ike's question, it is possible to have KSP 64-bit allocate more RAM for its temporary use and reduce the 'garbage collection' delays that happen. MemGraph can allocate more RAM for the temporary, or 'heap' memory that KSP uses, but it only makes sense in 64-bit KSP and if you have more than 8 GB RAM. KSP x64 with a decent collection of visual add-ons will take nearly 7 GB on my 32 GB PC, after a few garbage collection passes. You still want some RAM for the OS after all.

Edited November 5, 2017 by Gordon Fecyk
Added MemGraph link

[Kerbinchaser]

11 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

My streaming game has about 225 mods installed.

HAHA! Wow! HOLY MOLY IN A CHICKEN BASKET!!

[Tyko]

8 gigs is kind of low with SVE running IMHO. There are a lot of great suggestions in this thread, but if those don't pan out I'd suggest going to 16Gigs. 

[Guest]

I have 8gigs and a NVS 5200M. As long as you arent doing a 5 plane 5sam site BVR dogfight (which i am doing) you should be just fine. Also, limit PRE to 40km if possible. Most radars arent over that anyway. It helps a lot. And try to minimize airborne vessels. 

[Kerbinchaser]

On 11/5/2017 at 3:01 AM, Thorn_Ike said:

Ah. Getting dissed by the KSP community. I'll get used to it.

Dissed? it was just a joke man. 

[Tux1]

On 11/5/2017 at 3:01 AM, Thorn_Ike said:

HOLYMOLYITSLINUXGURUGAMEROMGOMGOMG

Protip: Don't react strongly to LinuxGuruGamer. He's very active, and will usually respond to someone if they ask a question.

 

[Thorn_Ike]

On 11/5/2017 at 5:48 AM, Gordon Fecyk said:

No. No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no .. I don't want to encourage reckless computing behaviour here just to play a game.</rant>

What KSP needs is read/write access to its installation folder, as explained here. Steam users don't need to do anything as the Steam client does this, but KSP Store users and people who clone their KSP installations only need to grant Modify permissions to BUILTIN\Users. I haven't yet seen a mod or add-on that needs more than this, even Principia, which is probably the most complicated add-on KSP has.

Back to @Thorn_Ike's question, it is possible to have KSP 64-bit allocate more RAM for its temporary use and reduce the 'garbage collection' delays that happen. MemGraph can allocate more RAM for the temporary, or 'heap' memory that KSP uses, but it only makes sense in 64-bit KSP and if you have more than 8 GB RAM. KSP x64 with a decent collection of visual add-ons will take nearly 7 GB on my 32 GB PC, after a few garbage collection passes. You still want some RAM for the OS after all.

Thanks, will try to incorporate.