Graphics card wont work while playing KSP

[veerevvaat]

Hello everyone!

So I have played Kerbal Space Program for a while but just recently I discovered that my graphics card doesn't work and my frame rate is low about 30 frames per second, when I'm sending rockets to space or when I'm orbit with a space shuttle or landing it. Where can i turn on my graphics card?

Thank you

[4x4cheesecake]

Do you play on a laptop or desktop pc? Which graphics card do you use?

If you play on a desktop pc: is your display actually plugged into the graphics card or the mainboard?

[veerevvaat]

I play on desktop PC and I use RX 570 4GB GDDR5. And yes, my graphics card is connected to motherboard. Graphics card works when playing other games, but works really minimally and fans don't spin when playing KSP.

[Fraktal]

It's probably Windows or the graphics driver thinking the game doesn't require a high enough graphics performance to warrant using the dedicated card, so it fires up the integrated card instead in the name of conserving power. It's a really annoying feature both Nvidia and AMD have been pushing in recent years.

Go into the Catalyst Control Center (quick googling says your dedicated card is AMD) and check the power plan settings.

[Incarnation of Chaos]

4 hours ago, veerevvaat said:

I play on desktop PC and I use RX 570 4GB GDDR5. And yes, my graphics card is connected to motherboard. Graphics card works when playing other games, but works really minimally and fans don't spin when playing KSP.

Is your display connected to the port on the GPU, or a port on the motherboard? Also since KSP is mostly physics; it's likely that the GPU won't constantly spin because it's not getting hot enough to reach the temps defined on the fan curve for it to spool the fans. So it may just be engaging the fans ever 5 or 10 minutes to remove the soaked heat, seeing the lower temp and shutting them off until 5-10 minutes later. You could define a custom curve in a third party software like MSI Afterburner or just force them to spin at a certain %.

3 hours ago, Fraktal said:

It's probably Windows or the graphics driver thinking the game doesn't require a high enough graphics performance to warrant using the dedicated card, so it fires up the integrated card instead in the name of conserving power. It's a really annoying feature both Nvidia and AMD have been pushing in recent years.

Go into the Catalyst Control Center (quick googling says your dedicated card is AMD) and check the power plan settings.

Desktops don't do this; whatever device the display is plugged into is what will be handling the display out. Laptops do have switchable graphics however, and it's hella annoying like you said. But the power plan settings aren't a bad idea either; since if they're not on "High-Performance" then windows will still park cores and reduce performance.

[Fraktal]

54 minutes ago, Incarnation of Chaos said:

Desktops don't do this

Windows 10 does it even on desktop. I looked it up.

[Incarnation of Chaos]

3 hours ago, Fraktal said:

Windows 10 does it even on desktop. I looked it up.

I've never had it use the IGPU unless i physically connected it to the motherboard port or explicitly told a program  (such as OBS) to do so. I also owned a laptop with switchable graphics and used it heavily for over 3 years; the DGPU wasn't even selectable in OBS. It also caused numerous other issues that i haven't seen on a desktop running windows 10. Also the "Run with graphics processor" selection doesn't appear in the context menu of a desktop with a IGPU and DGPU.

So I'd need a bit more evidence to be convinced that W10 can do any of these natively.

[Jognt]

KSP doesn't really use your GPU much since most of the load is physics. As long as your monitor is actually showing the game, it's working.

 

On 4/29/2020 at 6:37 PM, Fraktal said:

Windows 10 does it even on desktop. I looked it up.

 

On 4/29/2020 at 10:08 PM, Incarnation of Chaos said:

I've never had it use the IGPU unless i physically connected it to the motherboard port or explicitly told a program  (such as OBS) to do so. I also owned a laptop with switchable graphics and used it heavily for over 3 years; the DGPU wasn't even selectable in OBS. It also caused numerous other issues that i haven't seen on a desktop running windows 10. Also the "Run with graphics processor" selection doesn't appear in the context menu of a desktop with a IGPU and DGPU.

So I'd need a bit more evidence to be convinced that W10 can do any of these natively.

Truth is in the middle. It used to be a laptop only thing. I believe it's possible nowadays to do this on desktop^*, but I'm not convinced it's default behavior.

^{*: I've read about people trying to use GPU switching to work around driver-based restrictions with regards to Adaptive Sync compatibility. Of course it would require fiddling with cables. Also, 7 years ago my motherboard came with Lucid Virtu MVP software to do exactly this in Win7. So it's not exactly unheard of.}

Edited May 3, 2020 by Jognt