CPU temperature problem

[Zxy44]

I have a problem with the CPU temperature in my laptop (it gets hot terribly). I recently installed KSP 1.9 (unmoded) and it worked terribly (high temperature and 5-10 fps), previously I played version 1.4 or 1.3 a few years ago on the same computer and I didn't have this problem even with many mods. What is the reason? High terrain resolution in new versions? I  don't know much about hardware, maybe only one core or something works? Thanks.

I am using Dell Inspiron 3542
Intel Core i3-4005U 1.7 GB
Intel HD Graphics 4400 / GeForce 820M
8 GB RAM

[jimmymcgoochie]

KSP only really uses one processor core to simulate physics- I don’t know enough about it to know if that’s just because it was difficult to do or because multi-core processors weren’t really a thing when the game was first made. Multi-core processors don’t help and a slower processor will really struggle to run the game especially with larger ships inside his is range.

How old is your laptop? It’s possible that the game updates since then are just too much for it to take, or that you’re running mods that are putting too much strain on your hardware. Remove parts mods if you can and anything else CPU intensive (graphics mods tend to be OK as the graphics card doesn’t work that hard compared to the CPU/RAM) and that might make the game run faster.

[Zxy44]

Problem is that on the older version even with many mods, the game worked better than on version 1.9 without mods.

[Cavscout74]

@Zxy44

First off, let me just say that I am not a hardware expert by any measure.  However, it strikes me as odd you are having problems with 1.9 as the new unity version KSP switched to in 1.8 generally runs better than previous versions.

I would guess its due to the CPU, I believe that is a 4th gen CPU which is pretty old (2013).  Just yesterday, I was told by the IT department at my job that we can't install an offline standalone version of our aircraft maintenance manuals on any of our computers because the standalone requires a core i5 processor, and all our computers are i3's - so it might be an issue where the new Unity engine needs a newer CPU. 

When you listed 1.7GB did you mean Mhz?  If so, that is a little slow - KSP doesn't need multiple cores so much as raw speed on a single core due to physics calculations not being too easy to share.   Most newer laptops I've looked at had 2.3 Mhz base speed (and I just bought one last month due to a catastrophic coffee spill)

Also being an older laptop, I'm guessing cooling isn't as good as newer ones - and even my new one gets pretty warm running KSP with dual fans.

8GB ram & pretty much any graphics card should be plenty for stock KSP, so unless there is something wrong, neither should be the issue.

Your best bet might be to use an older version (pre-1.8) until you can upgrade your system.  It kinda sucks, but if it was working before it should at least allow you some KSP time even if you miss the newest bells & whistles.  The second DLC was actually released for 1.7.2 IIRC, so you can still get that if interested.  I don't recommend using my method to get an upgrade (spilled coffee next to laptop, while I was grabbing paper towels, it ran under the laptop & got sucked up by the cooling fan & distributed throughout the laptop resulting in lots of popping noises & smoke), as I really wasn't ready to spend that money at the time. 

Edited May 13, 2020 by Cavscout74