Specs and recommendation on hardware

[Psykikk]

Hi there, 
I am considering upgrading my pc and since I mainly play KSP (as KSP is not out yet) I was wondering: 

I got a an AMD 3700X cpu, 32GB of memory. 
I do not think my pc  needs a new cpu. 

but my GPU is (only) a  1080

so ... will a new GPU help me get better KSP performance at all ? 
main reason for me to finally get all those fancy visual mods to run without killing my framerates... 

thanks in advance

[jimmymcgoochie]

KSP(1) is limited by single-thread CPU performance, hence the slowdown when vessels with many parts are in physics range as each part has to be calculated for each frame and only one CPU thread can do it as that’s how the game was made. More RAM is good up to a point, however you only need a lot of RAM if you’re using a lot of mods and KSP has a habit of eating up all the memory it can find regardless (~95% RAM use with 16GB and after upgrading to 32GB it’s still ~95%) and in my experience 32GB is sufficient unless you’re planning on using 200+ mods, which is a bad idea anyway.

My experience running KSP without a GPU after mine broke is that the game will still run quite happily without one unless you look at the ground, at which point the frame rate tanks badly, so just having any GPU is better than nothing but getting a really good one isn’t critical- for KSP at least, other games may vary considerably.

Don’t just take my word for it though, I’m not a computer hardware expert by any means and the most technical thing I’ve ever done to my PC was remove that broken GPU and put the replacement in (hooray for 3 year warranties!) so you may want other opinions on the matter.

[DeadJohn]

@Psykikk What resolution is your monitor?

My guess is that your 1080 card can run KSP 1 at 1080p resolution with very good frame rates or 1440p with occasional lag.

Scroll down this article https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html for a chart of average FPS for just about every graphic card made back to the Nvidia 700 series. If KSP performs similarly to the average game (and it might not due to the previously mentioned CPU dependency), an AMD 6700XT or Nvidia 3070 would double your frame rate.

 

Edited January 3, 2023 by DeadJohn

[Psykikk]

On 1/3/2023 at 10:28 PM, DeadJohn said:

@Psykikk What resolution is your monitor?

My guess is that your 1080 card can run KSP 1 at 1080p resolution with very good frame rates or 1440p with occasional lag.

Scroll down this article https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html for a chart of average FPS for just about every graphic card made back to the Nvidia 700 series. If KSP performs similarly to the average game (and it might not due to the previously mentioned CPU dependency), an AMD 6700XT or Nvidia 3070 would double your frame rate.

 

thank you,. that chart I know. I am targeting a 6750XT. great bang for buck compared to anything "newer"... 

currently my frae rates are pretty good, but I also turned down a few graphics settings and do not run any fancy visual mods anymore. performance makes more fun than a a nice looking slideshow. 
thanks again