How much of an improvement would 8GB of RAM have on KSP?

[Muzza]

Hello,

I am curious to know what components of a computer KSP depends upon the most, be it RAM, CPU or GPU. I currently have 3GB of RAM on my laptop, but am thinking of upgrading this to 8GB. Does RAM make a noticeable difference to KSP performance, such as loading times, or is it more CPU based?

Thanks

[I_Killed_Jeb]

I think the main bottleneck is CPU. KSP is unfortunately a pretty poorly optimized program, and 32-bit at that, so the additional RAM is unlikely to boost performance in any significance except by increasing bandwidth if you aren't already in dual-channel mode. (2 sticks > 1 stick in terms of speed)

[FITorion]

Ram means more parts. More mods.

KSP can only use 4 GBs worth. The OS and other background programs use RAM too... so you want more than 4 ... and a 64bit OS... so there is 4GB free for KSP to use.

For improving load time a better CPU is needed and or a solid state drive. Those two things do the most for load times.

[Dasemay]

ksp is honorably optimized. it's pretty much going to lag at some point on what ever rig you run it on. also 8 gigs is most likely not going make a noticeable difference since it sounds like your running ksp on a pretty slow machine. the only way your going to see a real increase in performance is if you just get a new computer all together.

[nhnifong]

Increasing the amount of ram available to KSP to it's maximum value of 3.5 Gb will allow you to install more mods (like 15 mods) without crashing.

If you have three Gb now, chances are when you run KSP, the most memory it could allocate would be about 1.5 to 2 Gb because of the memory being used by your operating system.

So if you install more memory, you will be able to load more mods.

[pxi]

Having more than 4GB of RAM would probably help slightly insofar as reducing the usage of your swap file, but the CPU is probably the real bottleneck.

[Mokmo]

You have a choice: share the 4GB of memory KSP can use with other programs or let it play in its own little sandbox

On my laptop, I went from 4 to 8 GB mostly because i couldn't even run Chrome with only the wiki on the planet i was orbiting. Now i can actually watch a 720p youtube video (or a Kerbal stream on Twitch!) while my games runs with B9, KW, Nova and Kosmos in it...

But once you're past it, the CPU wil be the bottleneck, and maybe (if you run full res) your GPU since it's a laptop.