How much would upgrading my graphics card help with slowdowns?

[G'th]

So I'm starting to get slowdowns in the game, even after using aggressive ATM and trimming down all of my mods to the bare essentials of what they provide (IE, only the stuff I actually use).

Its really bugging me too because its stopping me from flying certain designs because I can't control anything through the tanked FPS. Now I either have to rely on simple designs that don't do much, but leave me with decent FPS or overly complicated designs that just dummy their way through the lag until I've dropped enough stages that the FPS comes back up.

I'm looking at my graphics card first and foremost, as its really the only part of my rig that seems to lagging behind. My CPU (i5-2500k) which I haven't overclocked yet (even though I have more than adequate cooling to do it) should be perfectly fine so that just leaves me with my old 3gb 580.

So, how much would upgrading to say, a 6gb 780 (I like having the extra VRAM for certain other heavily modded games) help with this issue? I realize the CPU plays a bigger part in FPS in KSP, but considering I like to pack in graphics mods (trimmed down of course) as well I imagine a new graphics card would be the best bet for right now (plus I really just need to overclock my i5 already).

[r4pt0r]

i have a i7-3770(comparable you yours iirc during my shopping) and i use an 2gb evga 660. i play max graphics settings and 1920x1080 and run at >35 fps on ships less than 700 parts. its still >20 fps on bigger craft for me.

i recommend that card to everyone. i play almost all my games at max settings, and that cpu/vid card combo can even emulate all the gamecube resident evil titles at max settings 30fps.

[_Aramchek_]

You won't actually see much difference upgrading..and your 580 is about equal with a 60..the thing that will boost your fps is to overclock your cpu.

Personally, unless you play other games and aren't happy with your fps in them, I wouldn't bother upgrading the gpu for ksp.

CPU oc will get you where you want to be though.

[Brofessional]

Definitely overclock that CPU.

The i5 2500k is a boss at overclocking, you can easily get it up to 4.5GHz or higher on air cooling.

The physics is the main thing that slows down KSP. It's not multihreaded in the current version of Unity and doesn't have GPU acceleration, so the best way to improve performance is by brute force with a high clock speed.

[NathanKell]

KSP is very CPU-limited. Any graphics card newer than the one in ferram's laptop is more or less overkill.

This may change as rbray does more shader work, of course. But right now, KSP doesn't need much in the way of GPU.

[Alshain]

What kind of fan do you have on that 2500k? If it's stock get you a CM 212 EVO and the second fan for it and overclock that sucker. I got mine to 4.0 before quitting but I've seen people go farther on just air.

EDIT: BTW, I'm running a 560 and I don't think that makes a difference to be honest.

Edited July 12, 2014 by Alshain

[G'th]

My 2500k is actually water cooled.

[boxman]

You will sadly gain nothing at all. All your slow downs are probably due to cpu/part count. It is possible that more ram and/or 64bit version will help a tiny bit if slowdown is due to mods putting your system into swap mode.

[qromodynmc]

Even my laptops gt650m gpu can play game at 1080p. Problem is with the cpu always,You can try overclocking.

[Guest]

Overclock it, that CPU isn't amazing until you go, like the anniversary pentium. That thing is crazy.

[TNM]

Install "MSI Afterburner", activate OSD and monitor your GPU activity while playing. If your GPU runs at 99% and you get slowdowns, lower the grafic settings and try again. If it still runs at 99%, update your GPU and you will get better fps. If not, the CPU is probably the bottleneck anyways, but you can only make sure by monitoring it.

Some claim the CPU is always the bottleneck, thats simply not true. It really depends on your settings and what your "target quality" is. Some are fine with lowest settings, others would never play without AA+AF and best texture settings. On high partcount vessels on the ground (planets) the GPU starts to sweat fast, too, not just the CPU.

Edited July 12, 2014 by TNM

[Alshain]

My 2500k is actually water cooled.

Oh wow, what are you waiting for? Watercooling is overkill at stock speeds, if your gonna spend that much you pretty much know your planning to overclock.

[G'th]

Oh wow, what are you waiting for? Watercooling is overkill at stock speeds, if your gonna spend that much you pretty much know your planning to overclock.

Yeah that was the whole point when I bought this rig back whenever they first released the 580's. I just never got around to it. Might make that my project tonight.

edit: 4 years ago. Lol wow, I am one lazy person xD

Edit 2: Took a look at my GPU usage and holy crap. 20% load on average, but sub-20 FPS average. Yup, time to bite the bullet and overclock. Still getting a new card anyway (because I've been on the fence about it for months anyway) but yep, good to know where the issue appears to be.

Edited July 12, 2014 by G'th