Low Part Count Performance Issue

[Rithsom]

Hello everyone,

A few weeks ago I installed a new graphics card, which removed all lag caused by terrain, smoke effects, scenery, etc. However, my computer still struggles with part count, and the game drops to around 15 fps when only 400 parts are loaded. I start to notice lag with 150, and is almost unplayable with 600+. Is there any way I can reduce this lag, whether it be software or hardware changes?

Computer specs:

GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 750 Ti

CPU: AMD A8-5500 APU

Memory: 8 GB RAM

OS: Windows 8 64 bit

I think it's the CPU which is causing the lag, because after doing some research I found out that my GPU's PhysX isn't being used by KSP, and that all physics calculations are done by the processor.

Edited September 6, 2014 by Rthsom

[Justin Kerbice]

Hi,

not a surprise, and 400 parts is not very so low. I have also a similar performance issue with similar parts count.

CPU is everything in this matter for now with KSP. If you can, and can afford it, a CPU upgrade may, or may not, improve this.

On the software side, you can close as many programs as possible to reduce the number of software that require CPU care, the most CPU cycles KSP gets, the faster it will be able to calculate physics stuff. Or set affinity to other cores for others software.

[Rithsom]

Hi,

not a surprise, and 400 parts is not very so low. I have also a similar performance issue with similar parts count.

CPU is everything in this matter for now with KSP. If you can, and can afford it, a CPU upgrade may, or may not, improve this.

On the software side, you can close as many programs as possible to reduce the number of software that require CPU care, the most CPU cycles KSP gets, the faster it will be able to calculate physics stuff. Or set affinity to other cores for others software.

I was considering a CPU upgrade, but my computer isn't custom built, and was only really intended to stay the way I bought it. I still may do it, though, as it struggles with other games as well.

I'll try closing unnecessary programs in task manager to see if that helps even a little.

Thanks for the advice!

Edited September 8, 2014 by Rthsom

[Rithsom]

So I closed all of the most useless and CPU-hungry programs in task manager, but I didn't notice any effect. Is there anything else I can do? And if not, are there any good CPUs out there that run KSP well?

Edited September 13, 2014 by Rthsom

[johnqevil]

So I closed all of the most useless and CPU-hungry programs in task manager, but I didn't notice any effect. Is there anything else I can do? And if not, are there any good CPUs out there that run KSP well?

As a rule, Intel does far better than AMD. My wife's computer has an A8-6600K @ 4.1 GHz, and my e8600 @ 3.33GHz outstrips hers easily. That A8-5500 is listed at 3.2, maybe pushing up to an FX series near the 4GHz mark will help. I will warn you: multiple cores make no difference for this game. My E8600 is only a dual.

[Stratoroc]

-snip- I will warn you: multiple cores make no difference for this game. My E8600 is only a dual.

KSP only uses one core, so a slower dual core cpu will run much better than a many core but faster overall cpu. With most games a cpu with more than 2 cores won't get used to nearly its full potential because of the epic pain in the ass that programming for multiple processors is.

edit: also anything above 200 is a 'high' part count for KSP. that's 200 objects that each need a full set of physics to be calculated for.

Edited September 20, 2014 by Stratoroc

[Rithsom]

As a rule, Intel does far better than AMD. My wife's computer has an A8-6600K @ 4.1 GHz, and my e8600 @ 3.33GHz outstrips hers easily. That A8-5500 is listed at 3.2, maybe pushing up to an FX series near the 4GHz mark will help. I will warn you: multiple cores make no difference for this game. My E8600 is only a dual.

Unity 5 has multi-core support for physics as well as PhysX 3.3, which should take full advantage of my quad-core CPU and graphics card. However, it's release date is unknown, and will still probably be months, so I might end up buying an Intel CPU before then.

Edited September 20, 2014 by Rthsom