Severe FPS issues since returning to KSP 0.90

[Mental Miggy]

Hi. I have been away from KSP for a while and recently returned. I have KSP which I have modded but am posting here as I have the same problem with the unmodded KSP which I have installed for testing. I have always had amazing performance using KSP but since returning and using 0.90 my FPS have plummeted drastically. I now only get 20fps at KFC which drops to 9FPS in IVA.

I have carried out the standard testing. No background processes hogging resources, Free of spyware/Adware etc. All drivers up to date.

I am using a laptop with both a Dedicated and Integrated graphics card. My system settings are as follows.

Processor - Intel® Core i3-3120m CPU @ 2.50ghz

Installed Memory - 4GB

Operating System - "Windows 8.1 (64 bit)

GPU -Nvidia 635m (1gb)

For some reason, my KSP.Log is listing the GPU as my Intel HD 4000 chip. Though I know that the Nvidia card is active in running KSP because Nvidia inspector is showing it active, as is the Nvidia activity monitor.

The log only shows my Geforce Nvidia 635m card if I run KSP in opengl mode which does little to aid performance. I have Nvidia control panel set to use the High performance Nvidia card. Slider settings in game do not appear to benefit framerate at all, so I am here to see if anyone can help me. KSP was handling like a dream last time I played and now it is absolutely unplayable. I appreciate any support offered.

[vexx32]

It might be worth running KSP with the -adapter N command flag (N being 0 or 1; try both).

It may also be worth a look at your power management settings -- make sure they're set to High Performance whilst playing KSP; many laptops will either disable or limit the dedicated graphics card to save power in other modes.

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd chalk this up to a Unity bug that's been causing a bunch of issues in the present version of KSP; the game no longer runs in what the OS would consider 'true fullscreen', but some weird mix between 'full-window' and 'fullscreen' by default, which is likely what's causing the issue with the game not properly utilising the dedicated GPU. Some laptops are, from memory, configured such that they like to reserve the dedicated graphics card mostly for fullscreen graphics-heavy applications.

[PB666]

Couple of issues, on my 0.90 install the program reset my screen resolution to a scale that was distorted, I had to tinker with it to lower the resolution to a scale that optimized performance.

Your core processor is a bit slow for the physics stuff some folks are having a problem with.

I heard that 8.1 and 64 bit are problems. Make sure you are running the 32 bit version of the game.

I have also read but cannot confirm that KSP likes to have its own dedicated processor in multi-core systems. This argues for machines that have higher processor speeds.

Make sure your modules are all up-to-date, some modules may have problems in 0.90 and need to be shut off.

[Nitrous Oxide]

Similar situation here, and maybe a potential solution... I was getting pretty bad FPS (<20) on a stock install on the lowest settings with my Catalyst Control Center setting set to "High Performance" (my Radeon HD 7730M), and I was curious to see what would happen if I switched it to "Power Saving" (Intel HD 4000, i7 3612QM 2.1GHz)... surprisingly enough, my game had the smoothest FPS I've ever had even on the highest graphical settings... the one drawback was AA is messy (text gets aliased as well), but that was easily solved by turning it off in-game and throwing SweetFX into my KSP folder and setting some AA through that instead.

To compare further, I tried both GPUs with the Kerbal Weather System mod (huge amounts of processing on clouds)... I was getting ~5 FPS on my dedicated card, and closer to 30 FPS on the integrated card...

I'd wager that Unity isn't working too well with older switchable-GPUs, especially when your manufacturer hasn't given you a driver since 2012 (my case, anyways)... also, for note, a lot of software often lists both my GPUs as the Intel HD 4000 (Skyrim is a notable offender, I've never seen the words "Radeon HD" in my KSP logs either). Whatever setting in the Nvidia panel is definitely what you should be basing it on, as I'm pretty sure that should be what decides how your OS uses your hardware. Make sure you have the most recent drivers you can use (from your manufacturer), and try both cards. I was pretty dumbfounded when actually setting it to the integrated card gave me better performance, as it's usually the opposite... but alas, my dedicated GPU drivers are about to celebrate their 3rd birthday...

[Mental Miggy]

Update.

Been doing a little more testing and I think Nitrous and Vexx are on to something. Just tried the -adapter 0 command and it hung on the loading screen. When checking log I got this near the end of the log.

[EXC 14:46:04.390] NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object

System.Collections.Generic.GenericEqualityComparer`1[system.String].GetHashCode (System.String obj)

System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[system.String,System.Int32].TryGetValue (System.String key, System.Int32& value)

PartLoader.ParsePart (.UrlConfig urlConfig, .ConfigNode node)

PartLoader+.MoveNext ()

[LOG 14:46:39.728] Skipped rendering frame because GfxDevice is in invalid state (device lost)

[LOG 14:46:39.835] Skipped frame because GfxDevice is in invalid state (device lost)

[LOG 14:46:39.938] Skipped frame because GfxDevice is in invalid state (device lost)

[LOG 14:46:40.040] Skipped frame because GfxDevice is in invalid state (device lost)

[LOG 14:46:40.141] Skipped frame because GfxDevice is in invalid state (device lost)

[LOG 14:46:40.243] Skipped frame because GfxDevice is in invalid state (device lost)

[LOG 14:46:40.346] Skipped frame because GfxDevice is in invalid state (device lost)

[LOG 14:46:40.447] Skipped frame because GfxDevice is in invalid state (device lost)

[LOG 14:46:40.550] Skipped frame because GfxDevice is in invalid state (device lost)

[LOG 14:46:40.652] Skipped frame because GfxDevice is in invalid state (device lost)

[LOG 14:46:40.755] Skipped frame because GfxDevice is in invalid state (device lost)

[LOG 14:46:40.857] Skipped frame because GfxDevice is in invalid state (device lost)

[LOG 14:46:40.958] Skipped frame because GfxDevice is in invalid state (device lost)

[LOG 14:46:41.060] Skipped frame because GfxDevice is in invalid state (device lost)

[LOG 14:46:41.162] Skipped frame because GfxDevice is in invalid state (device lost)

[LOG 14:46:41.264] Skipped frame because GfxDevice is in invalid state (device lost)

[LOG 14:46:41.366] Skipped frame because GfxDevice is in invalid state (device lost)

[LOG 14:46:58.562] [smokeScreen PersistentEmitterManager] : OnDestroy

[LOG 14:46:58.575] [iR GUI] destroy

*edit * - Should add that this is specific to KSP and I am not experiencing any other failures of my system to recognize my dedicated graphics adapter.

will keep you guys updated