Terrible performance, low GPU/CPU usage

[Darth Crow]

Hello, everyone, I just installed KSP on my brand new laptop, but the performance is apalling.
At 1080p I'm getting just 10-15 fps on the Launch Pad with a super simple 4-part rocket.

The laptop is running an i5-7300HQ and a GTX 1050.
Afterburner readout shows the GPU usage to hover around 15-20%, CPU usage around 30%.

I'm running fullscreen, tried decreasing the physics delta-time, tweaked settings in the control panel... nothing seems to help...
Anyone got an idea what I could do here? Thanks.

[LoSBoL]

The 30% does sound normal because you have a quad core processor, and KSP is mostly a single core game due to the physics calculations. If you go into the task manager, you can select 'per core' visualisation of the CPU usage, if one tops out at 80 to 100% then you could well be maxing out.

But, since you are on a laptop, make absolutely sure your windows power saving settings are in either balanced profile, or high performance profile. If it's in 'power saving', then for sure your CPU is being capped performance wise, even when hooked to a power line.

[Darth Crow]

Hey, thanks for responding. I checked the CPU usage, but it seems to be pretty balanced across all cores, with core 2 being favoured slightly. That gets up to 60% at times, the rest fluctuate anywhere between 20 and 40 (approx.). Doesn't look like a bottleneck to me...
And yes, I'm set to high performance on power settings.

[Cakeeater]

Have you tryed turning it off and on again? Also try changing the game resource priority in taskmanager

[Manwith Noname]

I suspect this is because you are running the 64 bit build of the game and it doesn't have a profile in your drivers to force nVidia Optimus to switch GPUs. Try running the 32 bit build and see if that is better. If that is the case then...

1) Download nVidia Inspector

https://orbmu2k.de/tools/nvidia-inspector-tool

2) Extract the zip and run the Profile Inspector tool

3) In the drop down menu top left type Kerbal and select the KSP profile.

4) There's a button in the top icon menu with a green plus sign (going from memory, might have changed). Mousing over the icons will produce a popup telling you what they do anyway. You want the one that adds a program to the profile.

5) When the little file browser window opens, browse to your KSP install and select the KSP_x64.exe then add it.

6) Click apply changes, a few times (OCD)

7) Close Nvidia Inspector and run the game in 64 bit.

You can just use nVidia Control panel to create a profile for the 64 bit build but this way is "better".

Edit:

Also, you can double check that the exe is attached to the profile as it will show in the green bar just below the tool icons.

[LoSBoL]

Weird, that machine really should run KSP great considering the cpu it holds, which is one of the fastest a laptop can take. Something is really off, do you have problems with other games?

[Darth Crow]

Hello, guys, thanks for the answers.
From the top:
1: Yes, I have tried reinstalling and setting resource priority to High - no change.
Also tried downgrading to 1.4.2.
2. The nVidia profile is configured correctly, no problem there (I tried the tool anyway, but it told me that the ksp_x64.exe is already in the profile).
I do suspect this might be a mod, though, because a clean install seems to run fine. Attaching the modlist below point 3.
3. No, all other games I tested so far (not many, to be honest, as this is not my main gaming rig, just Dishonored, Rocket League and Cities: Skylines) run as well as I would expect this laptop to run them.

This is the modlist, then:
[x] Science! (xScience vV5.15)
Ablative-Airbrake (AblativeAirbrake 0.3.0)
Action Groups Extended (AGExt 2.3.3.6)
Astrogator (Astrogator v0.7.8)
Audio Muffler Redux (AudioMufflerRedux 2.6.1_quickfix)
AugmentedReality (AugmentedReality 0.2.1.4)
B9 Aerospace Procedural Wings - Fork (B9-PWings-Fork 1:v0.50)
B9 Part Switch (B9PartSwitch v2.3.1)
BetterBurnTime (BetterBurnTime 1.6.1)
Blast Awesomeness Modifier (BAM) (BAMCont 1.3.2.2)
Civilian Population (CivilianPopulation 2.1.1)
ClickThrough Blocker (ClickThroughBlocker 0.1.6.5)
Community Resource Pack (CommunityResourcePack 0.10.0.0)
Contract Configurator (ContractConfigurator 1.25.0)
Contract Pack: Clever Sats (ContractConfigurator-CleverSats 1.4)
Contract Pack: Field Research (ContractConfigurator-FieldResearch 1.2.1)
Contract Pack: Tourism Plus (ContractConfigurator-Tourism 1.5.2)
Contract Parser (ContractParser 8.0)
Contracts Window + (ContractsWindowPlus 8.2)
Dang It! Continued (DangItContinued 0.7.17)
DarkSideTechnology Continued. (DarkSideTechnology 1.0)
Destruction Effects (DestructionEffects 2:v1.8.0)
DMagic Orbital Science (DMagicOrbitalScience 1.3.12)
Docking Port Alignment Indicator (DockingPortAlignmentIndicator 6.8.2)
Docking Port Sound FX (DockingPortSoundFX v2.1.12)
Dr. Jet's Chop Shop (ChopShop 1:0.11.4.1)
EasyBoard (EasyBoard 1.6)
EditorTime (EditorTime KSP1.4.1)
Engineering Tech Tree (ETT 3:v20180525-2)
Firespitter (Firespitter v7.9.0)
Firespitter Core (FirespitterCore v7.9.0)
Firespitter Resources config (FirespitterResourcesConfig v7.9.0)
Flexible Docking (FlexibleDocking 6.0)
FuseBox Continued (FuseBoxContinued 0.1.16.1)
Hide Empty Tech Tree Nodes (HideEmptyTechNodes 1.0.4)
Champagne Bottle Redux (ChampagneBottleRedux 0.3.8.1)
Chatterer (Chatterer 0.9.95)
Chatterer Extended (ChattererExtended 0.6.2)
Interstellar Fuel Switch Core (InterstellarFuelSwitch-Core 3.6)
Kerbal Alarm Clock (KerbalAlarmClock v3.9.1.0)
Kerbal Engineer Redux (KerbalEngineerRedux 1.1.5.0)
Kerbal Hacks: Droptank "Wrapper" (KerbalHacksDroptankWrapper 1.0)
KSP AVC (KSP-AVC 1.2.0.2)
MechJeb and Engineer for all! (MechJebForAll 1.3.0.1)
Mk2 Stockalike Expansion (Mk2Expansion 2:1.8.1)
Mk2.5 Spaceplane Parts (RaginCaucasian 1.4.3.4)
Mk3 Stockalike Expansion (Mk3Expansion 1.4.5)
Module Manager (ModuleManager 3.0.7)
Near Future Construction (NearFutureConstruction 1.0.2)
Near Future IVA Props (NearFutureProps 1:0.3.3)
Near Future Propulsion (NearFuturePropulsion 1.0.1)
Near Future Solar (NearFutureSolar 0.8.11)
Near Future Solar Core (NearFutureSolar-Core 0.8.11)
Near Future Spacecraft (NearFutureSpacecraft 0.7.9)
Precise Maneuver (PreciseManeuver 2:2.4.1)
Progress Parser (ProgressParser 9.0)
RasterPropMonitor (RasterPropMonitor 1:v0.30.4)
RasterPropMonitor Core (RasterPropMonitor-Core 1:v0.30.4)
RealChute Parachute Systems (RealChute v1.4.6)
SafeChute (SafeChute v2.1.12)
SETI-ProbeParts (SETI-ProbeParts 1.3.0.2)
SmartStage (SmartStage 1:2.9.10)
Solver Engines plugin (SolverEngines v3.6.2)
Toolbar (Toolbar 1.7.17.11)
Toolbar Controller (ToolbarController 1:0.1.6.7)
Trajectories (Trajectories vKSP1.4.2-v2.2.0)
Transfer Window Planner (TransferWindowPlanner v1.6.3.0)
TriggerAu Flags (TriggerAu-Flags v2.9.3.0)
TweakScale - Rescale Everything! (TweakScale v2.3.12)
Universal Storage (UniversalStorage 1.4.0.0)
VaporVent (VaporVent 1.1.9)
Waypoint Manager (WaypointManager 2.7.2)
WetterWings (WetterWings Version_1)
YongeTech Tech Trees Plugin Revived (YongeTechTreesPlugin-Revived 1:0.6.1.1)

Someone in the KSP group on Facebook already suggested turning off Trajectories, but that didn't help.
Any more suggestions?

[Manwith Noname]

Oh, it's modded...quite a bit...

I would start half splitting then. Take half your mods out and load with the ones that remain. If it all runs fine, remove what remains and put the half you initially took out back. If it all runs fine, split each group in half and merge opposing halves. This process will mainly aim to resolve conflicts between mods.

Removing trajectories was a good shout because the problem likely comes from a mod that runs continuously calculating things in the background. Before going the half split route, you could maybe consider removing more plugin mods that run all the time, like X Science.

I'm not seeing any visual mods but if you run Scatterer and E.V.E with complex configs, that can and probably will dump you down to 20fps quite easily.

[Chibbity]

WAY too many mods.

Try running a stock install for a few minutes, the performance difference will likely surprise you quite a bit.

[Manwith Noname]

Originally posted by Darth Crow:

I do suspect this might be a mod, though, because a clean install seems to run fine. Attaching the modlist below point 3.