Performance of workbench/station, Microscope, Replicator

[miscellaeneous]

Do the above change the speed/efficiency of research?
Appart from the price, are there any differences between them?

[Davypi]

Just from playing the game, I can confirm that the better/more expensive research equipment will research faster. However, I don't know what the numerical differences in research speed are. Didn't find anything online either.

[miscellaeneous]

ok... so worth the expense then?

[Davypi]

I would say that depends on your game goals and how quickly you want them done.

On the science mission that comes with the game, they are worth buying if you have the money for it, but they can be expensive. The time required to research Workstation seems pretty high and you can usually win that scenario by researching items lower in the tech tree with smaller research times.

If you're sandboxing, the AI is pretty stupid and slow when it comes to teching. It will get a lot of early jumps, but then for some reason slow down and even do things like improve techs instead of researching new ones. So if tech is a victory goal, you're usually pretty safe. You probably don't need anything better than workbenches if you've built a large enough lab, but getting better equipment will hit the goal faster so you're not dragging the game out.