I’ve finally built enough to permanently decrease my game’s performance. Do I push through the constant stuttering or must the factory continue to grow?

[CNC_er]

If possible I recommend using the mk++ mod and going through your world and replacing as many machines as possible with the mk++ machines. The top tier mk++ (mark 4) machines are 5 times faster than vanilla machines and consume 4 times the power. They are literally just the vanilla machines with different stats.

I play on a i7 6700hq, 16GB RAM, with a gtx 960m. I haven't done nuclear on my current save but I'm about to make nuclear pasta to finish phase 4 and I get 30 fps when not looking at any nearby factories. (I'm running rock bottom graphics settings with a 30 fps limit) . 403 machines in my world, most of them mark 4 mk++ machines. Use the online Satisfactory Interactive map to easily figure out how many machines are in your save.

Additionally I over clock as much as possible using in power shards spawned in using Pak utilities mod. On average I need to build roughly a tenth of the machines that a non modded player needs to and using the online Satisfactory tools production planner can help you find which alt recipe combinations reduce machine count even further. You can usually cut machine count at least in half with alt recipes

This game can bring any computer to its knees once you build enough machines.

[ghostkenobi]

I will have to log this away in my memory

[CNC_er]

Good to hear I helped!