That is a poor excuse, and I'll explain why. The settings I explained about in my original post (CPU Usage/ Graphics Usage/Memory usage) were all done with that setting on (25 dust multiplier). How can the program be lagging to 1FPS when none of the systems are close to taxing as I explained. Even give you that point, what system pray tell should be used to run the Sim with a high dust multiplier, seeing as a high-end machine like mine cannot run it? One from NASA? The program should be designed to work on its highest settings given that a machine with high-end hardware can run it. Seeing as I already said none of my hardware was close to being taxed, it should work.
First of all, I'm not trying to make poor excuses for the program. I'm another user on the forum who's trying to help you.
You have a quad core, so if the program only uses one core, it'll be 25%. I think that makes sense with your 32%. The multicore option isn't working very well currently, it's a new feature disabled by default, and if you haven't enabled it, the program itself won't be able to use more than one core/25% of your CPU.
Graphics card, I don't think will make any difference beyond what your CPU can simulate. If it takes very long time to simulate every screen, I don't think you can get more than 1 FPS, no matter your graphics card.
I have a nVidia GTX 275 and an Intel Pentium Dual Core E6300 at 2.80 GHz. Anything beyond a 5x multiple would lag terribly. 1x is the default (some are having problems with it being 25x as default since the Steam version, though, I think, which it's not meant to be.)
I don't know anything about the code involving the particles, but have you tried lowering the settings and seeing if it helps?