Gaming Why does my PC emulate GC/Wii and PS2 so slowly

[Fudge]

OK, so my PC runs Dolphin and PCSX2 rather poorly. Games run around 30-40FPS, doesn't really feel playable. Now, I ask the question because my friend has a laptop with these specs and can run both emulators fine:

[img]http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/2206/29052126579453347982710.jpg[/img]

While my laptop's specs are:

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/447/myspecs.jpg

 

[Cabbage]

Those emulators are more CPU intensive than anything if I remember right. His CPU looks quite a bit better than yours, so that's probably the basic reason why.

 

[marcus134]

because emulation is very hard on computer hardware and results may vary lot from games to games and the options selected within the emulator.
because you have a laptop and desktop chip are much more powerful, ie: i5 2430m(laptop) 2.4ghz, and i5 2500(desktop) 3.3ghz (doesn't apply to the friend comparison)
because emulation for those system (more particularly pcsx2) still require some work from the devs for optimization and other things, (they're still in development)

if you want better performance you should browse their respective forum to find optimized emulator settings for the games you want to play.

 

[RchUncleSkeleton]

I've found that AMD processors are generally "shite" with emulation. Everytime I had lags on an AMD system an equivalent Intel system had no problem running it.
Also the fact that your processor is almost a whole 1ghz slower clock speed than your friends system, not to mention the intel system probably has a faster bus speed and possibly more L2 and L3 cache.

 

[marcus134]

Also the fact that your processor is almost a whole 1ghz slower clock speed than your friends system

that's the funny part, intel cpu is advertised at 2.4 ghz but with eist (enhanced speed step) it will downclock itself to 1.4/1.6 ghz for normal operation and jump to 2.4 when needed and if the thermal dissipation is sufficient.
on the other side the amd cpu is advertised with a base speed of 1.5ghz, but when required, it will overclock itself to 2.4 ghz and hold it as long as the thermal dissipation is sufficient. And the amd cpu is a quad, considering the addition of a newer speed hack in the latest build of pcsx2 which allow the use of more than 2 thread, it might be interesting.

 

[RchUncleSkeleton]

Well maybe you should check out techradars review of said processor here's some of what they say:

"for a quad-core PC processor, even one designed for laptops rather than desktop PCs, the AMD A8-3500M's raw CPU performance is mediocre. That's because the clockspeed is limited to just 1.5GHz when all four cores are crunching numbers. In fact, in our testing we never detected any cores running beyond 1.5GHz, though AMD says it does happen when only one or two cores are under load."

I'm resigned to the fact that intel has never let me down in a side by side comparison to AMD CPU's.

 

[FireGrey]

Hmm I have almost the same specs as your friend, just I got an Intel Celeron instead of an i3 and double dash doesn't go very fast, are there any settings to optimize dolphin?

 

[RchUncleSkeleton]

Hmm I have almost the same specs as your friend, just I got an Intel Celeron instead of an i3 and double dash doesn't go very fast, are there any settings to optimize dolphin?

Celeron's are very low end processors with a tiny amount of L2 cache and a lower bus speed. I wouldn't expect to play most games at full speed, you really need a more powerful processor.

 

[lexarvn]

The thing some people seem to be forgetting is that even though the AMD one is a quad-core, the i3 has hyperthreading and believe me, it makes a huge difference. I have two computers that are almost identical except one has an Intel core 2 duo and the other has an i3, and both are clocked at 2.4 GHz. Dolphin runs sorta slow on my core 2 duo but runs great on my i3, so obviously the hyperthreading must be making the difference.

In short, your cpu isn't anywhere close to as powerful as your friend's.

 

[jarejare3]

I thought the psx2 is program to use only 2 cores even if you have 4 cores? So even if you had a quad core you only got the best of two 1.5 ghz cores, which explains the lag.

I don't know about dolphin emulator, but i heard the dolphin emulator requires lots of cpu power from a single core to run at average fps.

What i heard of course, i think they are stated in the guides for these emulators

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

Dolphin runs fantastic on my old Core2Duo E8400, 3Ghz.

Maybe Dolphin likes Mhz more than more cores? Or its the video "card" in his laptop.

I do not know much about the A8 but I know the GPU is built into the CPU's core and uses the same RAM and bus.

So thats something to consider.

 

[Vigilante]

Well to make it simple you need a better pc specs.
Maybe you could try putting all the graphic settings to the lowest,that could increase somehow.

 

[Berthenk]

Hey, look! Reading material for Dolphin!

Configuration Explanation.
Performance.

Also, HTT only works in certain situations. It shares the same resources for an extra thread on the same core. Bulldozer's got it better because it doesn't have to share everything, however, it's still not as ideal as a real extra core. Besides, extra cores don't help Dolphin that much past 2 cores. Something with the GameCube/Wii architecture.

As mentioned (many times) before, mobile hardware is worse than desktop hardware.

The Llano series' CPU performance cannot be compared to the i3's because Llano's goal was and is not CPU usage; it's meant for browsing the intarwebz and watching video with some light gaming on the side, not emulation/heavy computing. If we're comparing via graphics, yes, Llano wins. However, generally, if you need a good CPU, Intel is the way to go.

 

[1NOOB]

I thought the psx2 is program to use only 2 cores even if you have 4 cores? So even if you had a quad core you only got the best of two 1.5 ghz cores, which explains the lag.

there is a 4 core option to check in the speed hack tab

 

[the_randomizer]

Too bad PCSX2 doesn't take advantage of 64-bit instructions anymore.

 

[jarejare3]

I thought the psx2 is program to use only 2 cores even if you have 4 cores? So even if you had a quad core you only got the best of two 1.5 ghz cores, which explains the lag.

there is a 4 core option to check in the speed hack tab

What? where? I never saw it, what build are you using? I never heard anything about the psx2 using 4 cores, they said it everywhere that psx2 WILL ONLY USE 2 CORES

 

[exangel]

http://gbatemp.net/topic/311578-emulating-playstation-2-with-pcsx2/

MTVU speedhack.

 

[jarejare3]

http://gbatemp.net/t...n-2-with-pcsx2/

MTVU speedhack.

GOD I've BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS FOR THE PAST 3 MONTHS!!!!! THX!!!

 

[exangel]

I think Cyan moved it about 3 months ago from the PC forum to Other Consoles > Playstation 1 & 2 ~ if you meant that guide >.>
On the bright side, it's a sticky now.

 

[Quietlyawesome94]

I'm planning on building a PC in the near future and I'm constantly keeping in mind how the hardware would perform with these 2 emulators. Here are a few things I've picked up...

1. CPU performence is more important than GPU performance. The more Ghz, the better. While it helps to have a dedicated video card, it isn't nearly as important as CPU speed.

2. Intel's perform better than AMD with these emulators. Read the thread I'm about to provide at the end of this post and you will see many people with intels that get bettter performance than their AMD counterparts which have higher CPU speeds...

As for me. Both of these emulators perform rather well on my new laptop. I have an i5 clocked at 2.4Ghz and turbo boost up to 2.9Ghz.. I also have a better GPU than you (Intel HD Graphics 3000)

I get full speed on most of the gamecube game I have and 95% on Mario Kart wii. Also get full speed on Jak and Daxter with the resolution up rezz'd 2x...

So my reccomendation would be to save and build your own PC like I am planning on doing.... You could probably get some very good speeds if you bought an AMD phenom 4x black editon and overclocking it to about 3.8-4.1Ghz.... They are reasonably priced. (unlike Intel)

To get a better idea on the whole AMD vs. Intel and weather Quad Cores are better than Dual Cores I would take a look at this thread....

http://forums.ngemu.com/showthread.php?t=126268

(^ I think the author of that thread was reading this thread a few minutes ago!)