Nah, it's not a placebo effect for me. It's definitely the emulator version in my case and not the update. I get much better performance on 1.5.1 than 1.5.2. I just did a back to back comparison.
Thanks.
And yeah, it's the emulator itself, not the Windows update. 1.5.1 runs vastly superior to 1.5.2 for me. Stable 60fps with rare split-second stutter hiccups. Fully playable, while 1.5.2 lags and stutters so much that it's a chore to play.
Cemu 1.5.2 seems to simply be worse than 1.5.1 for me. I was getting 60 fps in both SM3DW and MK8 before with occasional small freeze hiccups, now my frame rate is in the 40s with frequent freeze hiccups and more visual glitches. I'm running Windows 10 and there was a major update for it...