60fps, but stuttering in games :/

[Sortvind]

Hello fellow dolphin fans, was wondering if anyone have any suggestion as to why all the games i emulate seems to stutter?

1 - 4x native resolution all give the same stutter, so its not that my set-up is to weak.

i get constant 60fps, but when walking around it stutters, the sound is ok.

i tried various settings and options, but i can`t seem to pinpoint it.

i have a feeling its vsync related, but i tried all options there ( off, on, on in nvidia panel visa versa )

Any help is very appreciated

GTX 770, 16gb ram, windows 8.1, i7 4400

[Anti-Ultimate]

What game? ->

EDIT: Which games ?

[StripTheSoul]

Does that stuttering only occur the first time you get into a new place or see effects for the first time? Because that's the shader cache that's unfortunately a little slow. But it should be better the second time around.
Apart from that I always have V-Sync in FDolphin enabled because my eyes are pretty sensitive to image stability and Dolphin doesn't exactly show the typical tearing but the image seems kinda instable and rumbles around a bit it seems (without V-Sync).

[trihy]

Shader cache is terrible on games like tatsunoko vs capcom. But I think nothing can be done atm.

btw, when shader cache is slowing down, fps onscreen will drop. when there is stuttering, fps shows 60 fps constant.

[Sarasvati]

I have the same problem with stuttering despite a constant 30/60 fps in games. No matter what setting (individually tested) I use in Dolphin, there is just nothing to smooth out the frames. The only games I have tested are Xenoblade Chronicles (smooth in the early days of 3.0), Skyward Sword (currently playing), and Super Mario Galaxy. 30 FPS games seem worse than 60 FPS, but it's still apparent in all of them. I should note that it is most apparent when moving the scene around more so than anything else and happens despite being on the lowest IR setting or highest.

Outside of Dolphin settings, I messed with older drivers such as 332.21, 334.89, 335,23, and the one I am currently on, 337.50. Other than degraded performance, there was no change to the inconsistent frames. I also tried single monitor versus dual, maximum power settings, aero on and off (though it does help some), etc. Despite games being playable it really ruins the flow of games when it feels like frames moving slower than usual.

I know Dolphin is constantly being updated, and I do not like sounding whiny since I really am grateful for this emulator, but this feels like a more recent issue. I played through almost the whole of Xenoblade in 3.0 and 3.5 without any hiccups other than the obvious shader cache loading. It seems so apparent now that it is hard to ignore. Anyways, I did not reply to this post to ask for help or advice; I just wanted to add that I have tried nearly everything I can think of, like you, and still have the same stutter at max fps.

[JMC47]

It's probably video card communication; try disabling EFB copies (even though it'll break stuff) and see what happens.

[Sarasvati]

(05-08-2014, 07:57 PM)JMC47 Wrote: It's probably video card communication; try disabling EFB copies (even though it'll break stuff) and see what happens.

I just tried what you said with both OpenGL and Direct3D Backends as well as Vsync on and off for both Skyward Sword and Super Mario Galaxy. The stuttering was still happening even with the fps display a constant 30/60. Skyward Sword was near black but with the little I saw (flames, corner of background), I could still see the inconsistency in the frames. Super Mario Galaxy showed quite a bit of it simply running around in the main hub area with the same path.

[StripTheSoul]

Someone else said his stuttering went away with Tino's DX9 build (download the x64 version and obviously choose the DX9 graphics backend); it'd be interesting to see if you'd have the same result.
It's not an official build though, so don't expect any support (outside of that thread):
https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-unofficial-testing-needed-dx9-final

[JMC47]

I tried it out, not only did the DX9 final build not change anything with latency to communication with the GFX card, but it also reintroduced a ton of bugs that were fixed in Dolphin a long time ago. Really wouldn't recommend using it.

[StripTheSoul]

Yeah, it's under heavy development at the moment and there was a new graphical issue in the latest version and all. Since it didn't seem to be sure what kind of issue Sarasvati was having (maybe latency, maybe not), I just thought it might be interesting to see if those issues issues would also be there with the DX9 build. Especially since someone else seemed to have his issues resolved with those builds. And if that is the case, then maybe there's something to find there from which the master builds might also benefit. So I'd still be interested in Sarasvati's experiences.