AMD A8-7600 Performance issues

[mirrorbender]

Hey guys, I just built a new computer for my mom, and as part of the performance testing, I installed Dolphin and ran the Dolphin CPU benchmark.  The specs are:

AMD A8-7600 APU
Integrated R7 Graphics
8 GB of RAM @ 2133mhz
240 GB Mushkin SSD
Windows 10

I know AMD processors aren't ideal for dolphin, but according to the dolphin cpu benchmark thread, the previous generation A8-6600k scored about 14 minutes, so I was expecting something in that ballpark from the A8-7600.  But what I'm getting is about 22 minutes, way slower than expected.  Other cpu tests like geekbench are giving me results in line with expectations, and general performance seems pretty snappy, so it seems to be an issue specifically with dolphin.  Any ideas why I might be getting these results?

[KHg8m3r]

Power options in Windows should be set to high performance.
Make sure you have the latest drivers installed for everything.
Which benchmark are you using ? the most recent one?

[mirrorbender]

All my graphics and chipset drivers are up to date. I've run both the v2 benchmark and the original. There aren't any results listed for a similar processor for the v2 benchmark, so the results I quoted above are from the original 4.0.652 benchmark. It just doesn't make sense, so I was hoping someone might have seen a similar issue and know what's going on.

[mimimi]

My bet would also be on thermal throttling. Check your cpu temp while running the benchmark, as well as the clock speed. Also, don't neglect the importance of the windows power options.

[mirrorbender]

Ran it again, high performance mode. Temps never got above ~53 degrees, no throttling of the clock speeds. No other tasks running, pretty standard looking CPU usage for Dolphin. 4.0.652 benchmark, haven't touched the settings. 21:32 render time, 25:09 total time. I'll keep looking for more settings that might be interfering that I might have missed. Any other theories or suggestions would be most welcome.

[DatKid20]

(08-26-2015, 11:14 AM)mirrorbender Wrote: Ran it again, high performance mode.  Temps never got above ~53 degrees, no throttling of the clock speeds.  No other tasks running, pretty standard looking CPU usage for Dolphin.  4.0.652 benchmark, haven't touched the settings.  21:32 render time, 25:09 total time.  I'll keep looking for more settings that might be interfering that I might have missed.  Any other theories or suggestions would be most welcome.

Can you up the TDP of your CPU?

[admin89]

I can confirm that AMD Turbo Core does not work with Dolphin . If your CPU isn't running at max turbo 3.8GHz then 22min shouldn't sound weird here
A8 7600 : 3.1GHz -> 3.8GHz Turbo Core
A8 6600k : 3.9GHz -> 4.2GHz Turbo Core
In term of graphic performance , your APU might be faster than 6600k but 6600k completely destroys your APU in CPU raw performance

[mirrorbender]

Really, that's very interesting, certainly goes a long way in terms of explaining whats going on here. "Completely destroys" is a little unbelievable, but if the turbo isn't working effectively, the ~20% difference in clock speed certainly explains a lot. Still seems like I should be getting closer to 17 minutes assuming roughly similar performance per clock, rather than 25(!) minutes i got on the last run. I'll do some more testing, see if I can boost the TDP.

[mirrorbender]

Ah okay, now I see what you mean by "AMD Turbo Core does not work with Dolphin". With turbo core disabled, running @ 3.1 ghz, I got 18:51. So not only does turbo core not provide any benefit, but it actually appears to be hugely detrimental to dolphin performance. Seems really weird, but at least the issue has been isolated. Thanks for the help guys.

[admin89]

Don't know if you can change the multiplier or not . Try to force your CPU run at 3.8GHz by setting multiplier = 38x .