Audio slow-down causes emulation speed to lower when using FRAPS

[Pink401k]

Hi all!

I'm trying to use FRAPS to record Animal Crossing GC. I have everything working very smoothly at 60 FPS, and no less than 95% Emulation speed. Even when I have FRAPS recording. However, during one scene (when the character gets off the train right at the beginning) The audio lags, causing the whole emulator to slow down. When I'm NOT using FRAPS, this part goes at 100%. When I am using fraps, it slows to around 60%.

Obviously, if I am trying to record, such a significant speed reduction is far from desirable. I have tried all the tweaks I can think of, changing the sampling rate in Dolphin and my computer. Have the audio bound to a core. Change / update my audio driver. Change the Audio Backend. Change FRAPS between Stereo and Multichannel...

Nothing works. I'd really love some help on this one. It seems the problem is there's too much noise going on and FRAPS is some how struggling to pick it all up, causing the lag. I'm not sure though.

Thanks for reading

EDIT: Specifically, it is the sounds the train makes. Either the chugging of the wheels or the "steam". It seems like those are definitely the culprit.
EDIT 2: After playing the game further, it seems like the game's music causes the emulator to lag as well (It is amplified when recording. Plays around 88% no FRAPS, lower with FRAPS)

[Starscream]

The only thing the developers are concerned with is Dolphin, not fraps. If you wish to run other programs while Dolphin is running and things are slowing down, you need a better PC. You could try overclocking, that might put you where you need to be.

[Pink401k]

(11-27-2012, 03:14 PM)Starscream Wrote: The only thing the developers are concerned with is Dolphin, not fraps. If you wish to run other programs while Dolphin is running and things are slowing down, you need a better PC. You could try overclocking, that might put you where you need to be.

I can understand that. However, this seems to be more of a Dolphin problem. I can run Oblivion on max settings while FRAPS is running with absolutely no slowdown. For some reason, the audio in Animal crossing causes the emulator to lag, and the problem is just exacerbated when I start to record.

[Starscream]

PC games and emulated games are not comparable. Your CPU isn't that great to begin with running at 1.7GHz. It seems like you have enough "juice" to run the game alone at playable speeds. If you introduce another program that is also trying to grab CPU cycles while Dolphin is trying to run the game at speed, things are going to slowdown at times.

[Pink401k]

>< I see. Is there anything you can think of that might help me with this problem? As you can probably tell, I'm on a laptop, so I can't simply upgrade my hardware.

PS Thanks for the speedy replies!

[Shonumi]

You could try the last stable release, Dolphin 3.0 (your 3.0-862 is a GIT release, think bleeding edge/experimental) and use these speed settings. It may help you when recording, give it a shot.

[Pink401k]

I had tried stable, to no avail. I have tried a few different versions, in fact. The problem may be with my sound card. It's given me troubles in the past. Is there any way to lower the audio quality or anything of that nature? I have already changed the sampling rate. And, I have messed with the computer's audio settings as well, even switching the drivers around.

Thanks for the help guys

[Pink401k]

Is there a way to limit the game to 30 FPS without it slowing to 50% emulation?

[ExtremeDude2]

No .

[admin89]

To record a Wii/GC game at 60 FPS , your laptop must run the game at 70-80 FPS all the time
For most games , i3/i5/i7 @ 3.0GHz is recommended
There is only 1 way to get better speed : CPU overclocking
SetFSB is an overclocking software for laptop . It's not free , you have to pay 20$ to use it
However , laptop overclocking is not recommended