CPU for Metroid Other M

[Rukumouru]

Hello guys. This is my first message on these forums!

Right now I am running Metroid: Other M at 60 FPS with drops to 40 fps during fights.

I would like to know: What CPU would be recommended to run the game at a constant 60?

Right now I am using an AMD Phenom 2 x6 1090t, but using only 4 cores (disabled through BIOS) to achieve an overclock of 3.9GHz on lower volts (I don't like high voltage or temperatures. Not like extra cores matters to Dolphin anyway.)

I appear to have reached this CPU's clock ceiling at 3.9GHz (unfortunate, but it doesn't seem to be related to temperatures as per rigurous testing). So it's either a new CPU or make-do with what I have.

For the sake of discussion, let's say I'd be willing to buy a new motherboard and change platforms to Intel if strictly necessary. What speed-ups can I expect?

CPU: AMD Phenom II x6 1090t OC@ 3.9GHz
GPU: ASUS EAH6970 DirectCU2 OC@ 920MHz (core) // 1500MHz (mem)
RAM: 2x4GB Kingston HyperX Genesis DDR3 1600MHz cl9

Dolphin revision: 3.0 Release (doesn't seem to run any faster in other revisions, especially audio is very choppy on 3.5-1311)

Dolphin settings:
DirectX9 Renderer (DX11 makes it the same or slower)
Auto framerate cap
1920x1080 + 4xSSAA (removing this makes no difference in FPS)
Scaled EFB Copy
Skip EFB Access
EFB to Texture
Disable XFB
Cache Display Lists
Hacked Buffer Upload
OMP Texture Decoder
VBeam Speed Hack (accurate vs fast doesn't seem to make a difference in this game)
Speedup Disc Transfer
DSP HLE Audio
XAudio2 backend
48KHz sample rate

Thanks in advance for any help!
(Running Windows 8 x64, very recent format so system is 100% clean, no extra background processes)

[admin89]

Err , Metroid Other M should run full speed with your CPU

Auto framerate cap

Framelimit = Auto is not recommended , it always cause slowdown
You should set Framelimit :
_NTSC : either 30 or 60 FPS is max
_PAL ("Pal60 option" is disabled) : either 25 or 50 FPS is max
In this case , you should choose either 50 or 60 because MTOM is a 50/60FPS game
Also make sure to tick "Limit by FPS" , untick both "audio throttle" and "Vsync"

Btw , if you want new CPU for Dolphin , you may need to check Dolphin benchmark
i5 3570k @ 4.5GHz (overclocked) + Z77 mobo are the best combo atm until Haswell arrive (June 2013 , i5 4670k + Z87 mobo)
http://wccftech.com/intel-core-i7-4770k-...e-spotted/

[storm20200]

Yeah admin89 has good advice though I will add that it might be worth holding off for Intel's Haswell, I think the 2nd of June launch date has pretty much been confirmed and they should be at least 10-15% faster than Ivy Bridge so it might be worth waiting a month.

[Rukumouru]

I am unable to play both Super Maro Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M at 50 fps.


Both games are PAL versions, and the "Use Pal60" option is disabled in the Wii tab. However, both games will still run at 60 fps and they will EXPECT 60 fps for 100% full speed emulation. If I manually cap them to 50 by FPS, I'll be playing with a slight slo-mo when compared to the normal gameplay of the games.

Using Dolphin Release 3.5 didn't help the problem.

SMG2 did detect that I was using Pal50Hz option (as it gave me a small notice when starting the game), but still wants 60FPS.
M:OM didn't even give me a message or anything.

Do you guys know why this is and how I can solve it?

I did try setting my display's refresh rate to 50Hz and it didn't help.

Also, do you guys know how much speed-up in percentage I should expect from one of those Intel CPUs when compared to mine?

[admin89]

Base on Dolphin benchmark , Phenom II x6 1100t @ 4.0GHz = the latest FX 8350 @ 4.0 (not OC)
i5 2500k @ 3.3GHz (not OC) kick both of 'em
Either i5 2500k @ 4.5GHz (OCed) or i5 3570k @ 4.2GHz (OCed) is the requirement to run SMG full speed with LLE back end all the time . While you can safely push i5 2500k @ 4.8GHz or i5 3570k @ 4.5GHz , you can't push FX 8350 any higher than 5.0GHz without preparing LN2 cooling (suicide OC) but it's still not as fast as i5 3570k @ 4.2GHz
An AMD FX PileDriver upgrade can only give you better multi-threaded performance which is useless for Dolphin .

do you guys know how much speed-up in percentage I should expect from one of those Intel CPUs when compared to mine?

So much that you will thank me later
If you compare clock for clock , i5 2500k @ 3.3 is 36.36% faster than AMD FX 8350 @ 3.3GHz in Dolphin (100% base on benchmark result) . At this point , i5 2500k @ 3.3 is as fast as FX 8350 @ 4.5GHz or Phenom II x6 1090t @ 4.5GHz (not possible lol)

[Rukumouru]

I'll go Intel with my next build then. In a year or so I'll be able to play everything in Dolphin at full speed!

For now however I'm stuck with this.

- Framerate Cap to 60 + Limit by FPS didn't help much
- Still can't run either SMG2 or M:OM in 50Hz mode for some reason (they expect 60 FPS for 100% and slow down at anything below)
- Metroid Prime Trilogy works correctly in 50Hz mode
- All games are EUR/PAL versions.


Any more suggestions?

[admin89]

Some games run faster on old Dolphin version , some games run slower ...
Try old Dolphin version r6505 . I got almost the same result as yours with a weaker CPU : E5300 @ 3.6GHz

[Rukumouru]

Some games run faster on old Dolphin version , some games run slower ...
Try old Dolphin version r6505 . I got almost the same result as yours with a weaker CPU : E5300 @ 3.6GHz

I'll try that. Any clue as to why i can't get 50Hz Pal mode to work in M:OM or SMG2?


EDIT: I just tried the r6505 revision and it works significantly worse than in Dolphin 3.0 release.

Any more things I can do to fix the 50hz issue or speed up the game?

[Rukumouru]

I made a few new tests:

There's a narea filled with water with some sort of ice dragon coming out of the ceiling. Upon shooting at its shield, framerate drops from high 50's to 40-41. I've been using this as a benchmark.

CPU with 4 cores, 3.9 GHz = 40-41 fps
CPU with 3 cores, 3.9 GHz = 40-41 fps
CPU with 3 cores, 4.2 GHz = 40-41 fps
CPU with 6 cores, 3.6 GHz = 39-41 fps

FPS in Dolphin 3.0 and Dolphin 3.5 was identical. Also tried latest revision (3.5-1321 at the time of testing) and not only was audio unbearably choppy with the same settings, FPS was also a dismal 33-34 in the same testing scenario.

So, a jump from 3.6GHz to 4.2GHz gave me pretty much no performance increase. Dropping all GPU-related settings (resolution down to Native, no antialiasing, etc) doesn't change FPS one iota so I'm not GPU-bound either.

Any idea what else I can do to speed up Metroid: Other M?

[admin89]

a jump from 3.6GHz to 4.2GHz gave me pretty much no performance increase

You must leave 4 cores active . Although Dolphin is a dual core application , you still gain 10->20% speedup from background processing
For Example : Phenom II x4 3.0GHz is almost as fast as Phenom II x2 3.4GHz in Dolphin
Another example : StarCraft 2 is the almost the same as Dolphin which is a dual core app
i7 Dual Core vs i7 Quad Core in SCII
Please note that the i7 Dual Core has higher CPU clock speed but it still lose to i7 Quad Core in Dual Core application