So I've been running Dolphin and having some unusual performance issues. Initially I thought my GPU (Radeon HD 5770) might not be up to snuff (as it has been a bottleneck in my system before, but I don't particularly want to replace it) but as I continued testing I'm starting to doubt it because of the unusual patterns I noticed in my performance. Not only that, but the rest of my computer components are all relatively new (Core i7 at 3.4 GHz, 8 GB of memory)
The performance itself isn't related to anything I'm actually doing in the games. I've tried it on 4 or 5 separate Wii games, and each one has the same reaction. Initially the game runs at 100% speed pretty much without fail, but after 15-20 seconds (again, irregardless of what is actually happening in the game) my speed seems to drop by about 25%. At first I figured it was an issue with hardware, as I said, but as I continued testing I noticed an odd phenomenon. I play with a controller (a PS3 controller, but whose judging right?) and I noticed that any movement on my mouse IMMEDIATELY increases my frame-rate back to 100% and, as far as I can tell, besides the cache getting cleared that is the only thing (inside the game) that I can do to fix my performance. I know that is kind of a confusing description, but the basic experiment I did to figure this out runs like this.
1. When I'm playing a game (in this case, Super Mario Galaxy 2) it runs totally flawlessly, basically at 100% all the time with occasional dips below into the 90s.
2. After 15-20 seconds my framerate drops from 60 to 45-46 (again, it's always these values, regardless of what is happening in the game, or what game I'm playing).
3. My frame-rate stays locked at 45-46 (unless I enter a cut-scene) no matter whether I'm running around bopping Goombas, or Mario is asleep in the grass. It absolutely, positively, under no circumstances, goes over these values (occasionally, though not often, it will dip below).
4. If I move my mouse at all (which I don't actually use for any of the controls in the game) The framerate IMMEDIATELY goes back to 60 (totally regardless of whats going on) for about 15-20 seconds, then it drops back to 45-46 until I nudge my mouse ever so slightly again.
Now, I could presumably just start using a mouse and keyboard to play the game, which might alleviate the problem, but I much prefer to play with a controller, and I'm wondering what exactly is going on with this. I've tried to find SOME kind of options that would be related to all of this (because as far as I can tell my performance is, otherwise, fine) but I'm coming up blank, so I thought maybe you guys might have some suggestions.
The performance itself isn't related to anything I'm actually doing in the games. I've tried it on 4 or 5 separate Wii games, and each one has the same reaction. Initially the game runs at 100% speed pretty much without fail, but after 15-20 seconds (again, irregardless of what is actually happening in the game) my speed seems to drop by about 25%. At first I figured it was an issue with hardware, as I said, but as I continued testing I noticed an odd phenomenon. I play with a controller (a PS3 controller, but whose judging right?) and I noticed that any movement on my mouse IMMEDIATELY increases my frame-rate back to 100% and, as far as I can tell, besides the cache getting cleared that is the only thing (inside the game) that I can do to fix my performance. I know that is kind of a confusing description, but the basic experiment I did to figure this out runs like this.
1. When I'm playing a game (in this case, Super Mario Galaxy 2) it runs totally flawlessly, basically at 100% all the time with occasional dips below into the 90s.
2. After 15-20 seconds my framerate drops from 60 to 45-46 (again, it's always these values, regardless of what is happening in the game, or what game I'm playing).
3. My frame-rate stays locked at 45-46 (unless I enter a cut-scene) no matter whether I'm running around bopping Goombas, or Mario is asleep in the grass. It absolutely, positively, under no circumstances, goes over these values (occasionally, though not often, it will dip below).
4. If I move my mouse at all (which I don't actually use for any of the controls in the game) The framerate IMMEDIATELY goes back to 60 (totally regardless of whats going on) for about 15-20 seconds, then it drops back to 45-46 until I nudge my mouse ever so slightly again.
Now, I could presumably just start using a mouse and keyboard to play the game, which might alleviate the problem, but I much prefer to play with a controller, and I'm wondering what exactly is going on with this. I've tried to find SOME kind of options that would be related to all of this (because as far as I can tell my performance is, otherwise, fine) but I'm coming up blank, so I thought maybe you guys might have some suggestions.