Dolphin is Choppy

[Mastrel]

OS: Windows 8 x64
CPU: AMD A6-6310 APU
GPU: AMD Radeon R4 1.80 GHz
RAM: 8.0 GB

I downloaded Dolphin and tried to play a Gamecube game but the FPS was very low and the gameplay was so choppy that it was unplayable. I looked at the FAQ and saw that AMD cpus generally aren't that good for running Dolphin. I am fairly computer illiterate and was wondering if, looking at the specs of my laptop, the problem is the CPU. Also, if the problem is the CPU is there anything I can try that would make it playable aside from replacing my CPU?

Thanks.

[TehGuy]

I'm guessing it's the APU and, no, I don't think there's anything you can do other than replace it unless the thing can be OC'd (which I wouldn't recommend unless you had an aftermarket cooler on it)

[NKF98]

You could OC, but like TehGuy said that probably wouldn't be wise with just fans.

Alternatively, if you don't want to enter the DANGER ZONE of computerland, you could try using the Ishiiruka build from here

[Mastrel]

I downloaded the Ishiiruka build and it isn't choppy anymore but it is still running slow. I checked the percentage of my cpu being used and with the Ishiiruka build it stays around 30% with a peak around 50%. This doesn't seem like high cpu usage to me, especially if I don't have anything running in the background. Is this a high cpu usage?

[darkberry]

dolphin uses 2 cores for the game itself, you have a quad core you won't see 100% usage while playing on dolphin.

[NKF98]

Yeah Dolphin only utilizes two cores so you won't see anything past 50%. You can try to mess with the settings to get max speed, but other than that the only solution would be to upgrade parts (namely that AMD CPU and mobo)

[Mastrel]

Are there any optimal settings to max speed? If not what are some basic settings I could try and change to increase the speed?

[NKF98]

https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=Performance_Guide

[kirbypuff]

(04-06-2015, 03:44 AM)NKF98 Wrote: https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=Performance_Guide

That guide is outdated:

Quote:EFB Copies: You can check "Enable cache" when using EFB to RAM to gain a small speedup.

Quote:Disabling EFB Copies entirely can provide a radical speedup.

Quote:OpenMP - Uses multiple CPU cores for texture decoding. Helps with microstuttering and provides a slight speed up.

Quote:DSPLLE on Separate Thread - For systems with three or more CPU cores, this option can give a nice performance boost

Those settings are deprecated / not available in the latest develpment builds.

This guide is more up to date and full of awesome tips, tricks and tweaks:
https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-unofficial-amd-ati-gpu-performance-guide-feat-dolphin
(see the "Dolphin Settings" section)

[NKF98]

(04-06-2015, 07:15 AM)kirbypuff Wrote: That guide is outdated:

Thank you, will take note of that for future reference.