Dolphin runs perfectly...sometimes

[sheldon]

Hi!

I have a rather strange problem running the dolphin emulator.

I start up my computer and run dolphint and it runs rather slow.
Twilight princess runs at about 70% speed
Super mario galaxy at about 50% of normal

In this instance almost nothing i change in the settings makes any difference. Still running slow
Cpu load is about 40% and Graphics card at about 50% but no overheating issues according to monitoring software.

I now go ahead and reboot my computer and start dolphin up again. In about a third of these instances the emulator now runs perfectly with no slowdowns at all! Graphics card load now at about 50% and cpu load about the same. I can play both games for hours  with no issues at all.

If a certain bootup leads to a playable session or a slow session seems toatally random. I have not seen any common element that could be causing this. I change no settings between the reboots. If i send my computer down in hibernation mode and start it back up this can also seemingly random lead to a playable or a slow session.

I have disabled all programs running at startup, upgraded graphics and sound drivers. Enabled and disabled viritual memory. Rebooted the computer for 20 times in a row with about a third of the reboots leads to a playable session with no chages in dolphin settings. Fiddled around with dolphin settings for hours to no end. Have also tried several dolphin versions. Same result

Has anyone an idea what could be causing this?

Thanks in advance!

[envisaged0ne]

Try changing your computers Power Options to High Performance. Go into your NVidia Control panel 3D settings, and change Power management to Prefer High Performance

[sheldon]

Thanks for the suggestion but unfortunately, it does not solve the problem :/

[JMC47]

It really sounds like the power options are the problem.

[sheldon]

It makes no difference what i set the power option to. And frankly i don't see how this would cause the randomness i´m experiencing. The power options wouldn´t change by themselves between reboots, would they?

Right now i have the power option set to high performance and dolphin is running really slow.
Rebooted -> still slow -> rebooted again -> Runs perfectly.  Incredibly annoying.

Do you have any other ideas?

[envisaged0ne]

Actually, what you're experiencing is EXACTLY what happens when your computer and GPU aren't set to high performance. What you're explaining is exactly what we see all the time. And it's exactly what happened to me before I set my computer & NVidia 3D settings. So, sorry it doesn't make sense to you. But I wish you luck in figuring it out for yourself

[sheldon]

I was not in any way trying to imply that your suggestion was a bad one. But since i have tried to set the options to high performance and it didnt solve the problem i would be most happy if you or anyone else had another theory that could be causing this.

[Franpa]

1) Go to Control Panel > Power Options > Find and select "High Performance". Some pre-built computers that come with Windows pre-installed may include some custom power profiles, ignore them. This should prevent the CPU from underclocking during light work loads.

Power Saving functionality for the CPU and video card can be engaged intermittently while using software that switches between light and heavy work loads, these components (CPU & Video Card) will exhibit a extremely minor stall when their performance is changed due to Power Saving engaging/disengaging and can have disastrous results on timing sensitive operations and other things (most software won't show ill effects when Power Saving engages/disengages because they don't cause the components to frequently engage/disengage Power Saving mode).

2) For Nvidia video cards & Windows Vista or newer Microsoft operating systems, changing the Power Saving mode in Nvidia Control Panel's global profile does not disable the power saving functionality. This is because there are Application Specific Profiles for various Windows processes that will initialize when Windows boots up and these processes remain present the entire time you're using Windows (so these Application Specific Profiles remain in effect the entire time). These profiles take precedent over the Global Profile and are pre-configured to utilize power saving mode. Here is a very simple video tutorial I created that explains how to actually disable the power saving functionality for Nvidia video cards and to restore the original operation of the Global Profile's power saving option: https://youtu.be/EwXDcKiLSdg

You can confirm it works by using GPU-Z to monitor the GPU & VRAM clock speeds and the mode the PCI-E slot is operating in (PCI-E 1.1, PCI-E 2.0 or PCI-E 3.0 mode). These should not decrease while the computer is idle/while only GPU-Z is active.

Nvidia implemented the application specific profiles for Windows components at some point when v2xx.xx drivers were around. That's when I developed my solution and, after a really long period of time, decided to make an easy tutorial for others to follow. This change will have the obvious effect of significantly increasing energy consumption and slightly increased heat output of the video card while idle. It does not disable any safety protocols.