FPS Issues with Super Mario Galaxy on 4.7 GHz

[Amon1995]

Hey guys, I've been having a few problems with Super Mario Galaxy, its usually playing at 60fps but sometimes the frame rate just drops randomly. I've got it on 4x internal resolution, even if I change it to 1x I still get the same problem :/

My specs are:
Intel i5-4690k overclocked to 4.7 GHz
Sapphire Radeon R7 265
8 GB RAM

I'm using the latest development version of Dolphin.

[mimimi]

I'm not sure if that GPU is powerful enough for 4xIR on Mario Galaxy, it's a pretty GPU demanding game.

Also, try running the game in opengl, it does use cpu efb access, which works much better in opengl than it does in directx.

[DJBarry004]

If the drops are random and speed goes back up quickly, then it´s because of something called Shader Cache. Dolphin generates it so the game won´t stutter again when replaying an area (or visual effect) of any game.

[Amon1995]

The FPS drops usually happen when something flashy happens on the screen (like pressing A and B on the title screen, collecting star bits, using the launch stars, etc...)

I've tried OpenGL and it's pretty much the same, it actually works better on the Direct3D backend, but I'm still getting the frame rate drops.

And I'm not sure if it's shader cache, because it usually happens again and again, but is there any way I can improve this? I've seen videos on YouTube and the game seems to be running flawlessly for a lot of people. I'm hoping it's not my GPU being too weak .

[yl-smash]

The FPS drops usually happen when something flashy happens on the screen (like pressing A and B on the title screen, collecting star bits, using the launch stars, etc...)

I've tried OpenGL and it's pretty much the same, it actually works better on the Direct3D backend, but I'm still getting the frame rate drops.

And I'm not sure if it's shader cache, because it usually happens again and again, but is there any way I can improve this? I've seen videos on YouTube and the game seems to be running flawlessly for a lot of people. I'm hoping it's not my GPU being too weak .

Your profile says you're using Dolphin 4.02.  Go ahead and download the latest developer version (4.0-6444 at the time of writing) because they are very much improved from the old 4.02.  Also, 99% sure your cpu is not the bottleneck.  If anything it's your GPU since SMG is pretty GPU demanding.  You may want to tone down on the IR.

[Amon1995]

Sorry I forgot to update my profile, but I'm definitely using the latest development version.

And yeah but the weird thing is, I still get the same problem even on the lower internal resolutions :/

[Amon1995]

Oh nevermind guys, I finally sorted it out, well basically I thought I'd try OpenGL again and for some reason it suddenly started working 100% fine, even at 4x IR. It starts lagging if I use Anti-Aliasing though, but I don't really need that.

Thanks for your help.

[Amon1995]

Sometimes I get slight stuttering during gameplay, or sometimes sound crackling, could this be caused by having a old HDD? I'm thinking of upgrading to SSD but will that help Dolphin run slightly smoother?

[DJBarry004]

The only thing a SSD would improve in Dolphin is the speed at which games and all data are loaded, while running.

[JosJuice]

The only thing a SSD would improve in Dolphin is the speed at which games and all data are loaded, while running.

And even for that, the speed improvements will be very tiny. Basically, Dolphin runs games from an HDD just as well as from an SSD.