Frame Rate Animal Crossing

[lucifersghost]

First off, best emulator ever.

Now, I am playing Animal Crossing: City Folk, and I am having an issue where every 6 or 7 seconds my frame rate drops and the game runs at only 20 percent speed, then goes back up to normal, which for me has been around 84 percent while in the world, 100 percent while in a house. Also, while in a house, the framerate never drops!

I want to say that I am grateful that this game plays on my cheap 300 dollar laptop. I have in i3 processor with 8 GB of RAM, and an Intel integrated 3000 card. I am quite surprised ANYTHING runs! But if I get 84 percent most of the time, then why is my computer not able to keep it up? When I first started playing this game, the framerate never dropped below 70 percent, and if I restart my system I generally get 30 minutes out of the card before the framerate spikes occur again.

So, is there anything I can do? If not, thats ok I am grateful for what I have.
Any information is appreciated.

[Starscream]

A few things:

1) Unrelated to your issue, but you should be using the latest builds anyway. Your profile shows that you're using an old build that was likely downloaded from an unofficial Dolphin site. Instead, download the latest development version from the download button at the top of the forum. That is the official Dolphin site.

2) You say that you have an "i3" processor, but there are all kinds of i3s. Always be as specific as you can when talking about your PC hardware. Your hardware plays a huge role in the things that you do with your computer, so it is important to be able to tell people in detail exactly what kind of a PC you're using.

3) Your issue is a common one that many people come here with. Check your processor temperatures while Dolphin is running at the time that your speed drops off. The chances are extremely good that your processor is overheating during that time and slowing everything down to protect itself.

[lucifersghost]

I did as you said, downloaded the latest developer build, and it made things a lot worse, now the sound is not working correctly and the framerate is even worse, even when I am in DX9 mode and not DX11. My exact processor is i3-2370M @2.4 Ghz. Any idea what I should do next?

[Starscream]

Yes, do what I've listed as number 3 in the post above. Run Dolphin for 15 minutes (go back to the build you were using before if you like) and check your CPU temps with a program called "Real Temp" at the time that your speed drops.