Games stuttering & slowdown

[YxSilentxY]

So my friend and I play Mario Kart Double Dash successfully sometimes, but most of the time the game stutters briefly every second or so for less than a second, and it's quite unbearable. Sometimes it stutters, and sometimes it doesn't. When the game doesn't stutter, we can run 1 vs 1 with about 70-90% speed with a buffer of 10, and it drops to around 40-60% when we do Grand prix, which is against more CPU players. I'm just wondering why the game stutters sometimes, and runs perfectly other times. And, if there are any ways to improve performance during 2 player and [hopefully] 3/4 player games. I've been reading around the internet for guides so I believe we all have optimal settings for Dolphin.

All friend's specs are, respectively:
Intel Core i7 3770k/AMD Phenom X4 3.0GHZ
GTX 670/550Ti
8 GB DDR3/ 4 GB DDR3

Thank you very much for your time and help.

[admin89]

I point out the bottleneck

Quote:AMD Phenom X4 3.0GHZ

[YxSilentxY]

But that isn't the problem with the stutter right? I play with him when the game doesn't stutter. The stutter is more annoying than the slowdown. Also, would selecting enable dual core remedy the situation or do the recent revisions of dolphin still advise that to be turned off?

[admin89]

If you use latest Dolphin , you will have to run game full speed all the time otherwise you will have audio stutter (due to the new HLE)
2 setups (PC) must not bottleneck each other . Phenom II x4 is old and slow for Dolphin atm
My advice : Overclock that Phenom to 3.8GHz or higher

[YxSilentxY]

Sometimes, the games stutter even with friends who have more powerful pcs. What is the root of the stutter problem do you think? And thanks for your help.

[admin89]

Quote: more powerful pc

Detail ?
Don't tell me i7 930 with super low CPU frequency

[YxSilentxY]

i7 3610 at 3.3 ghz. I already understand that the CPU is bottlenecking the speed at which the games run in. I'm just wondering why the games stutter. Everything chops for 0.1-0.5 seconds every 2 seconds or so. Sometimes it doesn't stutter, sometimes it does.

[admin89]

3.3GHz is single core turbo for i7 3610QM
When Dolphin is running , your CPU stay at 3.1-3.2GHz
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i7/Intel-Core%20i7-3610QM%20Mobile%20processor.html
Netplay and multiplayer is very demanding ...
Edit : never mind , netplay = disable dual core . So that single core turbo make sense

[YxSilentxY]

I'm still having trouble understanding why it happens sometimes and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it works fine in the morning and worse at night and vice versa