[GC] 20 FPS but good specs? Help?

[isabelwhatx]

Okay, so I downloaded Dolphin recently, getting into a real nostalgic kick. However, when I run games (specifically Super Mario Sunshine) I get terrible frame rates. 20 FPS and 54% speed, easily. During cut scenes it's at 100%, but not during regular gameplay. It can be incredibly frustrating and I don't understand.

I have an i5 2430M dual core, dedicated GeForce GT 520M, and 6 GB of RAM (link to specs of my computer: http://www.dazzit.com/item/en/CA/Notebooks/Gateway-LX-Y0802-001/#bpis). Am I missing something? Is the game just too powerful to run on my computer? I used to run PS games on my desktop easily, but I understand those are far less powerful.

Any help would be appreciated, and I will provide anything and everything I can. Would provide more info currently, but my laptop is not accessible. Not sure which Dolphin I have, but I just downloaded a little under a week ago.

Thanks!

EDIT: BTW, I understand Super Mario Sunshine runs at a lower framerate. However, it is visibly slow when multiple characters come onto screen, taking turns into new areas, etc. I also did EFB -> RAM already. I know that slows it down a *lot*, but you can't see certain key graphics (ie the slime) otherwise. Also, have tried to turn it off and I still get slowing problems.

[DefenderX]

Some hints:

1st - Try the official Dolphin 3.0 release
2nd - Try the settings for best speed -> http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/showthread.php?tid=23618
3rd - If you still want more speed, you could try ICC optimized Dolphin Builds

btw: Your CPU is pretty decent. Most games should be playable

[admin89]

On my laptop , Super Mario Sunshine run full speed all the time (EFB copy to Ram) at 1600x1000 (2.5x IR)
Download Realtemp to check you CPU clock speed

[isabelwhatx]

@ Defenderx: I'm pretty sure (95%) I have post 3.0, because I remember picking the most recent. I've also done all those settings for best speed in my desperate search (lol fml) to play this game, and it hardly helped.

EDIT: Oh! Hm. After looking around a bit, it seems that 3.0 is better than anything post 3.0. Misunderstood what you meant Will try and download that and test it out.

I know my fair share about computers. I've never dabbled in graphics, though. As far as I can tell, my computer *should* be able to run this no problem. But it's been having a lot of difficulty. Have had to shut down all programs, set Dolphin to high priority, and even then it's just half performance. IDK. Will run through optimal speed settings again when I get home, I guess...

Thanks! That made me smile lol. It was a battle for it, honestly. Got it for a steal-- $499. Got a good deal on a Gateway notebook (slightly less impressive-- previous generation i5, 4 GB RAM, 640 GB HD) and the hard drive arrived corrupt so I kicked and screamed enough to get a brand new, upgraded computer. Drawback is that it was never mass released to consumers, so there's no real information on it. That page is all I know about my computer. But it got nice upgrades for an awesome deal. Yippee!

----------------

@admin89: It runs at 2.4 GHz. I just checked yesterday on some overclocking program, because I was contemplating overclocking to 2.8 GHz to see if that would help. But will download once I'm off of work and double check anyway. Gotta love paid internships.

[admin89]

2.4GHz when dolphin is running ?
CPU temp when dolphin is running ?
The i5 has auto-overclock feature called "Turbo Boost" . i5 2430M turbo boost :
_ 1 core : 3.0GHz
_ 2 cores : 2.7GHz
Turbo Boost will work if your laptop CPU does not overheat . Dolphin use 2 cores , it should go up to 2.7GHz itself unless your CPU is overheating

[isabelwhatx]

I never checked while Dolphin was running. Good point. Whenever Dolphin runs, I shut down everything to make it faster, so I would shut down the program that records my clock speed. At 2.4GHz when Dolphin is not running, it's at 40 C. But I will definitely check while Dolphin is running when I get back to my apartment. Thanks!

But, if it makes a difference, my laptop has never really felt hot while running Dolphin, nor has the fan ever gone into overdrive. I have felt my computer getting hot and the fan freaking out (when I overclocked it temporarily), and I never get that during Dolphin. Maybe that means it's not switching to 2.7 GHz, or it is and it's just functioning properly. IDK. But will still check

[admin89]

Make sure you test you laptop more than 10min, and make sure dolphin is using Nvidia GT 520M instead of Intel HD 3000. Most multi-media laptop tend to run hot with dolphin , i'm not really surprised with that

[ShadowFlash]

Maybe it's settings ? like wrong frame limit or single core or something else ? My friend asked me why he can only get 10 fps in all games, and it was because he used "audio" framelimit setting, then used older build and it set framelimit to 10

[DefenderX]

Yep, this could be a reason.

@OP: Pls post your Dolphin settings.

[delroth]

This really looks like an Optimus configuration problem. As said above, confirm that your Nvidia GPU is being used by Dolphin. If you right click the Dolphin executable you should have an option to run it on the Nvidia GPU.