Good specs, odd performance.

[ghostynoises]

Alright, here's my specs:

AMD Phenom II Black Edition unlocked to 3 cores, OC'd to 4GHz
ATI 6870 1 GB DDR5
4 GB Kingston HyperX 1600MHz DDR3
AsRock Extreme 970 MB -using the onboard Realtek HD sound
Windows 7 x64

Alright, so here's the deal, no matter what performance options I check or uncheck, games seem to only render at whatever fps they "feel like." For instance, Monster Hunter Tri, I crank the graphical options up to infinity (except I don't turn on AA since it unnecessarily slows the game down and it's almost useless at 1080p) and it runs at about 33 fps until there are several monsters in one area, then it slows down to about 27 fps and stutters. Now, here's the issue I am having, I turn down all the graphical options and it runs exactly the same. I would post my config, but I'm talking serious back and forth trial and error with all the performance options and nothing works. New Super Mario Brother Wii and Super Mario Kart are the same. In fact, the only thing that seems to be actually be affected by changing the performance options are Gamecube games.

[Starscream]

Makes sense. Turning up the graphics is fine since your video card is good, until you turn it up too much till it can't handle it anymore. Other than that, your CPU is too slow for some games and situations. Try these. http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/showthread.php?tid=23618

[ghostynoises]

The thing is I only need a few more frames in MH3 and maybe 10 more frames in NSMB and SMK. That's just for posterity too, all three games are actually playable, but the slight stuttering just grates on my nerves. I could maybe squeeze a few more Hz out of my OC, but what I'm asking is what clock should I be shooting for?

---

Oh, and actually I meant to respond to the thread you suggested. Literally none of those settings speed up my game more than possibly a frame or two. It runs at maxed settings at the same speed. So I can see that I must be CPU bound.

---

Okay, sooooo, here's something I just did that was odd. I changed the Framelimit option from off to Audio and it still dips in fps BUT it doesn't stutter anymore when it does. Interesting... Still will look into OC'ing further.

[Starscream]

You should be full speed with NSMBW already, try to get 200-300 more mhz out of that Phenom and see where you're at.

[NaturalViolence]

Quote:The thing is I only need a few more frames in MH3 and maybe 10 more frames in NSMB and SMK. That's just for posterity too, all three games are actually playable, but the slight stuttering just grates on my nerves. I could maybe squeeze a few more Hz out of my OC, but what I'm asking is what clock should I be shooting for?

At least 4.4GHz. But I'm not sure if that's possible/safe on air cooling with your cpu. You're pushing the limits of your cpu already.

[ghostynoises]

I can't get this sucker past 4GHz. I tried voltage adjustments, bus speed adjustments, multiplier adjustments. Anything over 4GHz and I can't boot. Oh well, no worries. Either I buy a new CPU (which won't happen until at least fall) or I wait for some ingenious code optimization in the Dolphin executable. S'okay though, like I said the games are playable, just kind of a framerate freak.

[AnyOldName3]

When you do get a new CPU, try an ivy/sandy bridge Intel one. You won't do that much better with a new AMD one (at least not enough to justify the cost of a new processor).

[ghostynoises]

Yeah, when I built this computer I spent about $500 dollars and thought I was just the brightest crayon in the box because AMD cpus could be overclocked from to hell and back and that would overcome the performance difference. I also thought ATI gpus, based on benchmarks that I poured over at tomshardware, would compete with Nvidia's on a price/performance ratio. I was dead wrong. I regret not saving an extra $200 dollars and buying an Intel cpu and an Nvidia card. So, next time, Intel cpu all the way. I'll wait longer to buy a new gpu cause mine actually works pretty dang well, too bad it took months for the drivers to catch up, but it will be an Nvidia when I do.

[Starscream]

You're really never going to need a better video card than what you already have for Dolphin.

[ghostynoises]

Yeah, no, the new gpu is just because I wanna play Skyrim at 1080p 60fps with ENB and 8x SSAA