Having odd issues with Dolphin

[SpartanG01]

Currently I'm running the build from the main website x64 r3286 I was wondering if this is the latest/best/most stable build available because I read in a couple places that the website doesn't always have the most updated downloads for Dolphin?

Also I am having all kinds of trouble running Super Smash Bro. Melee for the Gamecube and Zelda Twilight Princess for the Gamecube. I get frame rates around 20 in SSBM and around 7 in Zelda... which coincedentally actually doesn't even run propperly like it did before I mucked around with the settings according to the post here about it. Now the graphics are all screwy and off texture, or black. There is also a black square taking up the top left 1/4 of the screen.

I've updated Directx using the official Windows link I found in the stickys on this forum and also updated the C++ using the link I found in the posts on this forum. I've read all the main posts for the games I'm trying to run and I've combed over most of the help posts trying to find a solution to all this. I'm fairly certain my computer has the specs needed but just incase..

2.1GB AMD Turion x2 Dual-Core Mobile RM-72
4GB DDR2
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
ATI Radeon HD 3200 (Using the 8.563.0.0 driver)

I run Oblivion, Fallout 3, X-men The Official Game, Portal, World of Warcraft, and Mirrors Edge just fine normally mostly on super low settings but still...

So I'm thinking either it's the release that just isn't stable with the games I'm running though I hear SSBM is the best emulated game thus far... or there is a problem I'm unaware of. Any help at all would be greatly apriciated... I'm thinking possibly I don't have the latest graphics drivers or there is some OS optimization I could do that would improve the performance. Really with the specs this laptop has even being an integrated GPU it should still run the games I play better than it does, and certainly should run this I would think. The laptop is brand new before anyone goes assuming I have viruses too lol. The only software I have on it is the stock software (most of which I've removed) and the games I've played. All of the games are official installs no pirate software and all of the files I download are virus checked. Any insight at all would be more than welcome

[newneo85]

Why don't try the 32bit of Dolphin, i've read in several post that 64bit may have trouble running some games

[SpartanG01]

Why don't try the 32bit of Dolphin, i've read in several post that 64bit may have trouble running some games

Lol it's funny you suggest that because I was actually downloading the 32bit version as I was typing that post. I thought perhaps the 32bit version was the original and the 64bit had just been ported as with most 32&64bit free/shareware projects and sometimes the ports can have issues so I tried it and I found actually they run about the same... Zelda started working again though so I re-extracted the original 64bit files from the 64bit release and tweaked only 2 settings and it ran fine so that problem was just in a setting I had changed but the rest still persist.

Edit...
I just checked the ATI website and my graphics driver is outdated technically but I am using the driver Windows recommends for compatibility... so I'm not sure if I should upgrade or not?

[abfab126]

Try official 9.5 catalyst from ATI

[newneo85]

I just checked the ATI website and my graphics driver is outdated technically but I am using the driver Windows recommends for compatibility... so I'm not sure if I should upgrade or not?

Sorry for my bad suggestion...as I know the video-card don't have a lot of influence on the Dolphin's fps(of course...the card must be reasonabily recent)...so if you don't have problems with the video driver you're currently using just don't upgrade or simply do a backup of the driver, update and see what happen next, if you see your pc run best keep the driver updated, if you experience problems\slowdown restore the backup...I suggest to give update a try...

[SpartanG01]

Sorry for my bad suggestion...as I know the video-card don't have a lot of influence on the Dolphin's fps(of course...the card must be reasonabily recent)...so if you don't have problems with the video driver you're currently using just don't upgrade or simply do a backup of the driver, update and see what happen next, if you see your pc run best keep the driver updated, if you experience problems\slowdown restore the backup...I suggest to give update a try...

No, no don't be it was a good suggestion obviously lol considering it was the first thing I thought of... I need to install the Catalyst software anyway so as soon as I'm done doing my daily WoW quests I'm going to install the Catalyst software and update the driver and see what happens.

[Blake81]

That's something that I've always wanted to know...What's the difference between 32bit and 64bit Dolphin and which one is better?

[Glurion]

That's something that I've always wanted to know...What's the difference between 32bit and 64bit Dolphin and which one is better?

32bit JIT core and 64bit JIT core are in essence the same except x64 uses 64bit strings of binary rather than 32bit, which basically doubles the amount of data transferred at the same time, or at least i think that's the difference, feel free to correct if i'm wrong

[Xtreme2damax]

64-bit is the fastest in most cases, but not by much over the 32-bit and 32-bit JITIL builds. Whoever said that the 64-bit build has trouble running games over the 32-bit build, lets just say I usually run nothing but the 64-bit build of Dolphin and have no issues over the 32-bit build of Dolphin.

For the most part the issues that exist on the 64-bit build also exist on the 32-bit build and vice-versa.

Also do not upgrade to catalyst 9.5, I've been hearing it has severe memory leaks with Dolphin, and causes Dolphin to crash after 10 - 20 minutes of playing.

[SpartanG01]

64-bit is the fastest in most cases, but not by much over the 32-bit and 32-bit JITIL builds. Whoever said that the 64-bit build has trouble running games over the 32-bit build, lets just say I usually run nothing but the 64-bit build of Dolphin and have no issues over the 32-bit build of Dolphin.

For the most part the issues that exist on the 64-bit build also exist on the 32-bit build and vice-versa.

Also do not upgrade to catalyst 9.5, I've been hearing it has severe memory leaks with Dolphin, and causes Dolphin to crash after 10 - 20 minutes of playing.

That whole understanding of 64bit vs 32bit is actually a myth. The only true difference is the level of bit width of the processor registers. 64 bits per integer vs 32 bits. There really isn't a speed difference by design. The only difference is how the operating system reserves address space for it self. Since each integer at each address in a 32bit system is only 32 bits wide effectively the operating system has to store it self in the virtual memory across twice as much space where as you don't see this problem in 64 bit architectures, this doesn't always mean a speed increase through ram though. Having more ram available at any given time any makes a difference if your computer is using it. Usually it's said that a true difference in processing speeds is only seen if you have more than 4GB of ram on board.. this is and isn't true sometimes really it depends on the processor and a host of other things but 64 bit vs 32 bit doesn't always mean higher speeds especially if you dealing with rather mundane processes.

That being said I can personally attest to the problem Catalyst 9.5 has with Dolphin. Don't download it lol.