IR, AA questions

[Arai]

First of all here are my laptop specs:

Alienware M17xR4
Intel i7-3720QM (2.6Ghz - 3.6Ghz) ---> OC'd to 4Ghz, 3.9Ghz, 3.8Ghz, 3.8Ghz
ATi Radeon 7970M ---> OC'd 950Mhz core, 1600Mhz memory
Samsung 8GB RAM 2x4GB @ 1600Mhz
Standard Seagate 7200RPM HDD (still haven't gotten to a SSD yet)
Windows 7 Home Premium x64
Standard 1080p screen

Dolphin build: 3.0-828 x64

For normal gaming the laptop is a beast but I can't get over something.
Running simple games such as DKCR, Muramasa or Klonoa on Dolphin there's some FPS issues.
Particularly with Klonoa the first stage where you enter the house/mill and talk to the other cat my FPS drops to around 20.
I currently have internal resolution set at 3x (1920x1584) and AA (4 Samples, QL 16).
I suppose this is a CPU issue as it's too weak to handle all the processing.

Though what would be or is the normal settings you guys use for AA (including samples and QL)?
If I'm missing or overlooking something feel free to point it out.

[ExtremeDude2]

I'd say the GPU is "too weak" since the 7xxx GPU's don't like dolphin :p, increasing your IR actually may help, other wise try decreasing your AA

[Arai]

So another option would be to use FXAA injection then, though in all fairness is there much difference (visibly) between 4x/8x?
Wouldn't 2x be just as good (it's near 4AM here so I might not be making much sense), usually if it works as I think it does.
Then usually people use MSAA 2x (example) for their PC gaming, unless that and this aren't the same.

[admin89]

http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-rad...11-backend
Some GPU don't have this issue . If you had this issue , you would have to stick with Directx 9 or OpenGL backend

Standard 1080p screen

Use 4xIR , no SSAA (directx9) or 2x MSAA (directx11) ,16x AF
You have 7970M mobile GPU not 7970 desktop GPU . Even the fastest GPU on earth can't max out Dolphin , you shouldn't use SSAA because it's very demanding , MSAA is the way to go . FXAA is excellent , it should not kill performance that much

Muramasa or Klonoa

These games are very "light" . Your CPU should run them at full speed without any slowdown
DKCR need LLE backend . I can't say for sure but your CPU should run it well or maybe full speed

[NaturalViolence]

Create an application profile for dolphin.exe in the catalyst control center and set the power profile to high performance (or whatever AMD has decided to call it now).

[Arai]

Create an application profile for dolphin.exe in the catalyst control center and set the power profile to high performance (or whatever AMD has decided to call it now).

This won't matter much as my laptop runs on High Performance on everything (had to due to Enduro triggering).
Unclocked the GPU has 158+ GB/s of bandwidth, overclocked it's well over 206 GB/s.
Donkey Kong Country Returns runs at full speed even at 4 samples QL 16, there is an occasional drop in FPS when loading though.
But not nearly as bad as Klonoa, it's like the emulator is about to freeze on that particular scene.

Running Dolphin at 3x IR, AA 2x QL 4, Catalyst is set to default settings (except PowerPlay) so it's running on MSAA 2x.
Catalyst 12.11 BETA 6 DotNET drivers (best ones so far), thanks for the 7xxx back-end link it's a good read.
Will I notice any difference in the games if I use DX9 or DX11 if so could someone give an example?

[NaturalViolence]

Have you confirmed that the gpu is not running at idle clock rates?

Will I notice any difference in the games if I use DX9 or DX11 if so could someone give an example?

Yes. D3d11 is usually slower. Especially on AMD 6000/7000 series GPUs.