Low CPU/GPU Usage, Bad Performance

[lessthan3]

Hello all,

I recently started delving into the emulator scene, but any game I attempt to play is running at at best 30% speed and 30 FPS. It's agonizing to get past a title screen because it's running extremely slowly. I'm on a Dell XPS 9550, which made me think that my laptop just wasn't beefy enough, but both my CPU and GPU utilization rates were at less than 10%. I've searched every FAQ and forum that talks about low performance systems and optimal settings, but I can't seem to make any improvements that allow my system to run any Wii game at normal speed. I'm on the most recent stable version of Dolphin, 5.0.

I can send whatever specs or screenshots are necessary. Any help would be extremely appreciated.

[Helios]

That laptop is more than enough for Dolphin.

You probably have v-sync forced somewhere in the rendering stack and that's causing Dolphin to lock a 60 fps to 30 because maybe you're dropping a frame or something.

Check your driver and Dolphin settings.

Also, are you plugged in? I know a lot of modern laptops will throttle GPUs to lower framerates to increase battery life.

[lessthan3]

(03-22-2018, 04:27 AM)Helios Wrote: That laptop is more than enough for Dolphin.

You probably have v-sync forced somewhere in the rendering stack and that's causing Dolphin to lock a 60 fps to 30 because maybe you're dropping a frame or something.

Check your driver and Dolphin settings.

Also, are you plugged in? I know a lot of modern laptops will throttle GPUs to lower framerates to increase battery life.

Thanks for the suggestions. Didn’t look like v-sync was on anywhere, both in Dolphin and in the Nvidia control panel. I’m doing a clean install of updated drivers, and will get back to you once it’s done. Many thanks.

[lessthan3]

Drivers are updated, and Dolphin is using my discrete graphics card. I've been plugged in this whole time too. It's up to maybe 50% speed, and the CPU is still barely being utilized. Any other suggestions?

[KHg8m3r]

Is windows power options set to high performance?
Have you made a high performance profile for Dolphin in the Nvidia control panel?
If you open Nvidia GeForce Experience, do you have the battery boost option turned off?

[lessthan3]

(03-22-2018, 05:01 PM)KHg8m3r Wrote: Is windows power options set to high performance?
Have you made a high performance profile for Dolphin in the Nvidia control panel?
If you open Nvidia GeForce Experience, do you have the battery boost option turned off?

Yep, I’ve been on high performance and battery boost is off. At this point it seems like a CPU problem to me

[lessthan3]

Just retested everything, and Wii games are around 50% speed while my one GameCube game is at 80%. Based on Task Manager, Dolphin is now using 20% of my GPU, but less than 5% of the CPU. Not sure if that changes anything.

[Helios]

What happens if you hold down tab during emulation? Does emulation go stupid fast?

[lessthan3]

Nothing happens when I press tab.

[Helios]

Well, there goes my idea that you just had a low speedlimit set.

No idea whats going on with your system then, sorry. Something on your system is throttling Dolphin or the CPU hard. Don't know what it is