Metroid Prime emulation help

[Cruzar]

Greetings, I'm new here obviously.
Regardless, I'm running a Celeron G530 (2.4ghz) HD 4850 (512mb GDDR3, Sapphire dual slot model, cooler looks kinda like my CPU's stock cooler) with 4GB DDR3 (1333 rated, running at 1066).

I've been trying to get Metroid Prime to run.
I noticed on Low it runs as slow as it does with AA on 9xSSAA, Anistropy on 16x, IR set to 1.5x, etc. etc. anyways so I know it's not my Graphics card. I've tried literally everything and done a dozen google searches to no avail. (PS: I tried OpenGL which actually ran slower, and D3d11 which ran as slow as the "Software Rendering/Rasterizer".)

On another note I also noticed the CPU is constantly at 100% and only runs smoothly temporarily when it rarely jumps back from 20fps to 50fps for about 2seconds before fluctuating around 40, then 30, and 20 then back around again to 30 and so forth while running at 90% utilization.

What would be the Problem?
Is my CPU really just too slow? D:
If so that bites, I got this cause it was cheap and benches (at least for PC gaming) rated it about as fast as a Pentium G620. Okay, that and I'm poor and awaiting seeing a psychologist before I can actually get a Job. (but that's a private/personal thing, you don't need to know. :S)

Oh also version is "3.5" which was on the Dolphin main download page the other day when I looked.

PSS: Any help is much appreciated even if it's "Upgrade to an i3 or i5".
I'm figuring as much but I want an opinion first.

[MayImilae]

Yep, your CPU is just too slow. Prime is very very demanding. You'd need a Core i5 3570K at ~4ghz or more. Your GPU is a little old, but it should handle the game just fine at higher Internal Resolutions.

[Cruzar]

Yep, your CPU is just too slow. Prime is very very demanding. You'd need a Core i5 3570K at ~4ghz or more. Your GPU is a little old, but it should handle the game just fine at higher Internal Resolutions.

I figured as much. Thanks. lol
I knew my GPU was old, but it was 42$ on ebay and I didn't have much to spend.
(Technically it and the rest of my computer was a Birthday present from me mum.)
I'll just have to wait awhile then. x-x

[NaturalViolence]

For the record both your cpu and gpu are pretty good, especially for low budget hardware. You just picked a very demanding game to run. MP is one of a dozen or so games that require top of the line hardware to run at fullspeed (not counting games that are impossible to run at fullspeed).

[admin89]

Well , if you buy i5 3570k , you have to buy Z77 mobo (Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 , Gigabyte Z77 UD3 ....)
4850 should handle 3x Internal Resolution (1920x1584)

[LordVador]

MP is one of a dozen or so games that require top of the line hardware to run at fullspeed

I guess you could've said three dozens (at least...)

[Cruzar]

True that, that's why I got it at the time I was going for a pure PC Gaming build.
But after finding out about Dolphin and seeing it run in such a crisp quality, (even though my current CPU is too slow for it and thus made it choppy) I hunger for more ya know? Oh and the other thing is, in games like Half-life 2, Gmod, that I tend to frequent I haven't noticed any gains over the old Pentium D 930 I had before, which is very odd and kinda freaks me out even though it plays just fine well occasionally if I don't try to do what Gmod was made for.

And nah' I'll lay off the over-clocking for now.
Like I said, I don't exactly have that much money, I'll pry just sell some old CD's and stuff I don't watch/listen to on ebay anymore they're mostly in pristine condition (minus light scratching on a couple discs in part thanks to the carelessly designed cardboard sleeves they used) so it should give me a Good start to saving up.

I have an H6M1-P23 (Rev B3) MSI.
It lists up to a Core i7 3770k and also lists a gazillion Xeons (LGA 1155 of course, and Quad Core/HT only).

I'll pry try to track one down used, hopefully legit, I don't mean necessarily an i7, but an i5 or i7 depending on the price.

I haven't had an issue with used products in the past and have indeed once made a build out of used parts (save for the PSU that was brand new)that worked perfectly fine on the cheap (now my mums PC, Pentium D 930, 2GB DDR2, HD 2600XT, so on so forth was 100$ total all bought seperately), but I am partly wary obviously.

Anyways, thanks for the help. C:

---

Well , if you buy i5 3570k , you have to buy Z77 mobo (Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 , Gigabyte Z77 UD3 ....)
4850 should handle 3x Internal Resolution (1920x1584)

For the record, I tried that but anything above 1.5x doesn't show a noticable difference and induces worst lag, probably due to either CPU bottleneck or the fact that it's only a 512mb model.
Regardless, anything above 1.5x isn't noticeably crisper on my NEC MultiSync LCD1570nx (1024x768 @75hz) anyways I'll stick to 9xSSAA and 1.5x.

[Venomx1]

i think the MAIN problem here for your slowdowns is the 9x SSAA...

my Radeon 5770 used to run it like crap. i dont know how your 4850 is handling it but probably isnt going do much better |:

lower the AA to 4x or none and let us know if you get better performance.

[admin89]

For the record, I tried that but anything above 1.5x doesn't show a noticable difference and induces worst lag, probably due to either CPU bottleneck or the fact that it's only a 512mb model.

3XIR , no AA , 16xAF are what i mean
3XIR + 9x SSAA = insane resolution that will kill your GPU
My 9800GT can handle 3xIR alone just fine . Don't tell me your 4850 is weaker than 9800GT (4850 is faster)

I have an H61M-P23 (Rev B3) MSI.

You need to upgrade the mobo
H61 = Sandy Bridge
If you want to use Ivy Bridge CPU on it , you will have to update bios that support Ivy Bridge
H61 does not support overclocking , Z77 mobo does
i5 3570k cost higher than i5 3570 because i5 3570k is unlocked multiplier CPU (you can overclock) .What's the point of putting an unlocked CPU on a locked OC capability motherboard ?
Dolphin doesn't care about Hyper Threading -> i7 = i5 and you have overclock both of them to achieve full speed on demanding games

[NaturalViolence]

LCD1570nx (1024x768 @75hz)

Good lord. Whatever you do upgrade that monitor before upgrading anything else. Used 22"-24" 1080p monitors are ridiculously cheap these days.

Oh and the other thing is, in games like Half-life 2, Gmod, that I tend to frequent I haven't noticed any gains over the old Pentium D 930 I had before, which is very odd and kinda freaks me out even though it plays just fine well occasionally if I don't try to do what Gmod was made for.

The source engine is extremely old and requires very little cpu throughput. So that doesn't surprise me at all.