Serious Lag on OSX

[tysonjames2]

Hey guys,

I need help optimizing dolphin to run my gamecube games properly.

I can't get dolphin to run smoothly on my iMac. Even after optimizing settings with the websites suggestions, there is serious lag in audio and frame rate. It has made running any and all gamecube games nearly unplayable. I'm wondering if there are specific settings I should be using that differ from the PC platform of Dolphin.

Here are my system specs:

iMac (Late 2012)

Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX
Processor: 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory: 32GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Thanks so much in advance, and I apologize if this is a question that gets asked frequently.

[Shonumi]

You need to tell us which games you're playing and which CPU model you have exactly (e.g. an i5-2500K in my case). 9/10 times, when most people ask about lag in Dolphin, their hardware is underpowered for the games they're trying to play.

[DJBarry004]

And also specify the build used.

[Shonumi]

It's 4.0. Always remember to look at the user's profile :p

[DJBarry004]

(01-19-2014, 02:46 AM)Shonumi Wrote: It's 4.0. Always remember to look at the user's profile :p

Yeah, yeah, Forgot that one.

[KHg8m3r]

(01-19-2014, 02:53 AM)DJBarry004 Wrote:

(01-19-2014, 02:46 AM)Shonumi Wrote: It's 4.0. Always remember to look at the user's profile :p

Yeah, yeah, Forgot that one.

I know I don't always keep my profile updated to which version I'm using, but since the OP is so new.....

[tysonjames2]

(01-19-2014, 02:39 AM)Shonumi Wrote: You need to tell us which games you're playing and which CPU model you have exactly (e.g. an i5-2500K in my case). 9/10 times, when most people ask about lag in Dolphin, their hardware is underpowered for the games they're trying to play.

Thanks for the help!

I'm trying to play Resident Evil 4 specifically, but am having the same type of problem with all gamecube games (WaveRace Blue Storm and Brawl Specifically.)

Here are the CPU Specs:

22 nm Quad Core 3.2 GHz Intel "Core i5" I5-3470 (Ivy Bridge) processor

The game runs fine until I encounter large groups zombies and/or explosions. I'm really curious as to how a year old iMac can't handle the processing power required to run game's that are over a decade old.

Thanks again!

---

With Resident Evil I can hear it in the audio (ambient wind sfx). There is a noticeable "skip," or lag in audio that accompanies the frame lag. When I mess around with the frame rate setting, the lag tends to either increase or decrease, but never sinks up perfectly. Also, the frame rate automatically adjusts itself while I'm playing -- constantly refreshing itself and jumps all over the place. I'm not sure if that could be the problem, but I wasn't aware that games could have variable fps.

[Billiard26]

lul
https://dolphin-emu.org/docs/faq/#why-do-i-need-such-powerful-computer-emulate-old-c

[KHg8m3r]

You should be able to play those games at a reasonable speed.
Post pictures of your graphics config tabs.
Also make sure you have framelimit set to auto and DO NOT have limit by fps checked under the config tab

[pauldacheez]

FYI, forum support people, it doesn't take that much effort to pin down which i5 it is if you know what kind of Mac it is, what it's clocked at, and what GPU goes along with it. There's websites (e.g. everymac.com) and a mix of cross-platform/Mac-only apps (e.g. Mactracker) around that can tell you this. http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-i5-3.2-27-inch-aluminum-late-2012-specs.html

OP: The 3470 shouldn't be *too* bad for Dolphin, but all the OpenGL buffer upload methods that give massive speed boosts (e.g. VSH, pinned_memory, buffer_storage) aren't available on OS X, so there's an inherent performance impact just from using OS X's GPU drivers. Nvidia's drivers on Windows/Linux will give you better results if you're willing to install one of those. (Make sure to use a current development build too, buffer_storage was implemented a short while ago.)

If all else fails, you could upgrade that 3470 to a 3570 or 3770 (I doubt the K models are any better, considering you can't overclock) for ~$200 or ~$300... if you follow a 60-step guide. :P http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+EMC+2546+CPU+Replacement/15764
I've taken apart my poor old iMac (late 2006, e.g. the last white 17" one) a few times and I've taken apart a slightly-older-than-yours 27" iMac once (for a neighbor whose son inadvertently stuck an SD card in the optical drive), and I do *not* recommend it unless you love taking apart crazy things like this that the guys at iFixit hate and have to write 60-step guides for. Personally, I love stuff like that, but it likely sounds like living hell to most.