I'm using a core i7 920, which I alternately use at 2.66 and 4.00 Ghz. Sometimes with hyperthreading, sometimes not. (Using WinXP 32-bit.)
I've seen screenshots posted where both cores (or, more typically, two out of four cores) are utilized by Dolphin so heavily that they are essentially flatlined at 100%. This is good. It means the emulator is doing its best to give all the fps it can.
But in my case, this is what I always see: One core is utilized with wild inconsistency, hovering at around 85%. As for the second core being used by Dolphin, it's often difficult to even identify. Anyway, whichever it is, the utilization is even more wild, never going above 50%, and averaging 25% over time.
This means that, in my case, Dolphin is managing to use only about 55% of the cpu power which is technically available to it. And it goes without saying that I am not seeing 60fps in the games I play. No indeed. More like half that.
Now to cover some easy assumptions. Forgot to turn on dual-core? Of course not - it defaults with that option checked. GPU bottleneck? Not hardly; I'm using a HD4870. Task priority? I've set it to "high" and seen zero difference. Other tasks somehow interfering? Not only do I have essentially nothing else running, but net cpu utilization of everything else never exceeds 1% (and it's really only "System" which eats that much up).
I had a hunch (based on the curious phenomenon that the second core seemed to be practically not in use) that hyperthreading may have been confusing Dolphin into using a hyperthreaded core. But when I turned off hyperthreading, the problem persisted.
There's got to be some trick that I'm overlooking.
I've seen screenshots posted where both cores (or, more typically, two out of four cores) are utilized by Dolphin so heavily that they are essentially flatlined at 100%. This is good. It means the emulator is doing its best to give all the fps it can.
But in my case, this is what I always see: One core is utilized with wild inconsistency, hovering at around 85%. As for the second core being used by Dolphin, it's often difficult to even identify. Anyway, whichever it is, the utilization is even more wild, never going above 50%, and averaging 25% over time.
This means that, in my case, Dolphin is managing to use only about 55% of the cpu power which is technically available to it. And it goes without saying that I am not seeing 60fps in the games I play. No indeed. More like half that.
Now to cover some easy assumptions. Forgot to turn on dual-core? Of course not - it defaults with that option checked. GPU bottleneck? Not hardly; I'm using a HD4870. Task priority? I've set it to "high" and seen zero difference. Other tasks somehow interfering? Not only do I have essentially nothing else running, but net cpu utilization of everything else never exceeds 1% (and it's really only "System" which eats that much up).
I had a hunch (based on the curious phenomenon that the second core seemed to be practically not in use) that hyperthreading may have been confusing Dolphin into using a hyperthreaded core. But when I turned off hyperthreading, the problem persisted.
There's got to be some trick that I'm overlooking.