Spikes in speed at 60FPS

[Cyberscum]

Hello! I'm new to these forums, too bad my first post will be in the support section but I've seen some very interesting stuff on these forums so far.

Anyway, I've been running Dolphin 4.0.2 for a bit now but I can't get my speed to stay at a 100% or 90%> or something good enough.

My specs are as follows:
CPU: AMD Phenom II 1090T (Stock speeds, my PSU is so old now it will no longer run my OC stable)
GPU: AMD Sapphire HD 7950 Boost
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB

I know emulators are mainly CPU based, my GPU is enough to be doing any graphical tasks, I'm sure.
My CPU is quite aged by now but it's still pretty decent.

The problem I'm having is not being able to maintain a high emulation speed, I have no problem continuously running 60 FPS but it's just the speed that seems to be dropping randomly.

I'm mainly playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl, I might get some other games in the future but that's not what I'm aiming for right now. I want to play Project M (Brawl mod) but I haven't bothered with that yet because I'm trying to get my in-game experience as smooth as possible.

So previously I had 4.0.2 installed, tried 4.0, 3.5 and 3.0 to see if they were somehow more stable with SSBB, my game seemed to have terrible playback after that so I completely reinstalled my emulator and removed the config files, it works a bit better now but it's still nowhere near as good as it could be.

So, my settings used are this:
http://imageshack.us/a/img856/158/h5rj.png

It doesn't seem to matter if I use native resolution or upscaled, AA and AF, they all stutter both visually and audibly, it seems to have spikes where this happens, it'll be completely smooth for a few seconds and then it'll stutter for a few seconds.

I'd be happy to run 1.5x native and 4x AA, that's all I really need.

So, do you recommend I change any settings? Should I use another version in case there's one that works better with Brawl than 4.0.2?
I have 2 unrelated questions to my performance as well:
- Is there a way to see if my Brawl dump is PAL or NTSC? I don't know the difference and I couldn't find it in Dolphin either.
- Is there a way to run 120 FPS without going over 100% speed, or is this locked? I have a 120Hz monitor so that's why I'm asking.

I thank you in advance!

[LordVador]

Is there a way to see if my Brawl dump is PAL or NTSC? I don't know the difference and I couldn't find it in Dolphin either.

Well if it's YOUR dump you're supposed to know if it's a PAL or NTSC version aren't you?

[admin89]

My CPU is quite aged by now but it's still pretty decent.

for anything aside from Dolphin . Keep in mind Dolphin is a dual core application
Your CPU is slow for Dolphin due to low single threaded performance . It's a good thing that SSBB isn't a demanding game like Xenoblade , The Last Story , Mario Galaxy ....
Dolphin Benchmark

(Stock speeds, my PSU is so old now it will no longer run my OC stable)

Too bad , I was about to convince you to do that

I'd be happy to run 1.5x native and 4x AA, that's all I really need.

Afaik , AMD 7950 Boost can handle most games at 4xIR , no AA or 2xAA , 16xAF . Yeah , your GPU isn't a problem , not one bit

[Cyberscum]

Is there a way to see if my Brawl dump is PAL or NTSC? I don't know the difference and I couldn't find it in Dolphin either.

Well if it's YOUR dump you're supposed to know if it's a PAL or NTSC version aren't you?

I would but I don't really know the difference, nor do I know where to find which one it is.
Looking at this PAL/NTSC list and seeing my country on the PAL list I guess it's safe to assume it's a PAL dump, that's too bad.. :/

My CPU is quite aged by now but it's still pretty decent.

for anything aside from Dolphin . Keep in mind Dolphin is a dual core application
Your CPU is slow for Dolphin due to low single threaded performance . It's a good thing that SSBB isn't a demanding game like Xenoblade , The Last Story , Mario Galaxy ....
Dolphin Benchmark

(Stock speeds, my PSU is so old now it will no longer run my OC stable)

Too bad , I was about to convince you to do that

I'd be happy to run 1.5x native and 4x AA, that's all I really need.

Afaik , AMD 7950 Boost can handle most games at 4xIR , no AA or 2xAA , 16xAF . Yeah , your GPU isn't a problem , not one bit

Yeah, I guess it's not too good in single core performance.. I was way ahead of you with the overclocking but it just stopped working correctly after a few months.. I'm looking for a new PSU but I don't exactly have a lot of money to throw around at the moment. :p

As for my GPU, it's good to hear that at least, so it's probably my CPU causing the speed drops then, isn't it?

[Cyberscum]

Bump.

So no recommendations on settings I should change?
Also, can you run at 120 FPS but maintain 100% speed?

I figured out I have a PAL disc/dump by now.

[JMC47]

It requires hacking the emulator's timing functions, but Brawl and Melee can be run at 120 fps at 100% speed. I messed with it a long time ago with the help of my brother. It's really not worth your trouble, even with a 120 fps monitor, it looks pretty much the same and adds a tremendous amount of strain on the computer.

[Cyberscum]

Damn, that's probably too hard for me to do, I would've loved to see it at least, but I guess you're right. I'm having enough trouble running at a full 90-95%> speed as it is.

[rokclimb15]

A stable PSU for that should only run about $30 (a lot cheaper than a CPU upgrade). Let me know if you need some recommendations. I've used some great PSUs in that price range.

[icejiub]

Turn on Vsync.

I'm not even kidding. I'll get what appears to be stuttering while the game continues to run at 60 fps, while it flips back and forth between smooth and unsmooth.

It doesn't even make sense in the realm of most pc games, but I guess it works when you're trying to keep an emulated game in sync with itself.