Strange Dolphin issue resulting in inconsistent performance

[kirbypuff]

This long-standing issue has plagued Dolphin since the old days.

Has anyone noticed that Dolphin's performance varies greatly between runs? This happens even when the GPU is set to fixed max. clock/mem speeds (so-called "high performance" mode) and CPU power saving features disabled, so it's not a GPU/CPU/hardware issue. It's not a shader cache issue either.

Sometimes, after 2,3 or 4 runs when the emu "gets it right" and the performance increases by up to 15%.

As a quick benchmark try the usual SMG1-observatory-test and experience it for yourself.

[KHg8m3r]

I have done this sort of thing before, and haven't seen this type of difference when the GPU is set to max power. I have seen it when the GPU is not set to max power, since the GPU doesn't always see Dolphin in need of max performance, so it runs at low power state

[zephyrsurfer]

This long-standing issue has plagued Dolphin since the old days.

Has anyone noticed that Dolphin's performance varies greatly between runs? This happens even when the GPU is set to fixed max. clock/mem speeds (so-called "high performance" mode) and CPU power saving features disabled, so it's not a GPU/CPU/hardware issue. It's not a shader cache issue either.

Sometimes, after 2,3 or 4 runs when the emu "gets it right" and the performance increases by up to 15%.

As a quick benchmark try the usual SMG1-observatory-test and experience it for yourself.

This is quite simply the shaders not being built yet. Any subsequent runs will produce higher performance.
This is very much known.

[KHg8m3r]

^^ forgot about shader cache. I've played my games so many times that I have darn near a shader cache for everything.

[kirbypuff]

Quoted from the first post:

It's not a shader cache issue either.

The shader cache has been built completely before benchmarking by running the same area dozens of times until there's nothing more to compile, no stuttering and the performance (framerate) leveled out to an optimal value.

[zephyrsurfer]

Quoted from the first post:

It's not a shader cache issue either.

The shader cache has been built completely before benchmarking by running the same area dozens of times until there's nothing more to compile, no stuttering and the performance (framerate) leveled out to an optimal value.

Well apart from this benchmark where can I produce this issue?

[JMC47]

It's not a problem in Dolphin, it's just the nature of computers.

[zephyrsurfer]

It's not a problem in Dolphin, it's just the nature of computers.

Yeah but any differences are normally of a small value, not a significant one.

[JMC47]

The game itself fluctuates and such; this is an emulator. I'm not shocked that it can fluctuate between 10 - 15 fps during a runthrough.

[zephyrsurfer]

The game itself fluctuates and such; this is an emulator. I'm not shocked that it can fluctuate between 10 - 15 fps during a runthrough.

Im a thorough tester. I use spots in games where I can reproduce the same results between runs.
But yeah any other testing would obviously have a significant difference in framerates.