Stutter/Freeze in Gamecube Games

[Thinasy]

Okay so i'll start by posting the specs of my PC which is:

CPU: 6700K (Turbo enabled @ 4.2GHz)
GPU: GTX970 (No OC)
RAM: 16GB 3200MHz (XMP-Enabled)

All games are stored and ran through a 7200RPM HDD.

I play all games in Native (640x528) Resolution, No AA, 1x AF.

I use Scaled EFB Copy, Force 24bit Color, Arbitrary Mipmap Detection, Disable Copy Filter + Compile shaders before starting.

Texture Cache set to Fast, Defer EFB Copies to RAM, Store EFB Copies to Texture Only and Ignore Format Changes are checked.

I'll start by saying that I've tried OpenGL / Vulkan / DX11 and I still get the occasional hiccup that stops the emulation for a second or so.
Affected games so far i've tried with this issue is: Luigi's Mansion, Metroid Prime & F-Zero GX.

So for Luigi's Mansion i've tried with both DX11 and OpenGL with and without Hybrid Ubershaders (Asynchronous Ubershaders) with the same results.

F-Zero GX I run with Vulkan + Hybrid Ubershaders. Aware that this is a really intensive game so I do understand this one, I do run into this stutter/hiccup regardless if i've played a map or not before aswell.

Metroid Prime - I run with DX11 and Hybrid Ubershaders, i'm also aware that it's an intensive game but I was under the impression that it'd be completely stutterless with Hybrid Ubershaders.

So my question atm is basically: Is my Computer simply too slow for these games to run 100% stutter-free? Or is there any setting that can alleviate these issues? Also does putting the games on an SSD instead of the 7200RPM HDD help at all. I'm also thinking of turning off the turbo on the CPU and just let it sit at 4GHz if that can also create these kinds of issues.

I'm certain that it isnt an temperature issue cause the CPU never goes above 60c while playing Dolphin.

on a last note I want to add that i've been using Dolphin for many years now and i'm unsure if I've had this problem earlier or if its a recent issue.

Thank you for making a great emulator either way and i'd appreciate any help!

Edit: I've tested both HLE / LLE, run primilarly HLE with XAudio2, tried with Cubeb aswell and it seemed to give the same results. Only use LLE if its recommended in a specific game.

[JMC47]

A slow HD can absolutely cause stutters. Metroid Prime will have very rare stuttering due to it causing JIT cache flushes, but those shouldn't be anything that really impact gameplay.

I don't know what kind of stutters you're talking about. Are they very slight, are they extremely hard stutters (aka, literally pausing for a full second or longer?)

[Thinasy]

(01-05-2019, 06:34 AM)JMC47 Wrote: A slow HD can absolutely cause stutters.  Metroid Prime will have very rare stuttering due to it causing JIT cache flushes, but those shouldn't be anything that really impact gameplay.

I don't know what kind of stutters you're talking about.  Are they very slight, are they extremely hard stutters (aka, literally pausing for a full second or longer?)

I'd say the lean towards the second option, where it basically pauses. It's really distracting honestly. It happens atleast 1 once per race on any given map in F-Zero with Hybrid Ubershader + Vulkan. It basically happened in every new room in Metroid Prime with Hybrid Ubershader with DX11.

And it happens pretty frequently in Luigi's Mansion aswell. I'll try moving the games to the SSD and see if it helps.

Edit: Well after moving Luigi's Mansion to my SSD and playing for about 30-40minutes the issue seem to be fixed entirely for this game atleast. Not sure it should be this drastic of a difference or if there is something wrong with my HDD. But I honestly should've just tried this earlier, I was just unsure if it made any difference for emulation.