Stuttering issues, please help

[Muriel]

Hello, I recently purchased an Alienware m17 and thought I'd give Dolphin a try on it. Its a big step up from my old Voodoo Firebird, yet I am experiencing some issues with stuttering, mainly on cut scenes and cinematic scenes. It seems to be happening on most of the games (even Gamecube games that ran on my old Firebird). No matter what I change the various settings to the end is the same, it just takes longer for it to start stuttering on cut scenes and video. It seems like there is some "cache" that is filling up but I'm not sure.

I have opened my Nvidia settings and added the Dolphin.exe and changed it to max performance. I have also set my power options to high performance. When I exit the emulator and re-open it and begin where I left off the lower frame rates/stuttering disappears for a few minutes then starts back. I have checked my PC temp and its not overheating.

I am using one of the latest revisions of Dolphin 4.0 (1342). My PC specs are Intel Core i7-4900MQ Processor (Overclocked, 8MB Cache, up to 4.0GHz w/ Turbo Boost), 32 GB Ram, Windows 7 Ultimate, Nvidia 780M w/4 GB vram, 2 terabyte raid 0 hard drive with 80 GB SSD caching.

What could I possibly be missing here?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

[JMC47]

You should probably look up the laptop performance guide; it sounds like the laptop isn't kicking into high power mode for Dolphin.

[MayImilae]

Laptop performance guide -> https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-laptop-performance-guide

[Muriel]

(04-02-2014, 07:42 PM)MaJoR Wrote: Laptop performance guide -> https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-laptop-performance-guide

Yea I found that and looked over it before making this post. My power plan is set to high performance and in the Nvidia control panel I have set the Dolphin.exe to max performance. I couldn't find a choice to manually select the graphics processor in the Nvidia control panel however. I am not to keen about installing throttlestop on a new PC still under warranty.

I noticed some of the issues with the stuttering stopped when I switched over to the direct3d backend. I mean, some of the games are at least playable now. I will keep trying to make sure its using the 780 but I am fairly sure it is and that is not the problem. In the past I have used Dolphin 3.0 and 3.5 with few problems. I just used a separate emulator for each game and customized settings. Are there any BIG changes made to 4.0? Just curious.

[KHg8m3r]

(08-08-2013, 07:47 PM)admin89 Wrote: Part 2 :

1) Use dedicated GPU :
Install latest Nvidia driver/AMD driver

Add Dolphin.exe to the list . Warning : Do not select Nvidia GPU via Dolphin configuration ! . You're supposed to do it via Nvidia Control Panel , leave the Dolphin - Graphic Config as Intel HD . Don't worry , Dolphin still uses Nvidia GPU even if it shows Intel HD . Make sure you have Intel graphic driver installed before you install Nvidia GPU driver

Under Manage 3D settings, number 2 is where you choose the GPU, high performance Nvidia. If it doesn't show up, you may need to uninstall and reinstall the latest drivers (or driver 332.whatever because some people have been crashing on the latest drivers)

[Muriel]

Thanks for the help guys, turns out it was the openGL backend causing most of the issues. I did set dolphin to run on the nvidia card but the backend was causing a lot of slowdown for some reason. When I switched it to direct3d the games ran amazing. Now I can run dolphin in 1080p at x2 resolution with AA and AF on high at 60fps while running Photoshop on the second monitor and watching bluerays on the third!

J/K but it is working great. They even fixed the minimap in twilight princess. You guys are boss.

[KHg8m3r]

Recent implementation of tev_fixes_new causes OpenGl to be a bit slower than D3D currently.

[MayImilae]

KHg8m3r Wrote:Recent implementation of tev_fixes_new causes OpenGl to be a bit slower than D3D currently.

Most of the performance regressions were resolved. Plus that that only applied to Nvidia.