Super Smash Bros Melee - Unpredictable Frame Drops

[Teconmoon]

Hi there, I'm having an odd issue with Melee, and the reason I'm posting here is because I can't tell if this is a hardware issue or a software issue. I assume hardware because Dolphin has a 5 star for compatibility.

The issue I'm having is that unpredictably, Dolphin will just decide to drop a few frames here and there, which causes the game to slightly sputter, which throws off any fight you're trying to have.

The same issue is across the board as far as settings and situations go. I could be fighting 1v1 with a cpu on the simplest stage with every enhancement disabled, or a 4-player free for all on the fountain of dreams with all the enhancements I'd like. It'll be 100% speed most of the time, but randomly sputter.

Here are my specs:
Intel Core i7-3930k 3.20 GHz
Corsair 16 GB RAM
GeForce GTX 770
Windows 7 x64
Dolphin 3.5-1387 x64

I don't seem to experience this at all in other games, likely because they're so much less intensive, but it seemed to me that if it has the capability to run at 100% most of the time, I'd like to find out what's causing it to choke.

My core speed is holding constant in CPU-Z, so I can't find anything else to try.

Thanks for the help in advance, and hopefully this isn't a terrible stupid first post waiting to be deleted that has been answered elsewhere!

[Venomx1]

might be instability in that revision?

try 3.5 stable?

u should be able run it 100% on stock clock turbo.

what are your graphical settings?

[Teconmoon]

Stable 3.5 presents the same issues with an increase in audio issues due to the old HLE.

My settings are all the Dolphin Defaults:



Like I said earlier, playing with settings hasn't helped. The audio is HLE, but there's no speed difference between HLE and LLE.

[Shonumi]

Just curious, have you tried using other graphical backends?

[Teconmoon]

(06-07-2013, 01:03 AM)Shonumi Wrote: Just curious, have you tried using other graphical backends?

Just now, OpenGL was pretty much the same deal, DirectX 11 was way worse with the frame drops, although the fps and vps holds constant at 60 the entire time.

[pauldacheez]

Current builds should be fine, and you may as well use them to avoid audio issues under HLE.

The issue could be related to whatever storage device you're using. Try using an SSD, maybe?

[omega_rugal]

Any app/process/dll running in background?

if you mean very short pauses during gameplay then is rather normal, it`s just dolphin at work.

[Teconmoon]

(06-07-2013, 01:50 AM)pauldacheez Wrote: Current builds should be fine, and you may as well use them to avoid audio issues under HLE.

The issue could be related to whatever storage device you're using. Try using an SSD, maybe?

I tried copying the game and dolphin to my SSD, with the same results.

I also tried disabling dual-core and idle-skip, just to see what would happen, but I could still hold constant 60 fps most of the time with intermittent sputtering.

(06-07-2013, 06:16 AM)omega_rugal Wrote: Any app/process/dll running in background?

if you mean very short pauses during gameplay then is rather normal, it`s just dolphin at work.

Nope, problem persists with everything else closed. Not short pauses like in Mario Party 9 when everything halts so it can load more stuff, I expect that. These are short randomized sputters when it's not loading anything new and nothing is changing. I understand that Melee is probably the most intensive game to emulate, but other users don't seem to have the issues that I'm having.

[sam_yo]

i have an core 2 dup 1.8 ati hd 4450 4 gb RAM and it runs perfect dude ...

[Teconmoon]

(06-08-2013, 10:38 AM)sam_yo Wrote: i have an core 2 dup 1.8 ati hd 4450 4 gb RAM and it runs perfect dude ...

That's what confuses me. Other people with less powerful computers can run it better than I can.