Using only about 50% of CPU time across all cores?

[mireka]

It seems that Dolphin uses only about 50% of CPU for each cores.
Is this normal?
Game has hiccups (Xenoblades NTSC-J)
Dolphin SVN R 6691 64bit

System is
Phenom X2 555BE unlocked to 4 cores at 3.8Ghz
2x2 CL9-9-9 1600Mhz RAM on dual channel
Radeon 5870HD no OC

It seems that if Dolphin actually uses 100% of cpu time there would be absolutely no hiccups because even with only like about 50% across all cores, I still get 30FPS and drops are at minimum of about 26FPS (game is locked at 30FPS)

Enable idle skipping is disabled because if enabled it would cause noises (Disabling audio throttle doesn't help that)

[sonicdude987]

It seems that Dolphin uses only about 50% of CPU for each cores.
Is this normal?
Game has hiccups (Xenoblades NTSC-J)
Dolphin SVN R 6691 64bit

System is
Phenom X2 555BE unlocked to 4 cores at 3.8Ghz
2x2 CL9-9-9 1600Mhz RAM on dual channel
Radeon 5870HD no OC

It seems that if Dolphin actually uses 100% of cpu time there would be absolutely no hiccups because even with only like about 50% across all cores, I still get 30FPS and drops are at minimum of about 26FPS (game is locked at 30FPS)

Enable idle skipping is disabled because if enabled it would cause noises (Disabling audio throttle doesn't help that)

Turn your frame limiter off

[5t3alth]

you have basically the same system specs as me with same processor, close enough RAM (im using Corsair Dominator 8gb), and 5750 HD card.

I used Direct3d9 version, 11 is causing some issues with screen pixels.

[mireka]

>sonicdude987
Turning off frame limiter off absolutely make everything perfect.
No hiccups, no noise (even with Audio Throttling enabled), constant 30FPS.
Thank you very much.

(still only 50% across all CPU cores though, lol)

[NaturalViolence]

Dolphin has only two software theads. These threads jump from one core to another every few nanoseconds. Since task manager evaluates core activity only once per second it takes the average level of activity (50%) and displays that as the load. The alternative is to use "lock threads to cores" which will force the two software threads to stay on cores 1 and 2. If you do that the first two cores will be at 100% load while cores 3 and 4 will be at 0% load. Dolphin cannot use all 4 cores simultaneously since it only has two software threads therefore 50% load is the most you can get out of your quad core cpu.

[mireka]

Thanks for clarifying.

Does that mean I should lock threads to cores if my CPU is powerful enough? (So it won't emulate quad core behaviors)

[NaturalViolence]

No. The option won't make any difference whatsoever for you. The same amount of processing power will be used and performance will be nearly identical. The only difference is you'll have two cores running at 100% instead of 4 cores running at 50% when you open task manager.

(So it won't emulate quad core behaviors)

This has nothing to do with emulation. This option simply controls whether the threads (pieces of software) are locked to specific cores or not.