Various CPU's and GPU's

[armac911]

Sooo. Hi. First post.

I have 3 machines on my desk and I decided to test Dolphin with couple of gamecube games on all of them.

The first PC is Core 2 Duo E8500, 2GB DDR2 ram, Geforce 6100 Turbocache 256mb (windows Vista pro)
The 2nd PC is Amd 64 X2 5600+, 2GB DDR2 ram, Geforce GT240 1gb DDR3 (Windows 7 pro)
The 3rd PC is Amd Phenom II 955, 4 GB DDR3 1600, Ati 4870 1gb DDR5 (Windows 7 pro 64x, but tested with Dolphin 32 bit)

The results are quite shocking. It comes out that the C2D with GeForce 6100 is faster then the 2nd machine. Check the results.


Mario Kart Double Dash:

PC1 - 34-46 fps
PC2 - 29-39 fps
PC3 - 55-60 fps

Soul Calibur 2

PC1 - 20-28 fps
PC2 - around 30 fps, but occasionally there are a massive slowdowns which don't happen on other 2 computers.
PC3 - around 40 fps

Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance

PC1 - around 30fps constantly
PC2 - around 25fps, massive slowdowns occasionally
PC3 - around 50fps

Mario party 6
PC1 - constant framerate of around 30fps
PC2 - around 30fps, slowdowns
PC3 - capped at 60 most of the time.

All 3 PC's are running same version of Dolphin, with same settings and resolution. D3D 9, 1280x1024, 2x Native, 4xSSAA, 4x anisotropic, Scaled EFB, JIT Recompiler, Lock threads to cores, use panic handlers.

I can't understand why is the GT240 lagging behind this ancient 6100 card. They all have updated drivers, literally the same background processes etc. I tripple checked the power saving features, bios settings and everything checks out. Can it be that the CPU is slowing things down? It shouldn't be as in PC games it's doing a decent job (well in its rank tbh). Does Dolphin favor CPU over GPU? Yes the E8500 is the fastest dual core, but the 64 x2 is not really that far behind. Really confused.

[MFZ]

It's probably cause the performance of Dolphin, like most emulators, is much more CPU dependent.

[Runo]

Dolphin is MUCH more CPU dependent, what actually can push your GPU is higher internal resolution and Antialias, texture filter, etc
Emulation itself is pretty light on the video card so things pretty much depend on CPU only when you have a decent+ gfx card.

[NaturalViolence]

Quote:I can't understand why is the GT240 lagging behind this ancient 6100 card. They all have updated drivers, literally the same background processes etc. I tripple checked the power saving features, bios settings and everything checks out.

It's not.

Quote:Can it be that the CPU is slowing things down?

Bingo.

Quote: It shouldn't be as in PC games it's doing a decent job (well in its rank tbh).

Well PC games are GPU heavy, dolphin is usually cpu heavy.

Quote: Does Dolphin favor CPU over GPU?

Depends, usually yes. OS, game, backend, settings, and specific specs all factor into the equation.

Quote:Yes the E8500 is the fastest dual core, but the 64 x2 is not really that far behind. Really confused.

That depends on how you're measuring them. In some cases it is.

[armac911]

Oh well thanks for the clarification. Since the 2nd PC is actually my HTPC I think I will stick the best CPU I can find without changing the mobo. I actually own a gamecube, but playing on Dolphin is better imo. Faster loading, nicer graphic.