Very low performance in Linux Dolphin (CPU seems to be the bottleneck)

06-27-2019, 07:32 AM #1

Hi!

I've installed Dolphin from the AUR and it seems to be really bottlenecked by my CPU. Dolphin ran perfectly in Windows, I was able to play Super Mario Galaxy 2 at 1080p with 2x SSAA just fine. I think it's a CPU issue since changing the internal resolution to 480p doesn't affect performance at all. If it was a GPU issue, performance would improve. I've posted my settings below. Is there a way to stop this bottleneck? I have an i5 6600k at 4.6GHz so it shouldn't be an issue.

dolphin.ini:

Code:

[General]

ShowLag = False

ShowFrameCount = False

ISOPaths = 2

RecursiveISOPaths = False

WirelessMac = 00:17:ab:fe:35:a3

ISOPath0 = D:/Desktop/Dolphin/Games

ISOPath1 = /mnt/FE2CFBD82CFB89C3/Desktop/Dolphin/Games

[Interface]

ConfirmStop = True

UsePanicHandlers = True

OnScreenDisplayMessages = True

HideCursor = True

LanguageCode = 

ExtendedFPSInfo = False

ShowActiveTitle = True

UseBuiltinTitleDatabase = True

ThemeName = Clean

PauseOnFocusLost = False

DebugModeEnabled = False

[Display]

FullscreenDisplayRes = Auto

Fullscreen = True

RenderToMain = False

RenderWindowXPos = -1

RenderWindowYPos = -1

RenderWindowWidth = 640

RenderWindowHeight = 480

RenderWindowAutoSize = False

KeepWindowOnTop = False

DisableScreenSaver = True

[GameList]

ListDrives = False

ListWad = True

ListElfDol = True

ListWii = True

ListGC = True

ListJap = True

ListPal = True

ListUsa = True

ListAustralia = True

ListFrance = True

ListGermany = True

ListItaly = True

ListKorea = True

ListNetherlands = True

ListRussia = True

ListSpain = True

ListTaiwan = True

ListWorld = True

ListUnknown = True

ListSort = 3

ListSortSecondary = 0

ColumnPlatform = True

ColumnBanner = True

ColumnDescription = False

ColumnTitle = True

ColumnNotes = True

ColumnFileName = False

ColumnID = False

ColumnRegion = True

ColumnSize = True

ColumnTags = False

[Core]

SkipIPL = True

TimingVariance = 40

CPUCore = 1

Fastmem = True

CPUThread = True

DSPHLE = True

SyncOnSkipIdle = True

SyncGPU = False

SyncGpuMaxDistance = 200000

SyncGpuMinDistance = -200000

SyncGpuOverclock = 1.00000000

FPRF = False

AccurateNaNs = False

EnableCheats = False

SelectedLanguage = 0

OverrideGCLang = False

DPL2Decoder = False

AudioLatency = 20

AudioStretch = True

AudioStretchMaxLatency = 80

AgpCartAPath = 

AgpCartBPath = 

SlotA = 8

SlotB = 255

SerialPort1 = 255

BBA_MAC = 

SIDevice0 = 0

AdapterRumble0 = True

SimulateKonga0 = False

SIDevice1 = 0

AdapterRumble1 = True

SimulateKonga1 = False

SIDevice2 = 0

AdapterRumble2 = True

SimulateKonga2 = False

SIDevice3 = 0

AdapterRumble3 = True

SimulateKonga3 = False

WiiSDCard = False

WiiKeyboard = False

WiimoteContinuousScanning = False

WiimoteEnableSpeaker = False

RunCompareServer = False

RunCompareClient = False

EmulationSpeed = 1.00000000

Overclock = 1.00000000

OverclockEnable = False

GFXBackend = Vulkan

GPUDeterminismMode = auto

PerfMapDir = 

EnableCustomRTC = False

CustomRTCValue = 0x386d4380

EnableSignatureChecks = True

AutoDiscChange = False

[Movie]

PauseMovie = False

Author = 

DumpFrames = False

DumpFramesSilent = False

ShowInputDisplay = False

ShowRTC = False

[DSP]

EnableJIT = False

DumpAudio = False

DumpAudioSilent = False

DumpUCode = False

Backend = ALSA

Volume = 100

CaptureLog = False

WASAPIDevice = 

[Input]

BackgroundInput = False

[FifoPlayer]

LoopReplay = True

[Analytics]

ID = d624cfe9dcf44cf130cb0ee1f943def8

Enabled = True

PermissionAsked = True

[Network]

SSLDumpRead = False

SSLDumpWrite = False

SSLVerifyCertificates = True

SSLDumpRootCA = False

SSLDumpPeerCert = False

[BluetoothPassthrough]

Enabled = False

VID = -1

PID = -1

LinkKeys = 

[USBPassthrough]

Devices = 

[AutoUpdate]

UpdateTrack = dev

HashOverride = 

[NetPlay]

TraversalChoice = traversal

BufferSize = 0x0000000a

ConnectPort = 0x0a42

HostCode = 00000000

HostInputAuthority = False

HostPort = 0x63dd

LoadWiiSave = True

Nickname = UnicornsOnLSD

RecordInputs = False

ReducePollingRate = False

StrictSettingsSync = False

SyncCodes = True

SyncSaves = True

UseUPNP = False

WriteSaveSDCardData = False

Address = 127.0.0.1

SyncAllWiiSaves = False

ChunkedUploadLimit = 0x00000bb8

EnableChunkedUploadLimit = False

IndexName = 

IndexPassword = 

IndexRegion = 

UseIndex = False

[Debug]

JitOff = False

JitLoadStoreOff = False

JitLoadStoreFloatingOff = False

JitLoadStorePairedOff = False

JitFloatingPointOff = False

JitIntegerOff = False

JitPairedOff = False

JitSystemRegistersOff = False

JitBranchOff = False

GFX.ini:

Code:

[Enhancements]

ArbitraryMipmapDetection = True

DisableCopyFilter = True

ForceTrueColor = True

PostProcessingShader = (off)

MaxAnisotropy = 4

ForceFiltering = False

[Hacks]

BBoxEnable = False

EFBEmulateFormatChanges = False

EFBScaledCopy = True

EFBToTextureEnable = True

XFBToTextureEnable = True

DeferEFBCopies = True

EFBAccessDeferInvalidation = True

[Settings]

CacheHiresTextures = True

FastDepthCalc = True

HiresTextures = True

InternalResolution = 3

MSAA = 0x00000002

ShaderCompilationMode = 2

ShowFPS = True

SSAA = False

SWDrawEnd = 100000

SWDrawStart = 0

WaitForShadersBeforeStarting = True

AspectRatio = 0

ShowNetPlayMessages = True

ShowNetPlayPing = True

SafeTextureCacheColorSamples = 128

BackendMultithreading = True

EnablePixelLighting = False

[Hardware]

VSync = False

***Shonumi*** · (This post was last modified: 06-27-2019, 12:29 PM by Shonumi.)

If it is a CPU bottleneck, I would expect something like your 6600K isn't hitting 4.6GHz for some reason. Verify what your CPU is running at when you run Dolphin. i7z-gui should work for that.

Additionally, check/update your drivers/kernel modules. If you're using the open-source ones for Nvidia... I'm pretty sure you're going to be disappointed. For gaming, as far as I know, Nvidia's drivers are the way to go on Linux. I assume you are using Nvidia drivers, since you have Vulkan as your backend (not available in open-source drivers yet) but it never hurts to double-check.

Probably also set the performance mode to maximum instead of auto. If, for some reason, your GPU can't hit higher speeds and constantly sticks to low speeds, that would explain the terrible performance on 480p and higher. The GPU's clock would be too slow for everything at that point.

What kind of performance are you getting anyway? What kind of numbers in terms of FPS?

06-28-2019, 12:41 AM #3

Thanks! Setting my GPU to maximum in the Nvidia config has fixed this. Before, I was getting around 30-40 fps in the observatory, even at 1x IR. Now, it's working fine with 2x SSAA at 3x IR. My CPU doesn't seem to be the issue, it was just me assuming that the system was just waiting on the CPU. Here's a screenshot of a bench on CPU-X: https://i.imgur.com/9fElfP0.png