Very slow emulation

[wyatt445]

I'm trying to play Mario Party 8, but its really slow.
Its averaging about 23 fps in gameplay but 60 - 54 fps in the wii menu.

Specs:
GT 1030
Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4 Ghz (cant overclock)
8 GB DDR2 Memory

[Shonumi]

Your CPU is too slow to adequately run Dolphin at fullspeed. Your GPU should be fine, and RAM doesn't really have a noticeable impact as long as you have enough (8GB is more than enough). The Q6600 was only really good enough for Dolphin during the 3.0 - 3.5 days, as I remember it. After that, Dolphin actually got a bit more demanding with respect to CPU requirements, so it won't play well with 5.0 and above.

It's best to try the latest development builds. We don't support 4.0 anymore, and it's known to be slower than 5.0. It's worth mentioning that 5.0 is a couple years old now too, and it's slower than the very latest builds found here.You can try to lower the emulated CPU speed (Config -> Advanced -> Enable Emulated CPU Clock Override). The lower you set it, the less demanding some games may be. HOWEVER, this may affect the stability of the game. It might crash or glitch.

Honestly the real solution would be a PC upgrade. If you have a budget, we can help find hardware that meets your needs. These days, you can even find some $300 laptops that would outperform your current setup.