What's my bottleneck here?

Nemesys · (This post was last modified: 01-31-2014, 04:37 AM by Nemesys.)

So first, here's my setup:

Operating System: Windows 7 x64
Processor/CPU: Intel core i7 930 stably overclocked to 4.0ghz
Video Card/GPU: Nvidia GTX 560-ti Twin frozr II/OC
Memory/RAM: 4GB Corsair XMS3

The issue that I'm facing is with thew New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I'm trying to run the game with EFB to RAM with OpenGL and can only get about 45-50 fps, sometimes much less. The game runs fine with EFB to texture and everything else maxed out. I've been monitoring my cpu/gpu load during gameplay and with HT off a single core never goes above 70% and with HT on it never goes above 40%. GPU load is never higher than 35%. I have "prefer maximum performance" set in global variables through nvidia control panel, and a profile for dolphin just to be safe.

The only thing I can think of is it's possibly an issue with the RAM? This is supposed to be a triple channel set (3x2gb) but I found one of the DIMMs was causing issues, which testing with memtest86 confirmed. I would assume the RAM should be fine but can't think of anything else. Hopefully some of you smart cookies have some ideas Smile

Thanks!

Edit: Specifying OpenGL. I can sometimes get 60fps with D3D but it's more like 52-57 consistently.

**Link_to_the_past** · 01-31-2014, 04:49 AM #2

Opengl has performance issues with efb to RAM, use direct 3d instead.

Nemesys · 01-31-2014, 06:21 AM #3

Ok I'm not against using Direct 3d, but why is D3D not pinned at 60fps with this setup? Many levels experience a lag that is enough to interfere with gameplay and most, if not all, have audio cracking at some point. Thanks

**JMC47** · 01-31-2014, 06:32 AM #4

Your processor is too slow for NSMBWii with EFB2Ram on any backend

Nemesys · 01-31-2014, 06:42 AM #5

Really? An i7 930 clocked to 4ghz is too slow? What's required to run this game with EFB2RAM? Why is the cpu load not reflecting this?

DolphinFan505 · (This post was last modified: 01-31-2014, 08:17 AM by DolphinFan505.)

HT makes your computer think there are more cores then there really is. Also, New Super Mario Brothers Wii is pretty demanding if you use the correct settings which are EFB to RAM.

kinkinkijkin · (This post was last modified: 01-31-2014, 08:45 AM by kinkinkijkin.)

The CPU load isn't reflecting it because windows cycles the load of a thread between all logical cores.

There's no such thing as "triple channel"; dual-channel is where each stick of RAM gets two RAM channels assigned to it, as if it were two sticks of RAM. "Triple-channel" is marketing idiots outright lying, because they don't know what they're talking about.

Also, if you can turn off hyperthreading, you might want to do so for Dolphin. Hyperthreading theoretically halves each thread's thoroughput, iirc.

Nemesys · 01-31-2014, 10:04 AM #8

Not that I'm disagreeing but just curious why tools like CPU-Z would display the channel # as dual/triple if it there's no such thing. Tools like this seem to be standard and could readily disregard the information if it weren't relevant. But this seems to be getting us off topic, and I assume the point is that the RAM is not the issue here.

I've turned hyperthreading off as I assumed fewer faster threads would be best for dolphin. Another thing I've noticed is that ticking "OpenMP Texture Decoder" results in a significant drop in fps, when I would think it would do the opposite if my processor isn't being maxed out. Thanks again for all replies.

kinkinkijkin · 01-31-2014, 10:15 AM #9

3 channels being used, to some people, means that it's triple channel, but, of course, 4 channels on two DIMMs must be dual-channel, right? RIIIGHT?

**Anti-Ultimate** · (This post was last modified: 02-01-2014, 02:40 AM by Anti-Ultimate.)

(01-31-2014, 08:42 AM)kinkinkijkin Wrote: The CPU load isn't reflecting it because windows cycles the load of a thread between all logical cores.

There's no such thing as "triple channel"; dual-channel is where each stick of RAM gets two RAM channels assigned to it, as if it were two sticks of RAM. "Triple-channel" is marketing idiots outright lying, because they don't know what they're talking about.

Also, if you can turn off hyperthreading, you might want to do so for Dolphin. Hyperthreading theoretically halves each thread's thoroughput, iirc.

Are you kidding me? Triple Channel does exists. However it's been replaced by Quad Channel on it successor chipsets.
If OP is using 3 RAM DIMM's on the Mobo AND ONLY THREE, then it's enabled.
Hyperthreading also DOES NOT halve each thread's thoroughput.

Seriously, I see you trying to spread wrong things all the time. Research your things.