Yet another low FPS topic

[Cer]

I actually feel a bit bad about this, but I feel there's something I just won't understand by myself.

So here I am with my laptop. Specs aren't anything you'd be amazed at, but it works. The only games I've been emulating are Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes, Sengoku Basara Samurrai Heroes and SB3 Utage. They never were too fast, but it didn't bother me that much. Until I've decided that I'll switch from 4.0-873 to my current build (at the time I write this, it's the newest). The speed is roughly the same, but the audio is now unbearable. I did my research and learned that it's because of a new programmistic schmingywingy that changed something about it, so if I return to 873, I'll be fine. The question is though, can I actually do anything to speed things up or is it the best I can get? I tried to experiment a bit, but with small avail (and surprising results, like AA and anifiltering barely making a difference).

The framerates are as follows:
SB2H: during gameplay mostly 30-40, depending on amount of models on screen (seldom rises to 60 when there are 3-4 models); 55-60 at menus
SBSH: 20-30 FPS, 20-45 VPS during gameplay (in percents, it varies between 20 to around 70 once in a blue moon); 100% in menus with slowdowns during character setup (and horrible ones in the narrator intros in story mode).
SB3U: 20-30 FPS during gameplay, a tiny bit faster when no enemies around; occasional small slowdowns in menus, especially in character select screen and some slightly bigger ones in the character setup.

Every dolphin setup I thought would be relevant is here: http://oi58.tinypic.com/3478nqa.jpg

I would appreciate any help I can get, I hope I wrote everything I could that could be useful.

[DJBarry004]

Your CPU is too slow for those games.

[Cer]

Dang. Really? I'm surprised, because even on the most demanding scenes the CPU usage rarely went past 50% on any core. But if there really is nothing to be done, I guess I'll just stick with -873.

[DJBarry004]

You got only 50% usage because you have four cores, and Dolphin only uses two.

[Cer]

But no, not 50% on everything. 50% max on ANY core. Like this:
http://oi58.tinypic.com/22z6s0.jpg
(sorry for the text not being in English, but it should be pretty understandable; the usage are the only percents, "Rdzeń" = 'core').

Is it normal that Dolphin doesn't use its two cores to the maximum?

[KHg8m3r]

Dolphin does use two cores to the max.
However, it jumps around on the cores to prevent overheating, and task manager (or other monitoring software) can't keep up with how fast it switches.

[410172]

I think you should mention whether you have turbo boost in your processor or not. As far as I know, most laptop Intel i7 processors should have it. If you can boost up to 2,6 Ghz, for example, that would make a huge difference.
My processor, which is an Intel i5, can boost up to 3,2 Ghz (normally 2,6 Ghz). Can't believe Intel would still create i7 processors with 1,6 Ghz and no turbo boost.

[rokclimb15]

Have you followed the forum laptop performance guide yet?

[DJBarry004]

His CPU can´t overclock. It´s no use.

EDIT: His CPU supports TurboBoost, but even with that there won´t be a lot of speed improvements.