I fire up dolphin, load Super Mario Sunshine and my fps is crawling around 14. This of course makes me horrified.
I believe that my computer should be able to handle this just fine since it can max tf2.
So I started clicking around. This is where it gets strange, in my opinion. When I choose 30fps as limit, my game rolls up to 30fps while my vps speeds up to 150% sometimes over 200%.
Why does this happen and is there any way to fix it?
The vps stays put during moviesequences.
Quote:I believe that my computer should be able to handle this just fine since it can max tf2.
Wrong.
Emulation is not the same as running a PC game in it's native environment on native hardware. With emulation, specifically GC/Wii emulation PPC instructions and other things need to be translated/converted to x86/x86-64 compatible instructions to execute the code which requires a lot of processing power. Whereas PC games are mostly limited by the GPU, emulators are limited by the CPU so if you don't have a sufficient processor expect that some games won't run well. The requirements for emulators usually requires a system 3x - 5x more powerful than the original hardware, sometimes more. Bsnes which is a hardware accurate Snes emulator, requires at least a 2 Ghz system to run most games acceptably, emulators such as Dolphin and Pcsx2 don't require so much power because they aren't really hardware accurate and use hacks to speed up emulation.
You can start by listing your system specifications, maybe someone can suggest a specific configuration or build.
What parts of my computer am I supposed to specify?
CPU and GPU, mostly CPU since Dolphin like most emulators is almost entirely CPU dependent.
Here, have some specifications.
I've attached my DxDiag if someone is bored enough to read it.
OS: Win7 Home Premium 64bit (6.1, build 7600)
CPU: Intel Core i5 M 450 @ 2.40Ghz (4CPUs)
RAM: 4096MB
GPU: ATI Mobility Radeon 5650
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Video memory: 2642MB
DirectX 11
I still think it's odd that my VPS shoots in the sky when I set the framelimiter to 30. Does Dolphin boost the VPS to achieve fps?
Use the DX9 plugin.
Core Settings:
Enable Dual Core
Enable Idle Skipping
JIT Recompiler
Enable OpenCL (If your drivers and card supports it)
Lock Threads to Cores: Disabled
Frame Limiter: Limit by FPS (Some games need to be limited by VPS though)
Audio Settings:
Plugin: DSP_HLE
Enable: HLE Audio
Enable: DTK Music
Disable: Audio Throttle
Display:
Resolution: Monitors native resolution or lower
Progressive Scan: Disabled unless needed by a particular game
Panic Handlers: Disabled
Use the following graphics settings.
Vsync: Disabled
SSAA: Either 4x or Disabled
EFB Scale/Internal Resolution: Either 1x (native) or Fractional if you have SSAA Disabled. If you turn up EFB scale with SSAA enabled then it will take a major hit on performance. If you have SSAA disabled, use fractional EFB scaling else keep at native.
CPU EFB Access. needed for some games such as sun rays in ZTP/WW and pull stars in SMG/SMG2, for any other game leave disabled.
Native mips, should be fine to leave enabled without a hit on performance and is needed for certain effects.
Per Pixel Lighting: Pixels are accurately lighted like on the actual hardware but may slightly decrease performance.
16x AF, should be fine to enable with your graphics card.
EFB Scaled Copy: Enable
Enable EFB Copy -> Texture
XFB & Real XFB: Disabled unless a particular game needs it enabled
Safe Texture Cache: Disabled unless a particular game needs it enabled
Tired right now else I would go more in depth.
Should I use Dolphin or DolphinIL?
You should use a more recent Dolphin build o_o