Have you tried the latest revision? They just made some changes to FIFO that are supposed to eliminate stuttering in most games. Also if it's software raid I am not suprised since software raid will increase read/write speeds (assuming you're using raid 0 or raid 5/6) but will increase access/seek times.
Naw it's not software RAID or any RAID for that matter anymore, I got rid of it. Still have stuttering with the latest build. The only thing I can think to do is just buy the new graphics card and see what happens. Was gonna get one from a brick and mortar store but the one I had in mind has a 15% restocking fee, so I'm just as well off getting it from Newegg; in fact they have the EVGA Superclocked 1GB GTX 460 for $200 with a mail in rebate, which is much cheaper than buying it locally with a higher price and tax. It's also the version with a lifetime warranty (versus just a 2 year warranty). If it doesn't work, well, that will suck, but I kind of wanted a new graphics card anyway, 8800GT for the most part gets the job done but sometimes shows its age with some newer PC games.
The only thing I can think to try at this point is testing my RAM, which I might do overnight. My drives are fast, and people are reporting no stuttering with normal HDDs. CPU is fast, RAM is plentiful and fast, I even went so far as to reset clocks to factory defaults thinking maybe the overclocking was causing some kind of issue. Latest drivers and firmware on everything applicable. Using the recommended settings for the game specifically (Umbrella Chronicles). If a new GPU doesn't cut it then I am truly lost; the problem will be obscure beyond my troubleshooting abilities.
OK.
So I replaced my 8800GT with am EVGA Superclocked GTX 460 1GB.
THE PERFORMANCE IS EVEN WORSE NOW. THE FRAMERATE ISN'T EVEN AT 30 ANYMORE. THE STUTTERING IS STILL THERE.
My head just exploded.
Something is seriously wrong.
Check your PC-Temp while playing Dolphin.
It could be overheating !
(12-02-2010, 04:21 AM)Anti-Ultimate Wrote: [ -> ]Check your PC-Temp while playing Dolphin.
It could be overheating !
Or lower the overclock of your cpu just in case and check again.
I set my CPU and RAM clock settings back to stock speeds since yesterday.
CPU core temps are in the 40s and peaking at just under 50C even during stuttering scenarios. GPU temp is under 50C as well; the 460 actually runs way cooler than my 8800GT.
Dude I can confirm that this is a Dolphin problem, NOT a hardware problem. When I play RE:UC on r6496 I get the exact same stutters at the exact same times as you did in your youtube vid.
After fiddling around with the settings, which didn't do anything, I tried an earlier build: r6337. And voila, no stuttering @ the first headturn, some minor stuttering @ approaching the door. But that's about it.
So It's definately not your hardware, just how dolphin is built, and how every revision is different. I hope this is a relief
PS: in both revisions I have redone the exact same thing (start new game, choose the dude, play until thru the first door at least) multiple times, with every time (per revision) the same result. So I'd say it's properly tested.
Open an issue report about it on googlecode so that the devs know. This sounds like it might have been caused by the changed made to the fifo recently.
Eh, whatever, then SVN 6507 doesn't work well for me. It doesn't make sense, and I'm fed up. I feel cheated, having a system with great specs and unable to get the performance people with lesser specs get. I've been troubleshooting this for days and nothing works. I'll come back to this some other time, maybe the emulator will have improved, or someone with the same problem will figure out the precise fix, or nVidia will release drivers that fix the problem. I've done pretty much everything I can think of, including blowing $200 on a new graphics card.
EDIT: Also, I personally believe the problem is with this card. I think I would be getting much better performance with a comparable ATI card.