Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Well as the title says, my Dolphin 3.0 onwards used to run games like Sonic Colours, Smash Bros, No More Heroes 2, Xenoblade & many other titles at a 3x native resolution with some AA & AF settings perfectly. Games would run fine on 30/60fps with no problems(might have been minor drops in FPS but they weren't noticeable).... but since my computer crapped out and wiped the entire harddrive i haven't been able to get Dolphin to run the same for like 7 months now (had to completely restore the computer, drivers, os all that installed from scratch), i actually gave up because I had no idea why it wouldn't run them games like it used to. Really was doing my head in so i thought i'd ask for help, right now i'm not using anything specific, just some of the latest dolphin builds and have been fiddling with the settings but nothing seems to run like it used to.

I have installed all the drivers that came with my PC when i ordered so i doubt its got something to do with drivers.

The games i've been testing since my PC lost all its memory are No More Heroes 2 & One Piece Unlimited Cruise 2, whats strange is the FPS seems to be the same through 1x-4x native, this could be the issue as i think i read somewhere that an overclock is needed to fix this. I find it bizarre because when my custom PC was delivered i don't remember doing anything with the overclock settings, Dolphin just seemed to run games fine with no major slowdowns... now all i get is major slowdowns as i'm playing the game. Even at 1x native it just seems to slowdown when running through levels, it never used to do this before my PC crapped out .

My specs are...
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68X-UD5
Ram: 16GB DDR3 1333mhz
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6970 2GB

I don't really remember what builds i was using before, just the latest build releases really. Before when them games would run fine i don't remember ticking specific options so i doubt the problem is in the Dolphin settings, perhaps i just need to overclock something. I tried overclocking my graphics card but my computer just seems to crash every time i boot a game while overclocked.

Right now i'm using the latest builds and have just been cycling through D3D9, D3D11 & OpenGL with different settings applied but nothing seems to run as good as it used to. Would be grateful if someone could help me out, been troubling me for some time now.
Thanks

Check if the cpu is at stock clocks, they might have overclocked that CPU in the OS and not in the bios.
Your pc is more than enough for dolphin.

Check your temps.

Also consider the possibility that maybe your .ini settings changed. Make sure you're using the same build as before as well.

Good to know my PC is more than capable, sorry to be of more hassle but how exactly do i go about overclocking in the OS. I did try doing it through bios once but i don't remember seeing any improvements (Unless i did something wrong lol).
EDIT: Okay i just noticed there was one program i forgot to install on the GigaByte disc that came with the PC, EasyTune. I'll attempt overclocking in EasyTune an see if theres any improvements.
EDIT 2:Okay after clicking the first choice (there were 3 levels of oc to pick from) in the tuner tab my PC crashed, wouldn't work so i turned it off and when i turned it back on it constantly turned off and on. After sometime it successfully booted back to Windows and it seems to have reverted back to 3.40 GHZ. The 3 choices to pick from in the tuner tab were...
1. 4.08 GHz 102 MHz
2. 4.33 GHz 103 MHz
3. 4.68 GHz 104 MHz
My default settings are 3.40 GHz, 100MHz, seems the PC couldn't even handle the first quick boost option.

go with 4.08 with "eazytuneing" going higher without knowing what its doing isnt great, you would have to understand OCing to want to push 104 on the BCLK

Post the settings please, i can't find any problem with your pc

I'll attempt 4.08 again, computer froze last time so i'll see if it successfully restarts on its own this time.
Which settings Anti?
EDIT: Okay it seems to have restarted this time, I'll check for improvements.

The dolphin settings, mostly the Dolphin Main and Graphics settings.

Here are my Dolphin settings, pretty sure this has nothing to do with Dolphin. I've been constantly using diffrent builds for the past few months trying to make them work with any games, its definitely the PC. These setting are nothing special, think this build was downloaded not long ago. Dolphin 3.0-692 btw
http://oi49.tinypic.com/2r26vq8.jpg
http://oi46.tinypic.com/179zr6.jpg
http://oi47.tinypic.com/2v96tqb.jpg
http://oi50.tinypic.com/s5ibtw.jpg
http://oi46.tinypic.com/28txouw.jpg

EDIT: I uninstalled the Easy Tune i downloaded from the net and installed the one that came on the disc.
The quickboost options have changed now, the current ones to choose from are...
Default 3.50GHz 100MHz
1. 3.70GHz 100MHz
2. 3.90GHz 100MHz
3. 4.20GHz 100MHz
Just tried all 3 options and i'm not noticing any improvements, 60FPS games drop between 50-60 (mostly 55-60) and 30FPS games drop between 20-30 (mostly 25-30) when moving around the stage in One Piece, No More Heroes 2 & Super Mario Galaxy 2. Really thought that quickboost options were working for a second till i noticed the FPS drops still occurring. I'm on quickboost option 3 now btw (4.20GHZ), well thats what EasyTune6 tells me, perhaps it never really did change which is why i'm still getting the same FPS drops

Could you just indicate the games you're playing and the difference of performance you're getting?