Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Just wanted to share a tip. I don't know if this will apply to everyone.

Run Dolphin
Load a game
When the game is loaded, open task manager.
Go to "Processes" tab
Sort process list by CPU by clicking on the header itself so that processes that take up the most CPU power are listed on top realtime.
End any processes so that only Dolphin is left using CPU

This is relevant because apparently there are sometimes processes that don't show up UNTIL you start playing Dolphin. In my case, it was some sound driver(not sure exactly what it does) using about 20% of CPU power, which doesn't even show on the process list when I'm not playing. I was half-expecting it was a critical process for Dolphin but when I ended it, everything was a-ok. I ended up gaining about 5 fps when there are a lot of monsters(MH3), which is PLENTY for me. I now even have about 5% of system idle process when playing.

Hope this helps.

An audio driver was using 20% of your cpu load? Are you sure about that?

I know, right?! I tried rebooting and redid the whole thing, but it's gone from the process list. It was something like igdfx64 something.

Anyways, when the framerate is dropping, that would be a good time to check processes and make sure you have some idle cpu left(System Idle Process). I guess the culprit could change from time to time.

All of the other processes should be eating a up a total of less than 5% of your cpu load unless something is seriously wrong with your system or you're running a very heavy program in the background. This is not a high enough percent to affect dolphins performance significantly on a multicore cpu.

An audio driver should be using less than 1% of your total cpu load.

Here's another one I'm currently using. Game booster.

It's just basically a software to shut down all unnecessary processes and even services with a click of a button. It's like a toggle switch between Regular mode and Gaming mode, completely customizable. It also proactively suggests which processes are unnecessary(the HOW unnecessary is indicated by a percentage, I think it's based on community ratings itself). It's neat and easy to use instead of manually ending processes one by one just in case you need more CPU.

Of course, for killer rigs, this wont' help at all.

Well, I tested this program on my old Lenovo notebook and I gained nothing. Not one single FPS. >.>

(08-20-2012, 06:12 PM)DefenderX Wrote: [ -> ]Well, I tested this program on my old Lenovo notebook and I gained nothing. Not one single FPS. >.>

The name of the software is a tad misleading. It doesn't really "boost" your game itself. It just shuts down processes to give your game more room and possibly give it more speed.

But even if 100% of your memory and CPU is dedicated to the game, if the CPU itself isn't powerful enough, gamebooster won't help you one bit.

For instance, the PS2 emulator PCSX2, when I use it, my CPU load is only around 50%. And I have 8 gb of RAM. Lots of room. But my games there are still horribly slow. That just means I won't get an improvement until I actually upgrade my CPU.

Which is a bummer... I'm completely invested in an LGA board. And a better Core 2 Duo is nowhere in sight where I live.