Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

My PC Specs
OS: Windows 7 64bit Ultimate
GPU: GeForce GTX680 2048MB
CPU: Interl Core i7-2600K @ 3.40GHz
Memory: 16GB DDR3 W3U1333Q-4G
MoBo: ASUS P8H67-V


I can run Super Smash Bros. Brawl at 60 fps in 1080p with no problem,
but the problem is that it goes down to around 30 fps when Fraps starts recording at "60 fps" in "Full-size".
On YouTube, however, I've seen a number of videos of Wii games in 1080p, emulated with Dolphin,
and recorded with Fraps even on less high-spec PC than mine, so mine should somehow be able to run at full speed, too.

http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=299642
Thanks to this helpful thread, I learned how to output videos of SSBB replays at 60 fps in 1080p even if
I don't have a computer with good enough hardware to run SSBB on Dolphin at full speed in that high resolution.
According to the method, for example, if I record a replay at 30 fps(half speed) in 1080p and re-record its sound at normal speed,
I'll have to use VirtualDub to change the frame rate(30 fps) of the video to 60 fps so that it can play at normal speed and synchronize with the sound.
But in this method, I have to record the same replay twice - one is for the footage, the other is for the sound -
and then combine them to make a video with sound, which means that I can only make videos from replays
because it is only in replays that the players' movements and the sound are duplicated.
So, I'd really appreciate it if you would be kind enough to tell me how to run Wii games at full speed in 1080p
even when Fraps is recording in full-size.

I'm sorry, I'm afraid you must be having a hard time understanding my poor English.
Thanks.

Overclocking your CPU to 4.5GHz should help.

You have a great rig, well capable of running Brawl at 60FPS at 1080p. Heck, with that 680, you can go beyond 1080p.

What Dolphin version are you using and what are your settings?
How many harddrives do you have, and what is your (exact) harddrive model and brand?
Are you trying to record a 4-player match in Brawl?

Have you tried any other solutions to record besides fraps?
to name a few: FFsplit, Dxtory, Xsplit

Also, are you recording to the same HDD you are playing the game on, or running your OS on? That can cause you some slowdowns.
Always record to a secondary HDD that your game and OS is not running on.

Thank you for your replies.
I have 3 HDDs.
(CST2000DM001, 2.0TB (Free space: 1.3TB)
(DWDC WD3200AAKS, 320GB (Free space: 320GB)
(I: )I-O DATA HDCR-U2.0 USB, 2.0TB (Free space: 59.7GB)
And I'm trying to record a 2-player match to the HDD (I: )
using Dolphin version 3.0-896.
http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-set...unofficial
My settings are almost the same as this.
(I changed fullscreen resolution to "1920x1080", Internal Resolution to "Auto (Multiple of 640x528)", and checked "Use fullscreen")
I tried to overclock my CPU but it seems P8H67-V rev3.0 does not allow for overclock, so I'll need a P67 or Z68 board to overclock, unfortunately.
I tried Dxtory but it was even worse and jumpy.

Quote:(I: )I-O DATA HDCR-U2.0 USB, 2.0TB (Free space: 59.7GB)
And I'm trying to record a 2-player match to the HDD (I: )

There is your problem.

You're trying to record to an external harddrive via USB 2.0, which has a slow transfer rate of 20MB/s or so.
That's too slow for recording videos at 1080p.
To record 1080p videos smoothly, your harddrive must have writespeed of atleast 100MB/s. (Might be a little higher than reality, but it's better to have a breathing space).

Try recording to your C: or D: drive. They should give a much better result.

I'd also like to point out that you can record to the same drive your OS and games are on provided that you have a fast enough harddrive. Something like a HD103SJ will do the job. A second harddrive produces better results, i.e, it's more stable and prevents the (occasional) stuttering you get with one harddrive.

You can download CrystalDiskMark to benchmark your harddrives read- and writespeeds.
Let us know the results and such if you still have problems or if the problem is solved.

I tried CrystalDiskMark and here are the results.
C: Drive
Read [MB/s] about 20-50
Write [MB/s] about 20-50
D: Dirve
Read [MB/s] 107.6
Write [MB/s] 105.4
I: Drive [external hdd]
Read [MB/s] 34.87
Write [MB/s] 30.37

Since yesterday, something's been wrong with my C drive.
Now Dolphin stutters at short intervals even when Fraps isn't recording.
I found the transfer rate of the C drive rather low. (Sometimes lower than that of the external HDD)

So I copied Dolphin onto the D: drive, and configured Fraps to record to D:\.
As it has a transfer rate of over 100MB/s, everything works well, just as you told me!
Now I can run SSBB at 60fps at 1080p when fraps is recording! (though I got another problem xD)
I guess my C: drive is half-broken, so I'll have to buy another HDD and put an Operating System on it, and replace the current C drive with it.

Thank you so much for all your help!

Unfortunately, Seagates harddrives are pretty much hit or miss.
It seems like yours started failing. If those are really the read- and writespeeds you get, you should definitely replace it. (and use the Seagate as a storage ofc).
If you're going for a new HDD, I'd recommend the Samsung HD103SJ 1TB. Very good and reliable harddrive.
Getting (121.x MB/s read- and 115.x MB/s writespeeds and I have only 250GB/1000GB left)

Did you notice Windows taking longer to boot than usual?

Yes, it's always taken about 10 minutes to boot Windows since half a year ago.
I tried to defragment the HDD but soon I gave up as it was taking forever to finish.
Thank you for recommending the hard drive, but I'm thinking of buying "WESTERN DIGITAL WD10EZEX [1TB SATA600 7200]"
which appears to get about 200 MB/s read and write speeds.

Youtube only allows up to 30 FPS, so recording at 60 FPS will be very pointless. There is also no sense in using FRAPS, since Youtube encodes up to 5.0-5.5 Mbps (bad for gaming/animation videos) for regular 1080p videos. For decent quality, at least 10 Mbps is required.

Youtube supports up to 2048x1536 (~10 Mbps), so you can simply resize the 1080p video to get better quality. I have seen one of the users who is using such method to maximize video quality.