Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

So I've been using Dolphin as a Gamecube emulator for some time now, but I've had issues with certain games lagging a lot. The first one I've noticed was the Sims Bustin' Out had MASSIVE slowdown issues all the time. Fire Emblem: Radient Dawn has serious audio lag issues with the LLE enabled (and serious audio glitches with the HLE). Just stared trying to play Sonic Adventure 2, and I'm having both audio and gameplay lag at seemingly random intervals, not having any obvious relation to what's onscreen or in the environment at any given time. Super Mario Sunshine is, however, completely fine in all situations.

My question is, with the specs below, is there any real way to optimize this for Gamecube performance? I have a Wii (that is rather hit-and-miss with whether or not it will read at any given time, and does so quite loudly) for my Wii games, I just want to reliably play my Gamecube games. Is there a way I can optimize it softwarewise? Or would it require a hardware swap out? I've already tried using the "Optimal Settings Guide" to try to figure it out, but it's not helping much, if at all.

I thought my build should be able to handle it, but it is appearing not. I know that some of my "great" hardware can't be utilized with Dolphin (multiple cores, decent video card), but I think it should still be able to handle it. But because Mario works good, I have to wonder, is that just not an intensive game? Or were my disc rips of my other games a low quality causing these hangups?

Specs:
Dolphin Version: 3.5 (latest stable build) x64
OS: WIndows 7 Professional x64
CPU: AMD FX-8120, 8-core, 2.1 Ghz
RAM: DDR3 Dual-channel 16GB at 669.7 MHz
Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 6850

If you need more info, please ask, and I will try to provide. Thank you in advance.

You probably need to overclock your CPU. AMD's recent chips have lagged behind Intel's in single-threaded performance, which Dolphin needs, plus yours is a bit slow at 2.1 GHz anyway. That RAM might also be an issue if it's actually running at that low of a clockspeed.

In terms of audio, if you want to use LLE, you should check the "LLE on Thread" option, which uses another of those eight cores you have. If it's still too slow and you want to use HLE, use the current development builds of Dolphin - for games that aren't made directly by Nintendo R&D1, it now produces audio nearly identical to LLE.

In the case of that Sims game, check "Skip EFB Access from CPU" in Graphics > Hacks. It'll remove the censoring from naked Sims (...), but it'll also provide a massive speedup.

Quote: my comp should be able to handle it
AMD FX-8120

Nope , your CPU is too slow for LLE
Dolphin is a dual core application , it doesn't care how many cores your CPU have
AMD Bulldozer/Pile driver single threaded performance lag behind Pentium Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge -> Not good for Dolphin

(02-02-2013, 03:13 PM)pauldacheez Wrote: [ -> ]You probably need to overclock your CPU. AMD's recent chips have lagged behind Intel's in single-threaded performance, which Dolphin needs, plus yours is a bit slow at 2.1 GHz anyway. That RAM might also be an issue if it's actually running at that low of a clockspeed.

Whoops, typo. I meant that my CPU has 3.1GHz, not 2.1.

And in response to admin89...

Darn, it's just as I figured, it's an issue with my processor simply being too slow. I was afraid of that. Do you know if I transferred it over to a Linux System (ubuntu 12.04) with an AMD Phenom x4 Processor, same speed (3.1GHz) if I might get better performance? Or am I just SOL until I can afford an upgrade?

Switching to Linux will loose d3d9 so you will loose speed there anyway and while the phenom ii x4 has better single core performance it's not a huge leap. If you can overclock to 4+ Ghz you should be able to match a lower core i3. Mario sunshine is not a very demanding game; it runs fine on my Phenom ii x6 @3.3Ghz. Like Admin89 said your cpu is too slow for LLE. Pretty much any game requiring LLE will be unplayable.

(02-02-2013, 04:57 PM)Xalphenos Wrote: [ -> ]Switching to Linux will loose d3d9 so you will loose speed there anyway

Not necessarily. The performance of the graphic backends for Dolphin depend on the hardware itself, the drivers needed to run it, and the operating system. OpenGL performance on Linux should generally be around the level of D3D9 on Windows from what some people have reported, though I'm still looking for someone to give me some hard numbers. At any rate, the differences in drivers alone might account for a higher OpenGL performance on Linux than Windows on the same machine.

Quote:an AMD Phenom x4 Processor, same speed (3.1GHz) if I might get better performance?

Very Small Boost . It's a downgrade since you're going to lose 8 cores to get 4 cores -> Not worth it
Just buy an aftermarket cooler (if you're using AMD stock cooler) and overclock your CPU to 4.0GHz

(02-02-2013, 02:29 PM)alfinchkid Wrote: [ -> ]Sims Bustin' Out
Fire Emblem: Radient Dawn
Sonic Adventure 2

Sims Bustin' Out is a very demanding game. Fire Emblem and Sonic Adventure 2 need LLE.
Your "FX" processor isn't powerful enough (at stock) for these games.

You'd get a better performance with a Phenom

Fire Emblem and Sonic Adventure 2 don't need LLE on current development revisions. :3

(02-03-2013, 02:19 AM)pauldacheez Wrote: [ -> ]Fire Emblem and Sonic Adventure 2 don't need LLE on current development revisions. :3

Thaks to AX-HLE rewrite? Maybe. But the problem remains the same for him since HLE has become as demanding as LLE