Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

It's getting really frustrating trying to make Dolphin run with decent speeds on my new PC.

This is what I noticed when playing around with the DirectX and GPU options.
Dolphin actually runs better when I'm using the integrated (and slower, weaker) Intel HD4400 than when forcing the Nvidia GT750m. and by that I should say it doesn't run perfectly there are still some stuttering in SMG2 when the speed goes to 70% at some levels when using directx11.

Is this an optimisation issue with NV cards or does my CPU suck. It's definitely not a driver problem.

here are the numbers:
NVidia GT 750m:
SMG2:
directx11 and directx9 (9 is only slightly better): 55% speed and 30fps
OpenGL: 80% speed 35-45fps

007 golden eye:
directx11 and directx9 (9 is only slightly better): 65% speed and 24fps
OpenGL: 80% speed 28fps

DonkeyKongCountry2: allover 25 fps 50% speed



integrated Intel HD4400:
SMG2: 3
directx11 = directx9: 100% speed and 60fps
OpenGL: 100% speed 60fps

007 golden eye:
directx11 = directx9: 70% speed and 28fps
OpenGL: 90% speed 28fps

DonkeyKongCountry2: allover 25 fps 90% speed

The situation looks the same with builds 4 , 3.5 and 3 and I should add the framerates that I get are virtually the same between the old and new PCs (specs listed below)


At first I thought I'm not forcing the GPU to kick in since it only shows the integrated on inside dolphin. I double checked all settings NV750m is working and the Dolphin console shows it as active at the loading screens. As I mentioned before the drivers are good and Im using all the recommended setting , running x1 resolution.


Old PC:
some old Core2Duo
4GB RAM
NV GT 9600m

New PC:
intelcore i5-4200 - not top of the list but manages to run planetside 2 (very CPU intensive)
8GB RAM
NV GT 750m + Intel HD 4400

The new pc you choose has an ultra low wattage cpu (15W) for laptops, and while haswell is a beast for dolphin you can't expect to get a beastly performance by picking one of the worst cpus in that lineup for performance. There are some reports that regardless of the gpu shown the nvidia card is used, which is a problem with nvidia drivers and dolphin and my guess is something like that happens (what dolphin reports of being used is not actually being used at all).

If you had picked up this for example:
http://ark.intel.com/products/75027/Inte...o-3_40-GHz
your performance would be a lot better in dolphin and the price would be lower too compared to what you have:
http://ark.intel.com/products/75459/Inte...o-2_60-GHz

Keep in mind that a dedicated GPU will add more heat and may cause overheating for a non-gaming laptop (multimedia laptop) -> CPU will throttle back / underclock itself -> Run slower
Intel HD 4600 is almost on par with Nvidia GT 540M which is whole lot slower than GT 750M
Intel HD 4400 < 4600
Your laptop isn't a gaming laptop .Obviously ....You know what I mean
https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-la...ance-guide

my laptop isn't a gaming laptop yet I'm gaming on it. far better than on my older one. but no difference in dolphin.
overheating,... drivers,... obsolete hardware.... waiting for someone to mention gamebooster...

my simple question is how come the integrated GPU does better than the Nvidia and how come you with your hardware can play decently

Quote: how come the integrated GPU does better than the Nvidia

Integrated GPU will never beat dedicated GPU unless there is something wrong with your laptop

Quote:and how come you with your hardware can play decently

My laptop is a multimedia laptop indeed but it was modified (Change thermal compound to aftermarket one , add more fansink , heatsink)
If I didn't do that , my laptop would overheat -> Gameover

Quote:my laptop isn't a gaming laptop yet I'm gaming on it.

That's your problem . Dolphin is an CPU/GPU intensive application . Multimedia laptop can not withstand Dolphin for long
You can check your laptop temp with Dolphin to see if it overheat or not . You can use either Realtemp or Coretemp to check (at least 5mins to make sure you see the temp rise up )
Btw , you should try to play game at higher resolution . Intel HD 4000 can handle 1x or 1.5x Internal Resolution in most games , Intel HD 4000/4400/4600 can't handle 3xIR but Nvidia GT 750M can

heat is not the issue . the issue is the bad optimization of this emulator. .. anyway it's useless to argue , goodnight

(10-13-2013, 07:49 AM)mengo Wrote: [ -> ]heat is not the issue . the issue is the bad optimization of this emulator. .. anyway it's useless to argue , goodnight

If what you say is really the problem then don't use it or use the better optimized emulators for gc and wii out there (unlike this one) and your problem will be solved.

you guys are awesome

admin89 already told you that something was wrong with your laptop, since these situations should not happen. You, however, haven't verified if heat was the issue (using RealTemp or CoreTemp) or if the Nvidia GPU was functioning properly when running Dolphin (which is a known issue with several GPUs).

mengo Wrote:heat is not the issue . the issue is the bad optimization of this emulator. .. anyway it's useless to argue , goodnight

"I can't simulate collisions between galaxies in real time on my low end laptop cpu. The software must be poorly optimized."

This is what you sound like right now. It does not reflect well on you. Emulation is one of the most demanding things a computer can do. Planetside 2 is nowhere near as demanding as accurately emulating a wii fast enough to run these games. Expecting a laptop that runs PC games ok to emulate a wii well is ridiculous. The two aren't even remotely comparable.

Now you've received good suggestions for what might be causing your GPU issue. But you haven't been very cooperative with us insisting that we must be wrong without even testing our suggestions and blaming the emulator even though we don't have these issues on our hardware. On top of that you still haven't given us the data that we keep asking you for. Your GPU is likely throttling but we have no way to verify that if you don't cooperate. Do you want to figure this out or not?