I have been looking everywhere. I utilize Google and friends who are versed in emulation and nobody can help me with this problem. My hardware should be able to run most games right? I've posted everything. All my Dolphin settings and a screenshot of my hardware from Speccy. I can't get Zelda: The WindWaker to run at full speed. Or Starfox Assault or Pokemon-friggin-Rumble. I have a friend running very similar hardware playing Super Mario Galaxy 2 at 4x resolution, 16x Anisotropic, and 8 samples anti-aliasing.
So you can see why I might be a little frustrated. I've tweaked all the settings and set my CPU fan to make sure my GPU didn't get hot in the first place. I've made an exception in my antivirus. Is there ANYTHING I'm missing here? I absolutely can't explain why my computer can't emulate Metroid Prime or Super Mario Sunshine while my friend is playing a far more gorgeous game.
Please for the love of everything help? I'm willing to give whatever info is needed. I've posted all my settings and my computer specs. I've looked everywhere so I'm coming to the home of the emulator.
Well, here's the thing when it comes to Dolphin: it requires strong single-core speeds in CPUs. Unfortunately, the AMD APU and FX series chips are not very strong in this regard. They're about as strong as second generation Intel i-series chips.
There are some things you can do to max out what performance you have:
1) Update drivers, Windows updates, DirectX Web updater, and latest version of Visual C++
2) Make sure under Power Management in Windows you're running in High Performance. Also, make sure you have a high performance profile set in Catalyst Control Center so that it isn't using the integrated graphics chip in your APU, but instead your high performance card (the drop-down window in Dolphin doesn't always work the best)
3) Use the OpenGL backend on one of the latest dev builds, as it is faster than D3D.
4) Switch back to the JIT recompiler. It's faster.
5) See if you have a motherboard that is capable of overclocking. If so, crank it the juice to get some extra speed.
(01-11-2014, 03:31 PM)KHg8m3r Wrote: [ -> ]Well, here's the thing when it comes to Dolphin: it requires strong single-core speeds in CPUs. Unfortunately, the AMD APU and FX series chips are not very strong in this regard. They're about as strong as second generation Intel i-series chips.
There are some things you can do to max out what performance you have:
1) Update drivers, Windows updates, DirectX Web updater, and latest version of Visual C++
2) Make sure under Power Management in Windows you're running in High Performance. Also, make sure you have a high performance profile set in Catalyst Control Center so that it isn't using the integrated graphics chip in your APU, but instead your high performance card (the drop-down window in Dolphin doesn't always work the best)
3) Use the OpenGL backend on one of the latest dev builds, as it is faster than D3D.
4) Switch back to the JIT recompiler. It's faster.
5) See if you have a motherboard that is capable of overclocking. If so, crank it the juice to get some extra speed.
How would I go about setting which GPU to use?
Edit: Well Technically it doesn't matter, I uninstalled the chipset anyway.
Well if it was uninstalled from the system, then I don't think you need to worry about it.
But under the Catalyst Control Center when you set a game profile, have it use the high performance option, which makes it use the strongest card in the system.
(01-12-2014, 03:53 AM)KHg8m3r Wrote: [ -> ]Well if it was uninstalled from the system, then I don't think you need to worry about it.
But under the Catalyst Control Center when you set a game profile, have it use the high performance option, which makes it use the strongest card in the system.
Sounds good and done. But I'm confused about what you mean by high power cores on my processor. Each core is 3.4GHz. That doesn't seem weak to me. I'm not the most savvy though.
Not sure what you're referencing by "high power cores"
(01-12-2014, 01:11 PM)KHg8m3r Wrote: [ -> ]Well, here's the thing when it comes to Dolphin: it requires strong single-core speeds in CPUs. Unfortunately, the AMD APU and FX series chips are not very strong in this regard. They're about as strong as second generation Intel i-series chips.
That's what I'm referencing.
IPC != GHz. I don't know the exact ratio, but even though AMD's cores can get pretty good cycle rates, they're still nothing compared to a good Core i5 3570K or Core i5 4670K. That's why a Pentium 4 at 3 GHz, even per core, is monumentally slower than a Core2duo at 2.4 GHz. And it continues to processors nowadays. Unfortunately AMD hasn't kept up with the IPC of Intel Processors and that makes them very slow, especially for programs that use less than 4 cores.
Your processor just isn't very fast, that's all there is to it. If your friend is a similarly priced Intel CPU, then that's why they can run Mario Galaxy without trouble while you struggle.
Funfact: Metroid Prime is a very hard game to emulate, even if you can Run Mario Galaxy just fine, you'll still have some minor stutters during loads and such in Metroid Prime.