Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Hi guys !

I'm new to this forum, I tried to find other threads but I could not, so I hope you'll be able to
help me ! Also, I'm not a native english speaker, sorry for any mistake.


I have a problem with my Dolphin emulator, here is the issue :
I first installed Dolphin 4.0 but Mario Kart Wii was unplayable. Then I tried with Dolphin 3.5
and there was absolutely no problem, always running at 100% with a good FPS, even with good graphics
settings. I played like this for like 5 days and suddendly, when I tried to play another time it was
not possible anymore, the game going down to 50% in the menus and even 30% in the game.

The fact is that I did not change any graphic setting, and my hardware was strictly the same. I tried
to uninstall and reinstall a several times, but it changes nothing. I udpated my drivers, and it's still
the same. I also checked with realtemp and my processor is not overheating at all (50°C in normal, 57°C
when running Dolphin). I also don't run any other software while playing. I took a screenshot of realtemp
while playing :




I've been trying since 3 days different solutions, using different graphic settings and so on.
There are not a lot of people with the same problem on internet so it's quite difficult to find
a solution.

Btw, here's my configuration :

- Intel core I5 3210M CPu @2.50 ~ 2.70 GHz (turbo mode)
- RAM : 4Gb
- AMD Radeon HD 8750M avec 1 Go dedicated memory
- Windows 8.1 64 bits, processor x64

I've been trying since a few days and I start to be pissed off, I hope you guys will help me to find
a solution, thanks !

Make sure your GPU isn't overheating.
Make sure you haven't chosen some sort of "Power Saver" power plan in Windows.

Your CPU is running at 1.2GHz for some reason (see what RealTemp says at the top). That's way too low to play Dolphin adequately. Make sure your laptop is in High Performance mode or something to that effect (sometimes plugging it in does this).

@ Shonumi :
Yeah I know, but even in high performance it's the same, the CPu is always running like this.
I really don't know why my Cpu is running that low, do you know any solution for this problem ?

@Biliard26 :
How to know if my GPu is overheating ?

But I also play BF3 for hours with no overheating problems, with quite good settings, I don't know why Dolphin would cause a problem.
Also, the GPu has no time to overheat since it's like this from the begining when I start Mario Kart (Or other games). I also use to not have any problem before ...

Check out a program called ThrottleStop. Look at this guide (the CPU part): https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-un...ance-guide

If you want to check the temperature of your GPU, I'm pretty sure your Nvidia drivers will tell you your current temp. If not, GPU-Z will tell you iirc. It's most likely not an overheating GPU. Your CPU is definitely the culprit here, creating a CPU-based bottleneck on your system.

I also changed the priority to high in the task manager and in my graphic card driver but it did not change anything

---

Thanks for your fast answer !

I already tried yesterday with throttlestop but now it seems to work. Anyway, the game now runs around 75% and variates a lot (60-80%). But I use to run it at 100% with no problem, do you know what can cause this ?

Don´t compare any PC game with Dolphin, as they don´t work the same way. Dolphin is CPU-raw-power hungry, a lot more than any PC game.