Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

It's really quite bizarre. When I force Dolphin to use integrated graphics (by right-clicking the application and using the nvidia context menu), I get so-so performance for a game like Xenoblade. The title screen is at least smooth in terms of framerate and sound, though in-game it runs about 15-20 fps with very choppy sound. But when I force it to use the 820m, performance drops or is at least not better.

Using MSI Afterburner, I can actually see that the GPU load for the 820m is 100% when I tell Dolphin to use the 820m, and 0% when I tell it to use integrated graphics, which is what I expect. It might be a driver thing (though I've tried both the ASUS-provided driver and the most up-to-date Nvidia driver using a modified INF file), because I also see a performance discrepancy using PPSSPP. But when I run 3DMark11, the 820m's score is significantly higher than the Intel HD Graphics score (about double).

I've also turned off all throttling, and ThrottleStop shows that none of the CPU cores are being throttled. I've also set the 820m to use highest performance possible. No temperature problems, everything running at about 40 degrees.

This happens whether I choose OpenGL or Direct3D.

Anyone else seeing something similar? Is it a CPU problem, though if it is, why is the integrated graphics generally better>

Machine specs:
ASUS EeeBox EB1037
Intel Celeron J1900
Nvidia Geforce GT 820m
4 GB RAM

Well, its one of several issues:

1. most likely is that its making too much heat and throttling your CPU

2. you have it in low power mode. Look here in part 2 to see how to increase performance on Nvidia cards: https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-unofficial-laptop-performance-guide

3. You aren't running the most up to date driver, 340.53


Either way, the CPU is WAAAAAAYYYYYY to slow to play anything more than lightweight games in Dolphin. How long have you had this little PC?

1. Throttlestop says there's no CPU throttling going on and temperatures are quite normal.

2. I've set all the nvidia settings to maximize performance. When I run 3DMark, the dedicated GPU scores much higher.

3. This happened with up-to-date drivers.

The PC is brand new, though it's more for XBMC rather than game playing, and I do understand the CPU is not particularly powerful. Still, it's weird how the integrated graphics still outperform the nvidia card on dolphin.

1. Ok

2. Don't force anything through the driver, only max power performance.

3. ok, just checking

In that case, this is an odd issue.


You might want to look into returning it and building a better HTPC that has some better specs if you want to play Dolphin.

Hi Domovoi,
have you managed to solve the issue?
I also own an EB1037 and I have the exact same problem (I do not know how to solve it though...).

Thanks in advance
cheers

The GPU you have is just a reclocked GeForce GT 620M, which itself is just a shrink of the GeForce GT 420M. It's the very low end of nvidia GPUs. It's quite possible to get a higher framerate with the intel one ...

(06-24-2015, 10:40 PM)degasus Wrote: [ -> ]The GPU you have is just a reclocked GeForce GT 620M, which itself is just a shrink of the GeForce GT 420M. It's the very low end of nvidia GPUs. It's quite possible to get a higher framerate with the intel one ...

many thanks.
all in all what you say makes perfect sense

thanks again
take care
cheers

(06-24-2015, 10:40 PM)degasus Wrote: [ -> ]The GPU you have is just a reclocked GeForce GT 620M, which itself is just a shrink of the GeForce GT 420M. It's the very low end of nvidia GPUs. It's quite possible to get a higher framerate with the intel one ...

Are you sure ? Notebookcheck doesn't seem to agree with you
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-820M.108477.0.html
It's based on GT 540M which can handle dolphin at 2.5xIR .
It's faster than HD 4600 . I doubt the Baytrail's iGPU can beat HD 4600 if not 4 times slower

(06-25-2015, 12:03 AM)admin89 Wrote: [ -> ]Are you sure ? Notebookcheck doesn't seem to agree with you

I did look on Wikipedia, and both say: "The GF117 is based on the optimized GF108 Fermi chip", and there are lots of GPUs with the GF108...

But if the Intel iGPU is faster in Dolphin then this does not make sense
@OP wrote :

Quote:But when I run 3DMark11, the 820m's score is significantly higher than the Intel HD Graphics score (about double).