Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

So I'm a relatively new to Dolphin. I used it 5 months ago but I always got slowdowns during games. They definitely were playable but not "perfect" which was my goal sadly lol.

My system:
4770k
8GB Ram 1600
HD 7950
Windows 8 (Not 8.1 so if that would help I can upgrade)

I used to get slowdowns due to audio I'm guessing. I'm about to do some testing today but was curious to know a couple of things:

Which build should I be using for best performance?
-I read on some forums/places that I should be using not the latest stable build but a more recent build that can have up to 30% performance improvements.

What are some tips for AMD GPUs with Vsync?
-I read a thread on here with users discussing Vsync and some were saying that they found immprovements in Vsync performance by enabling vsync through their driver settings on their GPU rather than through Dolphin settings. Also I saw something about Triple Buffer (something I forget), helping quite a bit as well to perceived smoothness.

Finally, any tips for my hardware to help me get good performance with Dolphin or things you used that helped you? I just realized right when I stopped using Dolphin that you could set profiles for the games themselves rather than changing global settings for each games. That was huge to me but by then I'd mucked my settings so much I stopped so I am trying to get a fresh start here and actually reach out for help rather than looking all around the internet for help when many of the threads I'm reading are probably referencing old versions of Dolphin anyway.

(10-05-2014, 01:26 AM)tential Wrote: [ -> ]Which build should I be using for best performance?

The latest development builds. There are so many changes between the stable builds and the development builds. To get a glance of what has been happening, check out the Dolphin Progress Reports on the website.

Quote:What are some tips for AMD GPUs with Vsync?

Simply having vsync ticked seems to be okay to me, so roll with that?

Quote:Finally, any tips for my hardware to help me get good performance with Dolphin or things you used that helped you? I just realized right when I stopped using Dolphin that you could set profiles for the games themselves rather than changing global settings for each games. That was huge to me but by then I'd mucked my settings so much I stopped so I am trying to get a fresh start here and actually reach out for help rather than looking all around the internet for help when many of the threads I'm reading are probably referencing old versions of Dolphin anyway.

You have great hardware for Dolphin in general. The settings vary per game you want to play and most of them have the recommended (more accurate, non game-breaking, but more demanding) settings enabled by default via the inis.
You can also always overclock your CPU if needed, but you should definitely be fine on stock.

As for how to set up settings on a per game basis, check out this thread by LttP.

Thanks and I JUST tried the dev builds. I realize now that when I first tried dolphin I used the stable build. I did not realize how old that build is.
Funny thing first time I loaded up Dolphin yesterday to play with it my FPS was limited at 5 FPS. Seems my big culpirate was I had AA at 8x... (Why I thought I could EASILY handle 8x or even 4x AA with 4x ir res on the most demanding games possible is beyond me).

After doing some tweaking yesterday with my graphics settings and switching to the latest dev builds I'm seeing great performance.

I can't wait to get the new sensor bar and try out some Wii games with the "full" experience without having to jar myself out of it with using the mouse or something.

Did get a crazy crash in Mario Kart Double Dash though.

Seems like I'll have to learn how to use that Gameini thread that looks like it can solve all my issues for me right? So if I'm not mistaken, I can leave my global settings at the most inclusive settings possible for games, then just edit the Gameini with any specific settings I need for a game to work so that I don't have to constantly change my global settings?

tential Wrote:Seems like I'll have to learn how to use that Gameini thread that looks like it can solve all my issues for me right? So if I'm not mistaken, I can leave my global settings at the most inclusive settings possible for games, then just edit the Gameini with any specific settings I need for a game to work so that I don't have to constantly change my global settings?

Yes that's how you're supposed to use them.

(10-08-2014, 03:31 AM)NaturalViolence Wrote: [ -> ]

tential Wrote:Seems like I'll have to learn how to use that Gameini thread that looks like it can solve all my issues for me right? So if I'm not mistaken, I can leave my global settings at the most inclusive settings possible for games, then just edit the Gameini with any specific settings I need for a game to work so that I don't have to constantly change my global settings?

Yes that's how you're supposed to use them.

Ya I'll have to really set this up. I've done some more testing today now that I have my Wii Mote + Dolphin Bar.

SMG 2 is great however I still was getting stutters with 3x IR and 2x AA which doesn't seem that much for a 4770+HD7950. Will have to further tweak settings or perhaps upgrade to a GTX 970 eventually if I want the increased graphical fidelity.

Wiimote + Dolphin Bar performed very well though.

Interested to see what the October Blog reads for this month in terms of performance improvements.