Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Howdy.

I've been using Dolphin to play Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 for a couple of years. I've been experiencing slower performance recently, maybe with the release of Dolphin 4, and wondered whether I should try installing an older version. I've done everything I can think of to reduce the graphics settings, etc. to their ordinary minimums, and I always run Dolphin on a fresh computer restart. It's possible that my processor is being speed-limited because of summer temperatures in my home, but I'm not convinced. Is it documented that older versions of Dolphin sometimes run better on older hardware?

Thanks for any advice!

--
Jabroni5
MBP Retina 2012 2.3Ghz Core i7 Ivy Bridge / nVidia GeForce GT 650M / Windows 7 Home x64 via. Bootcamp
"One day you'll make someone very happy. It won't last, however. Laryngitis is curable." -Unknown

Quote:I've done everything I can think of to reduce the graphics settings, etc. to their ordinary minimums

That will never work since your GT 650M can handle 1080p or even higher

Quote:It's possible that my processor is being speed-limited because of summer temperatures in my home, but I'm not convinced.

There is lifespan for thermal paste . The more you game the hotter heat your laptop will stress over on thermal paste -> lifespan will be shortened If it's completely death , your CPU and GPU will run hot like hell -> Both CPU and GPU speed will thottle down to keep the temp down
It's recommended to replace thermal compound every couple of years
You can check your temp by installing Realtemp and run it with game (via Dolphin) . Leave it 5 mins for the laptop to heat up then tell us what is your laptop's temp and speed
Keep in mind that every i5/i7 has turbo boost feature that help it boost up to a decent speed like 3000MHz (3.0GHz) . Your 2.3GHz is just stock speed . If your CPU is really running at that speed , you will suffer a lot in game

Thanks for your speedy reply, admin89.

Quote:That will never work since your GT 650M can handle 1080p or even higher

I hadn't thought about it that way before, that makes a lot of sense. I was aware that Dolphin doesn't actually use the graphics sub-processor for emulation, which does explain a lot about performance issues.

Quote:There is lifespan for thermal paste . The more you game the hotter heat your laptop will stress over on thermal paste -> lifespan will be shortened If it's completely death , your CPU and GPU will run hot like hell -> Both CPU and GPU speed will thottle down to keep the temp down
It's recommended to replace thermal compound every couple of years
You can check your temp by installing Realtemp and run it with game (via Dolphin) . Leave it 5 mins for the laptop to heat up then tell us what is your laptop's temp and speed
Keep in mind that every i5/i7 has turbo boost feature that help it boost up to a decent speed like 3000MHz (3.0GHz) . Your 2.3GHz is just stock speed . If your CPU is really running at that speed , you will suffer a lot in game

I didn't know that i5/i7 had a turbo boost feature. I've been continually impressed at how speedy the 2.3GHz i7 processor in my 2012 MBP has run Dolphin, and other games/gaming platforms too. Do you know if it's possible to re-apply thermal paste to this particular model computer? Also, my guess is I'd want to bring it to a computer shop to have someone else do it, instead of doing it myself. I will absolutely give the Realtemp application a try next opportunity I get, and post my results here.

Am I correct to assume that you don't think Dolphin 4 is a likely culprit for the slowdown I've experienced?

-jabroni5

Applying thermal paste isn't a particularly dangerous thing to do. Just make sure you have the proper ESD crap (mat, wristband) and are in a safe environment.

To Admin89, or any other sympathetic reader,

I gave the Realtemp application a try, to monitor temperatures and clocking on my Macbook Pro Retina 2012 2.3Ghz during Dolphin emulation, to test a theory about diminished gaming performance, either due to degraded/poorly applied CPU thermal paste, or changes subsequent to a newer version of Dolphin.

I tried to edit the preferences to make Realtemp visible during fullscreen Dolphin emulation, but was unsuccessful, so I ran Dolphin in a window, with Realtemp running next to it. I played SMG 2 first, since that's the game I played when I last noticed the slowdown. Then I ran SMG 1 to see if I could get any different results. I did not allow the processors to fully cool between gaming instances.

RESULTS
CPU Speed (Mhz): Baseline of 1200 evenly across cores, spiking to 2200 during graphically rich scenes & loading stages. Spiking to about 3100 only very briefly during a loading phase in SMG 1
CPU Temp (Celcius): Spikes to between 100 and 105 on all four cores at Dolphin emulation start, then levels off to about 80 after fans spin up to what sounds like max RPMs
Max CPU load: Pretty much always <40% - usually hovers at about 30%

OBSERVATIONS
The slowdown that I have observed (possibly since Dolphin 4) is consistent; Slower game performance throughout. The emulation is fluid, and the frame rate is high enough, but the game speed is just a little too slow to be playable. When CPU Mhz DOES spike, the in-game performance improves noticeably. Never stays spiked long enough to see if it would overheat processors though. CPU temperatures seem to remain pretty constant at just over 80c while game runs sluggishly. Now that fall has arrived here in Northeastern New England, temperatures in my office are back to normal, which rules out higher room temperatures (unless something got fried when I did something processor-intensive on my computer in high heat without realizing it, causing my CPU’s thermal paste to ooze or degrade, or something).

CONCLUSION
I feel like my gut instinct was correct, that the Macbook Pro CPU's megahertz is being throttled for some reason. Now that I've had a chance to test it out in a colder office, also to see some raw data using the Realtemp application, it seems to me that if Dolphin (or whatever Windows 7 internal subprocess controls Intel processor Core i7 Turboboost features) could just reclock the CPU a little more aggressively, I wouldn't notice a slowdown. CPU Mhz DID spike to FAR above stock CPU clock speed of 2.3Ghz at least once during gameplay, so I conclude that there is no setting active to limit overclocking. Maybe Dolphin 4 has stricter processor clocking limitations to avoid hardware destruction lawsuits?

Thanks very much to the developers for creating and supporting such an excellent emulator. I am not a scientist or engineer, I am a hack. I hope my method is ok Thanks to anyone who may have some suggestions.

-jabroni5

Quote:Baseline of 1200 evenly across cores, spiking to 2200 during graphically rich scenes & loading stages. Spiking to about 3100 only very briefly during a loading phase in SMG 1

I have 3 laptops . All of them run at maximum speed with Dolphin
Seem like your laptop's sensor knows the CPU&GPU will overheat if it keeps running at full speed . That's why it underclocks itself when it reaches 80C to prevent overheating
You can try throttlestop to force CPU run at custom speed
https://dolphin-emu.org/docs/faq/#my-lap...-it-should

Looks like that's exactly what I needed to know, thanks again admin89! So if I used throttlestop to force my CPU to sustain ~2.2Ghz on my 2.3Ghz Ivy Bridge, instead of backing off to 1.2Ghz, 90% of the time, what would be a reasonable maximum sustained operating temperature? I'm sure 100-105C is too high, and it's surely different for different manufacturers, but maybe 90C to 95C would be permissable? I understand that any kind of catastrophic hardware failure caused by using throttlestop irresponsibly would be my fault, and so I'd definitely want to avoid a meltdown

Quote:I'm sure 100-105C is too high, but maybe 90C to 95C would be permissable

85C or higher temps will damage your chip and mobo
90C or higher temps , your laptop is in critical condition
100-105C your chip will melt down

Quote:and it's surely different for different manufacturers

Nope , each CPU generation is different . Laptop manufacturer does not make CPU , intel and amd are the one who do that

Doesn't like, every mobo now a days just kill power to the system if the chip hits 90-100c?

Throttlestop stops that process . It will be a dangerous program if you don't know to use it
I saw macbook air hit 99C when using throttlestop