Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Hi,

I wanted to run Dolphin on an old PC I found at work. Problem is: Only about 40 Frames (60%) and I really dont know why...

Here are my Specs:

Intel Core Quad 2 Q 8300 4x2.5GHZ
4 GB DDR2 Ram (800)
GTX 760
WD 160 GB HDD (Could be the Problem? )

So first of all I need to say the the Hard Drive sometimes is used about 97% and sometimes its not used at all if I am looking at the TaskManager.

I dont get 60 Frames smooth even if I am playing Gamecube Games.... It doesnt matter if Iam playing on 1920px or 640px.... Even on my Asus T300FA i get better Frame rates...

The HDD (Diagnostic Tool) looks okay... But maybe its just to slow for Dolphin. Before buying a SSD i would like to ask you if this could be the problem.

CPU is never running at 100% and the GPU... I mean its an GTX760... isnt really used at all.

What do you Guys think ? Could the CPU be to slow ? I also tried it on the same Specs but with an Intel Core Duo 2 2x3.0 Ghz and got no better results....

Maybe you could say me if its worth to try with an SSD or not. I thought if the T300FA with its low Specs could run smoothly Gamecube games this PC should definitly run them too..


Thanks for your help

The hard drive is pretty much never what limits Dolphin's performance. It's more likely to be something like your CPU, but I will leave that question to someone who knows more about CPU/GPU performance.

If you're using 4.0 like your profile says, you should update to the latest development version of Dolphin. It will improve the performance.

(03-20-2016, 02:15 AM)JosJuice Wrote: [ -> ]The hard drive is pretty much never what limits Dolphin's performance. It's more likely to be something like your CPU, but I will leave that question to someone who knows more about CPU/GPU performance.

If you're using 4.0 like your profile says, you should update to the latest development version of Dolphin. It will improve the performance.

Okay THX so far I thought it could be the drive because its the only thing which could be slower than in my notebook.

Your CPU is eight years old. This is what is slowing you down. That isn't good hardware anymore.

Dolphin will never use 100% of your CPU unless you only have two cores, because Dolphin does it's intensive work on two threads. (One if you turn off dual core mode)

I have a core 2 quad q8200 and I can play most games at full speed so it might be your settings.

Okay, so we got what I thought.... Could you maybe post your Settings ? That would be great to compare.

Here are the two CPU's I used for Dolphin.

http://ark.intel.com/de/compare/39107,83610

Both CPUs are weak, one because it's old, the other because it's an ultra-low-voltage CPU which means it will throttle fairly quickly. And the frequencies are not really high enough. You may try overclocking your Q8300, but I don't know how much that will help.

I doubt a Q8200 can play "most" games at full speed -- maybe most lightweight games.

(03-20-2016, 08:22 AM)leolam Wrote: [ -> ]Both CPUs are weak, one because it's old, the other because it's an ultra-low-voltage CPU which means it will throttle fairly quickly. And the frequencies are not really high enough. You may try overclocking your Q8300, but I don't know how much that will help.

I doubt a Q8200 can play "most" games at full speed -- maybe most lightweight games.

That might be true.... but it ran well on the slow CPU.... So why doesnt it run even as good on the stronger CPU... ?


If there werent Setups which have slower CPU and still run dolphin I wouldnt be asking.


I also tried it with an duo with 3.0 GHZ and there has not been any difference.

Thx for all the help guys.

Technically, any CPU can run Dolphin. You just won't get full speed with a weak CPU, which is your case and the same case for many other owners of AMD and weak CPUs.

The last Duo was released in 2010. That means that the newest Core 2 Duo is 6 years old, and that won't run Dolphin well. Just get a Haswell or newer non ULV CPU and you should be able to run everything at full speed.

Get a newer CPU , your CPU is way below the Dolphin requirement
Take a look at Dolphin Benchmark , your CPU is slower than the Real Wii
The current i3 6100 is about 3 times as fast as yours
In order to run most games near full speed with an older CPU like Core 2 Quad / Core 2 duo , you will have to overclock it to 3.6GHz or higher (I used to have a system like that)

Quote:I have a core 2 quad q8200 and I can play most games at full speed so it might be your settings.

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Lying is bad , you know