Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Hey everyone!

New to the forums, but I figured I'd post here first since it might help me learn more about what exactly Dolphin requires.

So I've recently been getting into using Dolphin on my desktop, which has had zero issues with it. My old Macbook just couldn't handle it though. Fortunately I just got a new laptop! It's an ASUS Zenbook UX430UN. Great build for the price. I'll post the specs below.

- 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8550U 1.80 GHz (Turbo 4.0 GHz, 4 Cores 8 Threads, 8 MB SmartCache, 15W)
- 512 GB SATA M.2 Solid State Drive
- 16 GB RAM
- NVIDIA GeForce MX150 2GB GDDR5 VRAM
- Integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620
- 14″ NanoEdge anti-glare LED-backlit (1920x1080)

I'm fairly certain that I'm well beyond the requirements for Dolphin, but I seem to be having trouble maintaining a stable framerate? While I frequently hit 60fps, I'm also mainly playing Project M and Smash Bros. Melee so I really need a stable framerate. However, I also seem to constantly jump between 60-55 fps. Mind you this is running Dolphin fullscreen on its absolute lowest settings. Once I jump up even to 720p, everything goes to trash.

I've also been doing extensive testing in Inshiiruka, which yields better results overall, even with Ishiiruka FX shaders enabled! I consistently bounce between 60-58fps whether I'm in 480p or 720p, which makes me think that's my cap. Still, isn't that pretty inconsistent? I was under the impression that Smash Bros ran at a constant 60fps lock. Without shaders, I can even jump up to 1080p and still hit 60-58fps, but my I also start getting fits of slowdown after a while, dropping in to 30fps before hopping back up, and I think it may be due to temperature.

Overall I think my results feel WAY too inconsistent for the hardware I have on board. Any suggestions?

You really shouldn't be lagging in melee. Are you in high performance mode and plugged in?

(07-18-2018, 06:15 AM)Helios Wrote: [ -> ]You really shouldn't be lagging in melee. Are you in high performance mode and plugged in?

I am in high performance mode and plugged in yes. I also have my laptop on a flat, hard surface, but it's still getting PRETTY hot. Curious if that could have something to do with it? I'm not also not running anything else at the same time.

Try running MSI afterburner and monitor both the CPU temps and Clock speed if you want to see if heat is effecting performance.

(07-18-2018, 06:41 AM)TKSilver Wrote: [ -> ]Try running MSI afterburner and monitor both the CPU temps and Clock speed if you want to see if heat is effecting performance.

Ok. What should I watch out for in particular? I don't have much experience testing for this stuff so I want to know what I should be looking at.

under monitoring select CPU tempratures (both the general temp and the per core temp if you want) and CPU clock speed (which is only per core). Make sure you add them to the OSD (on screen display) and then load up dolphin.

When you get to an area where it slows down check the temps and the clock speeds. If you dip below 1.8GHz for an extended period of time and your temps are sitting around or above 100c for an extended period of time then heat may be an issue for you. Temps around 75c are normal under use and not getting your actual max turbo speed (4.0GHz) but some turbo, are completely normal and fine.

Edit:
After some light google-fu research you might also want to check the GPU temp and GPU core clock since it seems that ASUS has set the GPU to do some heavy throttling of the GPU at 73c, but this may be inherent to more models with the mx150 then just ASUS ones.

(07-18-2018, 07:13 AM)TKSilver Wrote: [ -> ]under monitoring select CPU tempratures (both the general temp and the per core temp if you want) and CPU clock speed (which is only per core).  Make sure you add them to the OSD (on screen display) and then load up dolphin.

When you get to an area where it slows down check the temps and the clock speeds.  If you dip below 1.8GHz for an extended period of time and your temps are sitting around or above 100c for an extended period of time then heat may be an issue for you.  Temps around 75c are normal under use and not getting your actual max turbo speed (4.0GHz) but some turbo, are completely normal and fine.

Edit:
After some light google-fu research you might also want to check the GPU temp and GPU core clock since it seems that ASUS has set the GPU to do some heavy throttling of the GPU at 73c, but this may be inherent to more models with the mx150 then just ASUS ones.

I think you hit the nail on the head. After only about 5 minutes of play, my GPU reached 73c and the game dropped into the 40fps range at certain points. It even says my GPU usage was in the 90% area during that time. GPU was clocked at about 1450 throughout, but it says the max was 1747. My CPU temp was also hovering around 80-85c. CPU clock seemed to hit about 3685mhz, max was 3984.

Any ideas?

how the heck does ASUS mess up cooling that badly? The i7-8550U is not a particularly hot chip

Yeah, you have thermal throttling. not much you can do beyond researching ways to cool your laptop. maybe a cooling pad

(07-18-2018, 08:45 AM)Helios Wrote: [ -> ]how the heck does ASUS mess up cooling that badly? The i7-8550U is not a particularly hot chip

Yeah, you have thermal throttling. not much you can do beyond researching ways to cool your laptop. maybe a cooling pad

I've now read that even that doesn't help. Shit. To be fair, it is a REALLY compact package. I bought the laptop more for media production than gaming anyway, but if I can't even run Dolphin decently, I think I may send it back it pick up something else... Dammit. Something like this is even going to cut into media, not just gaming.

Now I'm wondering what else out there would be good around the $1000-$1200 price range.

The 15w tdp (remember intel effectively quotes tdp at 'base' frequency and turbo can go over), plus 25w for the mx150, plus the support electronics for both, both memory busses and chips, in a super thin case with no active cooling all adds up..