Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

First off my current specs is:
ryzen 5 3600(previous fx 8370)
8 gig ram
Rtx 2060

So, I just last week upgraded my computer system from a AM3 Fx 8370 build to a AM4 Ryzen 3600 build. Still kept the same video card and amount of memory(of course the memory was ddr4 2400 with Ryzen build vs DDR3 AM3). With my FX 8370 build I had no prob playing the few Wii games I play in Stereoscopic 3D. I only really play Mario Galaxy 2 and Sonic Color rings. I normally played Mario Galaxy in nvidia DSR 4K resolution and it ran at 58-60fps. Sonic Color Rings ran at 27-30fps, at Nvidia DSR 4K resolution. This was without any extra HD texture packs just as is, though I had anisotropic filtering at x16 and FXAA turned on.
I know in the system recommendations for Hardware it recommend Ryzen cpu but my FX8370 worked fine for my games(though it did struggle in SCR). However, I decided it was time to upgrade to the newer AMD Ryzen cpu so I bought a Ryzen AM4 mobo and ryzen 3600(6 core @ 3.6 ghz). I thought going Ryzen, like recommend, would really increase fps and allow me to turn on extra bells and wistles but after some test I saw barely anything in FPS increase. In Sonic Color rings it was still at the 27-30fps with the occasional dip into 24fps like it was with my FX 8370. WHATS THE DEAL??? Am I missing something??? I could have just stayed on my FX 8370 longer, lol.

tl;dr - You're looking at FPS performance that's tied to the GPU, not CPU. You're using the same GPU, so you get the same performance.

One thing you should be aware of is that the CPU only affects the speed/FPS when it is the limiting factor in Dolphin. If the CPU is the bottleneck, upgrading to a faster one will result in a boost to FPS. Often times, this happens when the game itself is demanding to run in Dolphin on any hardware (e.g. Rogue Squadron 3) or the given hardware is too weak to run Dolphin adequately (e.g. using a low-clock ultra-low-voltage CPU for most games in Dolphin).

On the other side, the GPU only affects the speed/FPS when it is the limiting factor in Dolphin. Many times these days, this happens when trying to raise the graphical output from Dolphin beyond what the GPU can handle at fullspeed, i.e. raising the internal resolution too high or adding demanding amounts of AA.

So, to understand what's happening here, I'd say you were never bottlenecked by your old CPU, but your GPU. For Dolphin, you can basically think of being bottlenecked by the CPU by answering this question. "If I run the game at 1x internal resolution, no AA, no enhancements, does it run at fullspeed?"

If no, then your CPU is likely the bottleneck*, since even most integrated GPUs handle 1x IR without issue, and the fault will lie with another component.

If yes, your CPU isn't going to bottleneck your system when raising the resolution; your GPU, however, will then become the bottleneck as you add more demanding features for it to handle.

If you really want to see where the Ryzen beats your old FX, test both machines with Dolphin at 1x IR, no enhancements, and disable any frame rate/speed limits. The Ryzen will run laps around the FX in terms of FPS. To grossly simply a bunch of technical stuff, that's where the bulk of Dolphin's CPU workload goes towards, getting the game up and running as long as the GPU doesn't slow things down. After that, most slowdowns originate from the GPU's workload, depending on what it's tasked with handling.

* There may be cases where both the CPU and GPU are too weak to run Dolphin fullspeed even at 1x IR. In that case, it's harder to distinguish which one is at fault.