Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Hello everyone!
I am trying to trace why I am having issues with Dolphin Emulator on my PC. My specs are:
- Intel Core 2 Quad @ 2.25GHz
- Nvidia GTX 1650 4GB
- 8GB DDR3 @ 1066MHz
- 256GB Silicon Power SSD
- EVGA 430 watt PSU
- Windows 10 home (unactivated)
I have checked my usage while emulating and the CPU useage has not gone above 60%. GPU hasn't gone above 40%. I am trying to figure out where the bottleneck/issue is. All my drivers are up to date and so is Windows.

The specific issue I am experiencing is I can only get 40-50fps while emulating Wii games. I have tried all the backends, Vulkan seems to be the best. When the FPS drops it stretches out the audio and makes the game very unpleasant to play. I have tested this with Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Bros Wii.

Do you know the exact model of your CPU? "Intel Core 2 Quad" covers a number of CPUs. Windows Task Manager should tell you (go to the Performance tab and select CPU as the graph to display).

In any case, I'm going to say your CPU is probably too slow for Dolphin. Intel Core 2 CPUs will struggle to run many games at full speed. They weren't particularly fast for Dolphin back in the day (I used to have one) and Dolphin has become a bit more demanding to run since those CPUs were released.

You're unlikely to see CPU usage reach 100% because Dolphin will only use 2 cores/threads for the bulk of its performance. If you have more, Dolphin doesn't (and can't really) take advantage of them. Chances are, if you look at CPU usage per-core/per-thread on your machine, you'll see 2 pegged at 100% and the other 2 not doing much. In that case, your total CPU utilization is 50%, but Dolphin is maxing out the cores/threads it can use.

Ideally, you'll probably need an upgrade. Now, you could try messing with the "Emulated CPU Clock Override" setting (hit the Config button in Dolphin and go to the Advanced tab). Lower values may make it easier for your hardware to run the game. Of course, it could make the game unstable. It's not recommended, but it is an option.

That makes perfect sense. I will upgrade my CPU and go from there. Thanks