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+--- Thread: Dolphin gradually slowing down without changing any settings? (/Thread-dolphin-gradually-slowing-down-without-changing-any-settings)
Dolphin gradually slowing down without changing any settings? - suzu - 03-05-2012
Hi.
I was using Dolphin 3.0-408, Windows 7 Ultimate (32bit) w/ ADATA 60GB SSD, Intel Core i5 2310 CPU (quadcore), 4GB RAM DDR3 (Intel HD 2000 graphics.) to emulate a few Wii titles and 1 NGC title.
After I installed Dolphin they all played at full speed or close to it within a few percent. Some exceptions like the videos in Kirby Adventure (Wii) or the beginning of SMG (Wii) slowed down but the games played fine for actual game-play.
After a week or so the same games started playing at %30. Didn't think I changed anything in the config. At the lowest graphics settings possible they were full speed and I had the internal resolution and anisotropic cranked a little because it could handle it smoothly without stuttering. One day I loaded a save state and the performance was just terrible.
After messing with the settings and getting no changes I gave it up and left it alone for a while and then tried again later ( again without changing anything ) and it dropped from 30% to 18% on the same game and scenes (!?).
I set everything to the lowest settings now and it's running at 60% or less but that's still far less then it used to be. No idea what's wrong.
I remembered I've seen this before on my old laptop ( intel core 2 duo cpu, nvidia gs9800m or something like that for graphics card ). Games were fine when I first installed Dolphin but eventually they started acting slow as molasses without me really changing anything ( as far as I can recall ).
HDD fragmenting was the only thing I can think of that would actually make a game slow down progressively over time so I defragged but my HD was only > 10% < 20% fragmented and it's an SSD. Didn't make any difference after defrag either way.
Is there anything cached by Dolphin anywhere that would cause this issue gradually that I can just delete or something?
Also I downloaded a newer build of Dolphin and tested that ( latest on the website afaik ) and it seemed to be slow.
At the time the slowdown issue started I also couldn't load save states properly. It freezes on "Decompressing savestate..." or at least that's the last thing I see on the active window. Then it crashes. ( I played both wii/ngc titles for a considerable time before this problem started without any issues @ save states. )
I've seen other threads in this forum about Dolphin slowing down but those threads didn't seem to have any solutions in them either.
My core multiplier is 29x max. ( I think ) @ 2.90 GHz. I noticed the clock multiplier stuck on 8x-9x ( according to CPU-Z ) and did not rise when running Dolphin at all - thus it was stuck constantly @ 800-900 Mhz. Firefox and other apps did raise the multiplier after the CPU was pushed a little.
I disabled "speedstep" and CE1 settings in the BIOS for stepping down the CPU @ idle load. Now CPU-Z shows a clock multiplier of 16x when idle ( 1596.3 Mhz ) and when I push it slightly with another app like Firefox, it rises to 29x which is the max. multiplier and goes at full speed.
In Dolphin it is pretty much stuck at 16x though and does not appear to increase the clock multiplier at all. Save states still crash when I try to load them.
CPU is cool, afaik and seems like every app other than Dolphin sees sudden speed increases, according to Intel TurboBoost monitor and CPU-Z.
Just not Dolphin. The CPU usage can go up to 70%-76% but yet not rise the CPU multiplier at all.
( Not sure why the multiplier is 16x at idle when even speedstep has been disabled. Should it not be 29x @ idle? )
Just trying to get the most out of the CPU and get Dolphin to work again decently. Thanks for any suggestions.
sz
( Games tested: Kirby (wii), Zelda Skyward Sword (wii), Murasama (Wii), Paper Mario (Gamecube). )
RE: Dolphin gradually slowing down without changing any settings? - Zee530 - 03-05-2012
Dolphin is a dual core app, fyi.
Use realtemp to check temps whilst dolphin is running, sounds like the cpu is overheating.
Savestates donot work when traversed between different versions by the way, try setting dolphin to high priority in the task manager and also give a screenshot of all your settings
RE: Dolphin gradually slowing down without changing any settings? - suzu - 03-05-2012
It's the same version between save states. It starts to load them, displays in yellow "Decompressing Savestate..." and then just crashes. Save states worked until recently though.
I'd be satisfied if I could even get the CPU multiplier to steady be steady @ 21x-29x.
Screenshots of the settings/config, w/ Dolphin @ High Priority:
RealTemp: Idle Loads
RealTemp: Dolphin 7x%-8x% CPU
Graphics and General tabs.
RE: Dolphin gradually slowing down without changing any settings? - Zee530 - 03-05-2012
YOUR PC IS OVERHEATING!!!! TURN OFF DOLPHIN RIGHT FRICKING NOW!!!
What kind of cooler are you using, if its the stock its obviously not doing a good job, i suggest you go and look for a new cooler, your processor is not staying at x29 multiplier cause the temps then could damage it and its noticed dolphin as the culprit and thus limited the multiplier when it's running, i'm sure once you get a decent cooler everything should get back to normal
Good night
RE: Dolphin gradually slowing down without changing any settings? - suzu - 03-05-2012
Yes it's the stock cooler that came packaged with the CPU. :T
Oh well. Thanks for the help.
RE: Dolphin gradually slowing down without changing any settings? - admin89 - 03-05-2012
Apply thermal compound "Arctic MX-4" on the CPU then overheating issue will be gone
RE: Dolphin gradually slowing down without changing any settings? - mbc07 - 03-05-2012
Try disabling all logging options of Dolphin (Go to View => Log Configuration and disable everything)...
This works for me in newer revisions (I get similar issues with any revision compiled after Gecko branch merge)
RE: Dolphin gradually slowing down without changing any settings? - admin89 - 03-05-2012
He didn't place any thermal compound on the CPU
If you look at his thermal status (Idle Loads pic) , it display "LOG"
RE: Dolphin gradually slowing down without changing any settings? - ExtremeDude2 - 03-05-2012
(03-05-2012, 06:55 AM)suzu Wrote: RealTemp: Idle Loads
RealTemp: Dolphin 7x%-8x% CPU
Dang, your idle is higher than my full blast
the cooler MUST have been install wrong.