specs: core duo e6600 2.4ghz (oc to 3.0 ghz)
radeon x1600 512mb
2gb ddr2 corsair (I think) at 667 mhz (tuned for the oc)
win xp home
Here is the short version of my epic testing for playable frame rates (done with current pcsx2 beta and beta plugins):
1) gsdx ssse3 0.1.15 (on native) and p.e.op.s. spu 1.9.0 with a fistful of speed hacks enabled. Pics later but assume I set everything to optimal performance. I had max frame rate and cpu capped at about 40% from casual observation. Sound reminded me of a crappy walkie talkie and occasionally video would hang for a half second. Looks terrible when it gets to the camera/walking tutorial.
2) same as before with all the speed hacks disabled. Identical frame rate and cpu usage without the intermittent video hang.
3) same as 2) except I switched to spu2-x 1.2.0. No change to frame rate or cpu usage, but it sounded a lot nicer.
4) Turned off native (default 1024x1024 reso). Runs great until any kind of effects processing starts to happen. The config screen runs at 99% cpu and stutters its way through. The opening video runs smoothly. Waking up is just as stuttery as the config screen. Man it's pretty though.
5) Enabled: 2x cycle rate, intc sync hack, iop x2 cycle rate (dunno if this is redundant or not), idle loop fast-forward, status flag hack, and VU cycle stealing to the second tick (moderate speedup). Keep in mind I have no idea what any of these mean, and my casual perusal of other performance threads haven't taught me much. Gets a little choppy in the intro, I assume due to the speed hacks based on their warnings, and once it enters the config mode I see (and hear) identical stuttering and 99% cpu usage. Test abandoned. Maybe it's that I can't configure speed hacks properly, but I'm hoping this thread will help explain my failures as a tweaker.
6) Turned the reso down to 800x800 for giggles. A wee bit better performance but still too stuttery and 99% cpu usage. At this point I foresee the same headache that was tuning my OC to stable and turn to all of you.
Here's a shot of all the configurations I can think to list. Everything is as it was for the first, highly successful and terrible looking test, including both sound configs. I'm hoping to tune the game to both run well and not in native resolution. Any tips for speed hacks and other optimizations I can try would be greatly appreciated, although I think I'm bottlenecking at a poor gpu. Pardon my terrible cropping job, but that's why this is last instead of first.
edit: I also tried disallowing 8-bit textures which provided a small graphical improvement for another 10-20% cpu (capping at about 60%). It's still nothing like I hope it will be.
radeon x1600 512mb
2gb ddr2 corsair (I think) at 667 mhz (tuned for the oc)
win xp home
Here is the short version of my epic testing for playable frame rates (done with current pcsx2 beta and beta plugins):
1) gsdx ssse3 0.1.15 (on native) and p.e.op.s. spu 1.9.0 with a fistful of speed hacks enabled. Pics later but assume I set everything to optimal performance. I had max frame rate and cpu capped at about 40% from casual observation. Sound reminded me of a crappy walkie talkie and occasionally video would hang for a half second. Looks terrible when it gets to the camera/walking tutorial.
2) same as before with all the speed hacks disabled. Identical frame rate and cpu usage without the intermittent video hang.
3) same as 2) except I switched to spu2-x 1.2.0. No change to frame rate or cpu usage, but it sounded a lot nicer.
4) Turned off native (default 1024x1024 reso). Runs great until any kind of effects processing starts to happen. The config screen runs at 99% cpu and stutters its way through. The opening video runs smoothly. Waking up is just as stuttery as the config screen. Man it's pretty though.
5) Enabled: 2x cycle rate, intc sync hack, iop x2 cycle rate (dunno if this is redundant or not), idle loop fast-forward, status flag hack, and VU cycle stealing to the second tick (moderate speedup). Keep in mind I have no idea what any of these mean, and my casual perusal of other performance threads haven't taught me much. Gets a little choppy in the intro, I assume due to the speed hacks based on their warnings, and once it enters the config mode I see (and hear) identical stuttering and 99% cpu usage. Test abandoned. Maybe it's that I can't configure speed hacks properly, but I'm hoping this thread will help explain my failures as a tweaker.
6) Turned the reso down to 800x800 for giggles. A wee bit better performance but still too stuttery and 99% cpu usage. At this point I foresee the same headache that was tuning my OC to stable and turn to all of you.
Here's a shot of all the configurations I can think to list. Everything is as it was for the first, highly successful and terrible looking test, including both sound configs. I'm hoping to tune the game to both run well and not in native resolution. Any tips for speed hacks and other optimizations I can try would be greatly appreciated, although I think I'm bottlenecking at a poor gpu. Pardon my terrible cropping job, but that's why this is last instead of first.
edit: I also tried disallowing 8-bit textures which provided a small graphical improvement for another 10-20% cpu (capping at about 60%). It's still nothing like I hope it will be.