Dynasty Warriors 5 & FFXII

[nosisab Ken Keleh]

The FPS drastic fall may be due to vsync (vertical synchronization) enabled at the video card driver, try the option that disables it for it reduces the FPS to about half for anything that can't achieve the actual refresh rate.

The fluctuation is normal because the final result is an interation between EE, VU and GS, still the symptom tells VU cycle stealing is too high for the game. Although it relives the load over the CPU it reduces the actual output to feed the GS, hence the strange behavior. Indeed the CPU is the main bottleneck although the video card is in the mainstream- range too, put the resolution in native while trying to get full speed with minimal collateral effect from the speed hacks, once it's achieved you can try enhancing the visual eyecandy.

I don't know how well this CPU overclocks and it may be not good idea with stock cooler, in this I can't help you.

[JTD]

guys i have a question... im playing FFXII on PCSX2 and i get 60FPS no problem with speedhacks, but it says it uses lets say 30% of my processor, but then the FPS go to 40 for a moment but the processor usage is the same? whats that all about? when i use frame limit it uses around 20-(max)50% processor, when i dont it uses up to 80%... how do i fix this? is it because i have i7 930 with 4 cores and pcsx2 uses only 2 and my cpu is clocked at 2.00GHz (***** stock cooler)? if i clock it higher will it be better? i have intel core i7 930 with 4 cores (currently clocked at 2.00GHz), Sapphire HD 5830 GDDR5 1GB, 3X2 DDR3 RAM...

The i7 930 should run at 2.8 GHz stock.
Go into your BIOS and disable the following:
C1E
Speed Step
Turbo Boost
Then check your CPU speed in windows.

You should be able to overclock your CPU (with a big aftermarket Heatsink, such as this one [link]) to at least 3.5 GHz.
A lot of people can get it up to 4.0 or 4.2 GHz.

The best way to learn how to overclock that processor is google searches!
To aid you in your google searches, you can try the following things:
i7 920 4GHz
i7 930 4GHz
i7 930 air
i7 920 air

and so on...

The posts about overclocking the i7 920 should also apply to the 930. The only difference between the two is a higher multiplier.
Before you do any overclocking, though, here are a few tips:
1. Make sure you first determine the max volts your CPU can handle, as well as the max safe temperature (in Celsius).
2. Find out the recommended timings of your RAM, and recommended volts. Search the manufacturer's website of your RAM to get that info.
3. Read as many guides and forums as you can, and make notes!

After you get a nice, stable overclock, don't forget to disable all of the Speed Hacks.
Also be sure to use the "SSE4" version of GSdx 9 (Windows XP),
or the "SSE4" version of GSdx 10/11 (Vista / Win 7).
Heck, with my lowly Athlon II x2 240 (overclocked to 3.5 GHz) I get nearly constant 60 FPS (NTSC) with FF 12.
Your CPU should be blowing mine outta the water, because the base architecture of the i7 is superior to the Athlon II X2 (by about 30 %).

Oh, and don't forget to set "Interlace" to "None" in GSdx for FF 12, if you haven't already done so.

Here's a starter link for ya:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/256144...king-guide

[TheCromaru]

no, its not speed step, or turbo boost, its just my motherboard has an option to set maximum multipliers, and its set to 15, and it should be 21 to get 2.8GHz, but when i tried that, the temperature went incredibly high when using cinebench, so when i opened it up what do i see? a ***** cooler that comes with the processor, and imo it cant cool the i7 at full load well enough... so i ran some tests and i figure i can run it around 2.3GHz with normal temperatures until i get a better cooler... so i guess my bios figured out that the cooler isnt good enough, and auto set the multipliers to 15 to ensure the processor wont overheat... and dont ask me what mother board it is, all i know is that its specially made for OC and that it has a bunch of features i cant even put to use properly... it is really advanced...