FPS drop cause sound lag during loading in hardware mode
#1
My Specs:
Operating System = 8.1 Microsoft (build 9200), 64-bit
Physical RAM = 6033 MB
CPU name = Intel® Core™ i5-4200H CPU @ 2.80GHz
CPU speed = 2.792 ghz (4 logical threads)
GPU = GTX 950M 4GB

Setting used (pcsx2-v1.3.1-707-g854403a): SS in attachment and below

When it happens: When the game is trying to load data from HDD (especially voice) and happen only in hardware mode

Ranting Laugh :
ok, i dont know if this behavior is normal or not but i cant find anything about it from google search. Basically when in hardware mode, if pcsx2 is reading data from hdd like loading a save (guarantee to happen), move to a new area..etc...the fps drop to 48 for a split second and go back up. This cause the sound to stutter (like watching a movie on bad dvd and the sound goes "errhhhh") when using timestretch and stop for that split second when using async. If i use peops sound plugin the sound will loop. At first i only have Kingdom hearts and thought that was normal but now i test with atelier iris 1 and the problem is the same (super annoying cuz this game is a rpg and it loads stuffs alot even in battle ==' and the lag can be 1s). It happens during cutscene also when the game trying to load new voice. btw if the data alr loaded (in RAM) then the lag does not occur (like going back and forth between the 2 area)

Something to set straight first incase someone asks:
1st: i monitor the EE and VU they are as low as they can be. Kingdom hearts alr 25 hours in and zero frame drop even during the most intense fight but drop in a friggin loading? seriously. Atelier is a 2d game so that throw my specs problem out of the window
2nd: Since it involves reading data from hdd so i monitor disk usage with process explorer and there's no sign of spike in disk usage during the lag happen so i dont think it's the hdd or maybe 7200rpm not enough? But again since it loading stuffs so SW or HW shouldnt make any differents. Why only HW?
3rd: Software mode does not produce this lag so i thought it bc of the resolution so i change to native in HW but didnt work (not my specs then)
4th: Try every setting possible including some stuffs found on google (change VU0 to SuperVU, disable speed hack, use different sound plugin, check HDD DMA mode)

Lastly, of course using software mode solve the problem but it is ugly as ****. Atelier game has some weird motion blur or something, when you move the background distorted and then goes back to normal after a second. High res make it much less visible

also a video ex i found on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaLEmLQdwRg
at 0:34 when he opens the help menu you can hear it but atlease his lag doesnt occur much other than that especially during cutscene.

I've been fixing it for a couple of days now but still no luck so here i am asking for the pros to help me. Thanks for reading (no seriously, dont know if ppl nowaday can read a long post or just tl;dr) and pardon my english Laugh

   
   
   
   
   
   
Reply

Sponsored links

#2
Your solution:
SPU2-X -> Synchronizing Mode -> Switch from Timestretch to Async Mix

I still would not believe that this is a HW renderer only problem is. The culprit is highly probable somewhere in the core and not in the gs plugin.

Btw. 7200rpm are the max speed of your disk. Neither the momentary speed nor the acceleration. If your HDD is standing still due to power saving it is not rotating with 7200rpm. If the HDD was standing still due to power saving and is accelerated because you requested data... it is again not running at 7200rpm.


And the last one (just naively calculating):
If your HDD achieves 150MiB/s and your savestate is like 50MB you would need 1/3 of a second to load the whole data to ram. A freeze of 1/3 of a second would reduce your framerate as well by 33%. You have a drop of 4% so pcsx2 was freezing for 4% of a second. 150MiB/s*4%*1s is 6MiB. So if your savestate is like 6MiB this sounds normal.
Reply
#3
(07-23-2015, 07:58 PM)willkuer Wrote: Your solution:
SPU2-X -> Synchronizing Mode -> Switch from Timestretch to Async Mix

I still would not believe that this is a HW renderer only problem is. The culprit is highly probable somewhere in the core and not in the gs plugin.

Btw. 7200rpm are the max speed of your disk. Neither the momentary speed nor the acceleration. If your HDD is standing still due to power saving it is not rotating with 7200rpm. If the HDD was standing still due to power saving and is accelerated because you requested data... it is again not running at 7200rpm.


And the last one (just naively calculating):
If your HDD achieves 150MiB/s and your savestate is like 50MB you would need 1/3 of a second to load the whole data to ram. A freeze of 1/3 of a second would reduce your framerate as well by 33%. You have a drop of 4% so pcsx2 was freezing for 4% of a second. 150MiB/s*4%*1s is 6MiB. So if your savestate is like 6MiB this sounds normal.

Thanks for tips but i alr try async mode. It only makes the sound goes out of sync with the video and make the sound skip instead of stutter. Basically it doesnt solve the lag problem. Power saving mode set to 30mins of inactive and when i said loading save i meant loading from the actual save not savestate Smile

btw, i play a bit more of Atelier and seem like the fps drop appear as soon as the character open their mouth (as in the character's voice came out) and no fps drop when changing area. So apparently it's not bc of data read from hdd but sound read from hdd make it lag....WHY @@. Already tried tons of SPU plugin (giga, peops, spu2-x ver 1.0-2.0). Appreciate any help of possible. thanks

Edit: Found a thread that have the same prob as mine: http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-FFX-minor...ges?page=2
User tsunami2311 also said that switch to SW eliminate the lag Sad RAMDISK also did not help in the thread also i just tried it =]]
Reply
#4
You can tighten up the timestretch to be more responsive by tweaking the settings under "Advanced" button, but yeh this is kinda normal, timestretch attempts to speed up and slow down depending on the emulation speed. If you're getting lags like that, i would make sure your hard drive is not fragmented, if you are playing of an external hard drive i would move it on to an internal one.
[Image: ref-sig-anim.gif]

Reply
#5
(07-24-2015, 10:14 AM)refraction Wrote: You can tighten up the timestretch to be more responsive by tweaking the settings under "Advanced" button, but yeh this is kinda normal, timestretch attempts to speed up and slow down depending on the emulation speed. If you're getting lags like that, i would make sure your hard drive is not fragmented, if you are playing of an external hard drive i would move it on to an internal one.

HDD alr fragmented Laugh Btw i just figured out which cause the lag. It's the HDD after all....maybe. So i use resource monitor in Taskmanager to monitor the response time of the iso (atelier game). The response time normally between 15~30ms then when the lag happens it suddenly rise to 90 or even 200ms. So does this mean that the HDD not fast enough? I also use process monitor to monitor what pcsx2 was doing during the lag and when lag happen it show "Un-cached I/O, Paging I/O..." (dont know what this mean maybe s/o can use it)

Can anyone reproduce my step? Play some game and monitor it with resource monitor. Maybe sudden rise to 200ms is normal.........
Reply
#6
You said you tried using a ramdisk so I don't think it's a hdd issue
Reply
#7
(07-25-2015, 08:39 AM)Rassane Wrote: You said you tried using a ramdisk so I don't think it's a hdd issue

Forgot about that. RAMDISK also lag but i think it's pcsx2 that lag. Load an actual save lag, mana bath and battle to explore map lag is normal i think since it's happen every time whether HDD lag only on first load. Using RAMDISK the response time is 0ms all time so it eliminate all the lag like when character speaks s/t.

So i focus my search on HDD i found smt about "APM". My HDD is HGST. This drive apparently park the reading head every secs. So maybe when pcsx2 request data the currently parked head cant keep up. I tried using crystal disk to disable APM to keep the head moving. The result so far is quite good. Reponse time 99% never pass the 15ms mark. Played for 30mins and only 1 lag with reponse time of 50ms compare to previous 200ms in every damn cutscene. I'll test a little bit more. Maybe it's really is that APM thingy
Reply




Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)