Guide For Newbies
#1
Hi everyone

This is my first attempt of a guide to use pcsx2. I know that there are many guides out there but I thought I’d like to have a crack at it. Please comment if I need to improve the guide or need help. Any criticisms will be happily taken. Hope it helps.

I’ve seen a lot of people complain about speed for example many complain about not reaching full speed (60fps or 50fps) in games. Well the first thing you should look at is your pc specifications. Pc specs are often the main cause of slowdowns so make sure you check your specs before doubting the software itself. Pcsx2 requires a mid-high range CPU because emulation requires a lot of CPU power to convert the ps2 code into x86 code (pc code) meaning a CPU is usually the main bottleneck and a mid range CPU to run at a full speed. You don’t need a 5 GHz CPU to run pcsx2 although the more speed the better. An I5 CPU clocked at 3.6-4 GHz and gtx 650ti should serve you well however there are other alternatives. To get an idea of what CPU and GPU are good for pcsx2 check out these benchmarks of CPU and GPU.

http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-CPU-Bench...d-on-FFX-2
http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-GPU-Bench...-for-PCSX2

Certain GPU are good for pcsx2 emulation because of its specs. Koji explains in detail what specs of a GPU are important for emulation.

(06-24-2013, 10:58 PM)Koji Wrote: Bandwidth is what you want to look for, bus width and memory types are what determine bandwidth. Shader count is mostly a non-issue as long as you have anything above a low range card that said a card with a high bandwidth is going to come with enough shaders to cover. Memory size is more or less a non-issue since PS2 (and thus PCSX2) don't store a whole lot in V-ram, instead V-ram is constantly being updated. Thus the higher the bandwidth, the faster v-ram can be updated, the better performance you'll get.

Certain games require more CPU and GPU however most games require a more powerful cpu. To determine which of these processing units prevents you getting full speed then you only need to look at the EE% and GS% on the top.


If the EE% reaches over 90% occasionally that means that your computer is CPU limited and the GS% reaches over 90% then the GPU is considered the cause of the slow gameplay.
Now if you’re like me and you’re stuck with a CPU and GPU which isn’t that good and old well that could be the end of the road for ps2 emulation for you unless you upgrade hoever there are settings which can be used in pcsx2 to speed up games however this still doesn’t guarantee you full speed. Some of these settings require you to choose speed over quality so it’s your choice if you want speed or good quality graphics.
So the first settings are located in the emulation settings on the config tab. This takes you to the EE settings. I’ll explain what each setting affect the emulation.

EE Tab:
Emotion Engine and IOP: These settings should be left at default because the other none default options only slow down the emulation.

Round Mode: These settings changes how rounding of float numbers is calculated. To be honest I don’t see any speed difference between the options available but anyone can feel free to correct me.

Clamping Mode: This is set at normal however if set at none speed can increase but the compatibility decreases. I set this at none and I got a speedup so I personally recommend it.

VU Tab:
VU0: This is normally set at default but the super Vu Recompiler is usually faster and provides a speedup however it can be unstable in some games.

VU1: same as VU0

Speedhacks: These provide huge speedup to games for people lacking the power they need to run pcsx2 at full speed however too much of them can break a game so use wisely.

EE Cycle Rate: This depending on how far you move the slider across can give a moderate speedup. Setting the slider at 3 can cause stuttering audio so it is preferable to set it at 2.

VU Cycle Stealing: This is a unpredictable hack so try each setting to see which speeds up the game however this speed hack usually causes false fps reading meaning that for example it may say you are playing at 40fps but however it would be clearly noticeable that the game is running at a lower frame rate than it tells you.

The second settings which affect emulation are located in the video plug-in settings.
Renderer: This is what renders you graphics. There is hardware renderer and software.

Hardware: This relies on the GPU to render graphics. This is best renderer (I believe) because it is the fastest. I highly recommend this.

Software: This is usually slower depending on the CPU because it only relies on the CPU so if your CPU isn’t powerful then the hardware option is best for you.

Direct3D9 Vs Direct3D10 Vs Direct3D11: Direct3D10 and 11 are the fastest in terms of emulation speed. There is no difference between Direct3D10 and Direct3d11 so you can use either. I recommend the highest one you can use.

Native Res: This sets the resolution at what the ps2 would display. I’d use this if your GPU isn’t that good.

Scaling: This multiplies the original ps2 game resolution by a number for example lets say the resolution for a game was 500x500. If you set the scaling to 2x Native then the resolution would be 1000x1000 etc. this should be used if you got above a mid range GPU.

Custom Resolution: Here you can set your own resoulution for example here you can set the resoulution to 1920x1080 if your graphics card can handle it. Some games may require you to use scaling over custom resolution.

Shade Boost: If enables you can adjust brightness, contrast and saturation. This will increase emulation speed.

Texture filtering: This should be left off if your graphics card is not up to snuff. Leaving it off increase fps so it is recommended to those who have a low range GPU to leave it off to get the most fps out of your system.

Allow 8-bit textures: Air explains perfectly the effects of using 8 bit textures
(10-06-2009, 01:04 AM)Air Wrote: The difference is that typically GSdx converts 8-bit textures to 32 bit textures internally, which bloats the texture memory usage when they're uploaded to your video card memory. But it's faster for the video card to render from 32 bit textures, because 8-bit textures require an inline shader decoder.

So if a game uses a lot of 8-bit textures, it can flood video memory and run very slow; such games will run much faster with allowed 8-bit textures because extra shader work is less invasive than running out of video memory. But if a game only uses a few 8-bit textures and you allow 8-bit textures for use, it can slow things down because of extra shader work.

That’s all for the guide. Thanks to the people who I’ve quoted in my guide, they give really detail explanations. If you got any questions please feel free to ask.
System Specs
CPU:AMD FX 8350 3.5ghz turbo to 4ghz
GPU: Sapphire HD 7750 GDDR5
MOBO:Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Rev 5.0
RAM: 8GB
OS:Windows 8.1 64 Bit
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#2
dude here are many guides on the forum & i also made one quick & short for newbies
In my sig >>
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#3
And...is there is any rule stopping anyone from making "Guide For Newbies".
Anyone can make one but the question is,will the newbies like\use the guide the x user made or they will prefer a guide that some other used made.
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#4
I'm still surprised when I see "guide for newbies" made by newbies themselves, when devs already made 2 guides (a full and a short one) + a video for the ones who couldn't read.
this is just beyond me Blink
CPU : AMD Ryzen 7 3800X
Mobo : Asus PRIME B450-PLUS
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RAM : 16 Go
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#5
Changing settings is just to make pcsx2 work in a different way(get more speed or make some game work\look better)...pcsx2 can run games without changing anything(first time run...especially in portable mode)
If you are using the portable version and already place the bios in the bios directory,this is all it takes to run a game...start pcsx2=>choose your game=>run it
That's all
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#6
(07-18-2013, 09:23 AM)Preet Wrote: dude here are many guides on the forum & i also made one quick & short for newbies
In my sig >>
and in mine.. funny you only ever mention yourself?
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#7
(07-18-2013, 10:27 AM)Saiki Wrote: and in mine.. funny you only ever mention yourself?

yeah i forgot u'rs Tongue
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#8
Quote:GS% reaches over 90% then the GPU is considered the cause of the slow gameplay.

Not necessarily. As miseru has stated several times, most of the GS is still cpu driven. When both EE and GS are low (< 90%) most likely gpu is the problem either due to excessive upscaling or it's just not cutting it.
OS: Linux Mint 17.2 64 bit (occasional Antergos/Arch user)
(I am no longer a Windows user)
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#9
(07-18-2013, 09:23 AM)Preet Wrote: dude here are many guides on the forum & i also made one quick & short for newbies
In my sig >>

You should read abit carefully

(07-18-2013, 09:00 AM)Black Ops Wrote: This is my first attempt of a guide to use pcsx2. I know that there are many guides out there but I thought I’d like to have a crack at it.
System Specs
CPU:AMD FX 8350 3.5ghz turbo to 4ghz
GPU: Sapphire HD 7750 GDDR5
MOBO:Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Rev 5.0
RAM: 8GB
OS:Windows 8.1 64 Bit
Reply
#10
(07-18-2013, 04:31 PM)Black Ops Wrote: You should read abit carefully

yes i already read it,btw i hope u didn't take it seriously ? Huh
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