Hi:

I've upgraded today to win 7 and I'm trying out a few of the games I've been playing. But I've had some rather dissapointing experiences.

I've tried two games:
1) SRW MX
2) KOF Maximum Impact 2.
Both, I repeat both, are now going slower than ever. When it should be (or so I thought) the other way around.

I think that the main problem has something to do with that redistributable pack that you have to install in order for the emulator to recognize the GSDX plugins. So I did a little test with game 2) of the above list. And here is what I found.

I used the older versions of the GSDX (the last one before vc10 was used) to test the game for two rounds using the same character and roughly the same resolution and these were the fps results I've got:
Without installing the vc10 pacK (The game should be running at 50 fps):
ZeroGS: Up to about 42 fps
D3D9 GSDX: about 38 fps
D3D10 GSDX: about 32 fps

I then installed vc10 pack:
D3D10 GSDX: about 30 fps
D3D9 GSDX: about 32 fps
ZeroGS: Up to about 30 fps (this made no sense to me)

I first noticed the difference on SRW MX when I knew for sure that the game was running so much slower.

Any thoughts on why things are going slower? O maybe its just these particular games?

As for my config:
PCSX2 1474
CPU and Advanced is default
All speed hacks except VU cycle stealing the checkbox above that one that I can never recall it's name.
SPUX-2 default

GSDX 1650 and 1564 with internal res 1680x1050 (makes absolutely no difference if I use native) texture filltering and 1440x900 window.

MY PC:
Intel Quad Core Q6600
MSI GeForce 9600Gt 1Gb RAm
4Gb RAM
Win 7 x64

I'd appreciate any thoughs, thank you.

(08-23-2009 12:32 AM)aarelovich Wrote:  All speed hacks except VU cycle stealing the checkbox above that one that I can never recall it's name.

using speed hacks makes the shown fps values very unreliable. for comparisons deactivate them, use e.g. fraps to double check these values. or use the playback function of gsdx for .gs snapshots to measure your performance, it seems to be a very reliable method to benchmark your graphics settings.

syntax:
renderer index starts with dx9(hw), which gets the value "0". after that it counts up the positions of the list shown in your gsdx settings for "renderer". i.e. dx9(sw) is next with a "1", then comes dx9(null) "2", then dx10(hw) "3", etc.

I'm sorry but I'm that knowledgeable. I didn't fully understand your post.

1) What's a .gs an how do I get it?
2) Where should I type in the command line you gave me?

Explanation about question 2): I know of cmd.exe the where is in which folder (parth) I should execute the instruction. I ask this because there is no gsdx.dll and I don't think I have a GSReplay program.

Another thing I don't understand completely is the renderer index. Is that the index of the ComboBox that holds all my DX versions in the GSDX Configuration window?

And finally when (because if you explain it to me I'll do it) I do this, what am I suppose to see?

no problem with not being an instant pcsx2 expert

1. a .gs file is a snapshot which contains not a bitmap of the current frame, but the data for the frame that is send to gsdx by pcsx2. if you call the gsdx.dll with such a .gs as a parameter, then it'll render this frame over and over, which can be very helpful for gsdx specific bug reports or as a benchmark. the hotkey for a .gs snapshot is "SHIFT+F8".
2. easiest method is imo a shortcut in the plugin folder, where your gsdx.dlls are. then change the command line according to the gsdx you wanna use, i e.g. have got many different versions of the sse4.1 variant in my plugin folder, thus i would use something like that: "rundll32 gsdx-sse41-r1398.dll,GSReplay 3 test.gs". this call would test my test.gs with the gsdx-sse4.1 version 1398 using the dx10(hw) renderer. and yes, you're right about the combobox and the renderer index. the visual output you get will be a "flickering" single frame.

Ok. So how do I check the fps with a single frame?

And thanks for the answers.

the fps for the .gs frame is shown in the title bar, it will fluctuate a little bit, but it should be a quite precise benchmark, especially if you want to test the performance differences of the directx subsets (dx9 vs. dx10 vs. dx11) with your hardware and os.

Great! I'll do it tonight and report back. One more question though.... Is the directx 11 implementation working?. Because the emulator stops working when I try to use it. Plus the title rectangle in the plugin configuration box is left blank whenever I choose it....

Thanks.

gabest currently uses the beta sdk of directx to develop the dx11 renderer, these beta .dlls are incompatible with the win7 pre-release of directx11. so either install the latest beta sdk of directx or look here for the necessary files. the dx11 renderer is still in its alpha stages, so it will more or less perform like the dx10 renderer.

So these were the results now:

Lastest GSDX Release
d3d9 hw = 34 FPS
d2d10 hw = 37 FPS

Older one
d3d9 hw = 31 FPS
d2d10 hw = 34 FPS

So I guess that means that unless I upgrade my computer I won't be able to play this game in the emulator..... But now I least I know a bit more.

As far as the dx11 I'll wait util is like "officially in place" specially since it won't impact much in the performance.

Thanks for all the help.

well, it sounds like these games you tried are quite demanding, and not all games are able to profit the same from speed hacks. the team is currently trying to rewrite pcsx2 to make use of more than 2 cores, but even if it will happen, nobody knows when. so your best bet now is either to "upgrade" to a higher clocked core2duo or to overclock your cpu, according to other users of this forum the q6600 seems to be quite good at that.