I'm on windows 7 64 bit and this helped...
Click start>right click on computer>click properties>click advanced system settings>click advanced tab>click performance settings>click on adjust for best performance then click apply and ok
you can change it back when your finished playing.
Sped up my PCSX2 0.9.7 r2666
Computer Specs:
Amd Phenom X3 8750 oc to 3.0
Nvidia GeForce 8100/ nForce 720a integrated video card(getting a video card Friday)
3 gb ram
Yup, I think it's because that turns off Aero and some other gimmicks, which takes some load off from the system.
Yeah that's it, a lot of people probably didn't know about it.
Well, it`s the best way to speed up without overclocking or anything.
Changing some performance settings in graphics cards might work too. (like turning anti-aliassing off, and putting everything on hi prefo.)
Although most ppl only change those for issues, not for speed. And these probably only boost 3D games very slightly.
How much of a speed boost are we talking about?
Depends...if you already have a fast machine, you won't notice the difference, especially if your gfx card is a fast one.
If your gfx card is lacking (or lack of a discrete one), Aero will make your CPU taking the brunt of producing the effects.
Since PCSX2 is CPU heavy, if Aero takes a chunk of CPU cycles to maintain the visual effects, it will slow down PCSX2.
Turning it off will free the CPU to a degree that the newly freed resource can be used for PCSX2 and make it faster.
Personally, with a C2D E6550 2.33GHz (OC'd @ 2.8GHz) and a 5770, I don't really feel much difference.
Front Mission 5 might've gone up 2~4 fps but that's all about it.
YMMV, and CMIIW.
I must be going crazy, i have a weakling Radeon 4350 and didn't notice any difference at all. And that was going from "best appearance" to "best performance"...
Summary:
It's JUST aero that's a slowdown sometimes, on some configurations, in some games.
Its a similar concept to my friend telling me that I *have* to run my laptop on high performance when I use pcsx2. Since I only use my laptop at work and plugged in, it makes no difference, but apparently he gets like 5fps better sometimes.
Apparently, 'VU Cycle Stealing' lv. 2 speeds up most games (that I tested) with unnoticeable gfx errors (compared to not using it at all a.k.a. lv. 0).
These games are Front Mission 5, FFX and FFX-2.
Suikoden III also gets a boost without any noticeable artifacts; 60 fps walking on the field with 4x AA is quite a feat, though in battles I still get less than 50fps (around 45~48fps).
But then again, before setting it at lv. 2 I got like, what, 30~35fps?
So it's really a boon to me.
But YMMV...