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So...

I recently took a look at PCSX2, and it is way better than last time I saw, years ago, so I decided to try some gaming. But performance is quite behind of what I would consider acceptable, and I'd like to check with you guys if I'm in a lost race.

My main OS now is Ubuntu, but I still have dual boot WinXP just for gaming. It got video drivers, latest WinXP DirectX and that's all, not even ethernet card installed. Strictly offline gaming.

My pc is a few years old, but I can play Crysis, FEAR 2, Portal 2, etc, with nice graphics, but for PS2 emulation it seems that is the processor that plays the biggest part, am I right?

Motherboard: ASUS P5K-SE
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 2ghz (90% sure, it's indeed a bit outdated)
RAM: 2GB
Video card: Radeon HD5670 512mb (recently replaced, my old 9600 is gone)

Is my processor too slow for acceptable PS2 emulation?

I played a bit of Shadow of Rome, ~45-50fps during arena killing with fine graphics, but during Octavianus stages, I get foggy look, many lost textures, and ~5-10fps on a moderately wide open environment (outside Senate, for those who know it). Only SW render makes it look good, but still snail-fast.

Also tried FFX, but it won't stop flashing light and dark, with frozen characters or leaving a trace, overlapping with the terrian, sometimes just a black screen with a bad frame every 20 second. All of that on 30-40fps.

Been fiddling with some of the options and hacks, but I can't work myself as easily as I with epsxe (ps1) options.

Is there any config/hack I can use to make gaming possible, considering my specs (been reading the config guide) ? Or the processor needs more juice, inevitably?

Thanks for your help!
The videocard is enough for most games but the CPU is indeed a greater problem there and bellow the minimum for many more demanding games (actually you should be able to run some few less demanding games with it in a fashionable way).

Look at threads talking about these easier on the emulator games before buying something just to play on the emulator, unless expecting to play on the console too, of course.
(06-04-2011, 07:22 PM)mdrg Wrote: [ -> ]Motherboard: ASUS P5K-SE
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 2ghz (90% sure, it's indeed a bit outdated)
RAM: 2GB
Video card: Radeon HD5670 512mb (recently replaced, my old 9600 is gone)

Is there any config/hack I can use to make gaming possible, considering my specs (been reading the config guide) ? Or the processor needs more juice, inevitably?

Actually, you could use a little bit of both. Wink

On your hardware's end, you're biggest issue is "Low Clockrate Syndrome". It is older, but it's only 2.0Ghz. Thankfully, you are using a motherboard that can overclock that CPU. This would prove most benefitial for PCSX2 in your case, and the next best thing to an upgrade. Do you have any knowledge or experience with overclocking?

There are also Speedhacks that can be used to improve emulation speed in most cases. However, their benefits do come with potential side effects. Most times they will help, though.

There would also be the video settings. Be sure and check those out. You could consider lowering the resolution for a potential performance increase, or even try increasing the resolution for a better looking game (when it's already performing well). There is also the option to use DirectX10/11 rather than 9, but would require a newer Windows.
I borrowed them with a classmate ^^
And I don't plan to have a console anymore... I play not frequently enough to make it worth the cash.

I just intended to play Shadow of Rome because I love the arena levels, and FFX because I like the series. A processor upgrade may not be a nice investment, as it seems socket 775 is nearly dead, soon I'd need a new mobo... that would make me postpone all of this a lot.

Overclocking: this mobo is OC-ready, but I never tried it, mostly because I'm never willing to take the risk of HW damage. It may be reasonably safe, but I never really tried. I don't have particular OC experience also, but I do have some hardware knowledge (I hand-picked every part of this PC, and replace the broken parts).
Do you think that some slight OC would make the games playable? Also, my cooler nothing exceptional, maybe just fine.

Low resolution is ok with me... I lowered it to 800x600 to play Crysis on my old half-spec crappy Zogis GF9600. Low quality decrease with major speedup ;-)
Also, a Windows upgrade (to Vista at most) allowing DX upgrade... would that be of considerable advantage?

Thanks for your replies!
updating directX is always good, but id recommend not getting vista or linux.
(06-04-2011, 11:01 PM)[pro]PCSX2 Wrote: [ -> ]updating directX is always good, but id recommend not getting vista or linux.

Without upgrading Windows I can't get DX over 9, and I already have Linux, but that does not have any effect over my XP performance.
Vista being "bad" is old news... Any issue people were having with speed and most problems people had with compatibility were fixed with SP1.

That said, I prefer 7's features over Vista as is the general consensus amongst most people... but if you can find a cheap copy of vista, it will give you better results in PCSX2 than XP in most situations (if you have a DX10 capable card)
I don't care about features, as I'm using it only for gaming :-)
Would Windows 7 be somehow better for gaming than Vista?

And what about overclocking? Can I safely OC it enough to make it a noticeable difference? How much would that be, considering my specs?
(06-06-2011, 01:44 AM)Koji Wrote: [ -> ]Vista being "bad" is old news... Any issue people were having with speed and most problems people had with compatibility were fixed with SP1.

Actually lots of PC games got slower with SP1, other stuff got faster, not sure if they got the speed back after SP2 tho Tongue2
mdrg: Depends on your Mobo and CPU cooler... You should be able to get it up to 2.6ghz fairly easily which would be a 30% speed increase in PCSX2. If you're lucky you could get it to 3ghz which would get a good portion of games going full speed.