Another ff xii performance thread

[manguadi]

specs: core duo e6600 2.4ghz (oc to 3.0 ghz)
radeon x1600 512mb
2gb ddr2 corsair (I think) at 667 mhz (tuned for the oc)
win xp home

Here is the short version of my epic testing for playable frame rates (done with current pcsx2 beta and beta plugins):

1) gsdx ssse3 0.1.15 (on native) and p.e.op.s. spu 1.9.0 with a fistful of speed hacks enabled. Pics later but assume I set everything to optimal performance. I had max frame rate and cpu capped at about 40% from casual observation. Sound reminded me of a crappy walkie talkie and occasionally video would hang for a half second. Looks terrible when it gets to the camera/walking tutorial.

2) same as before with all the speed hacks disabled. Identical frame rate and cpu usage without the intermittent video hang.

3) same as 2) except I switched to spu2-x 1.2.0. No change to frame rate or cpu usage, but it sounded a lot nicer.

4) Turned off native (default 1024x1024 reso). Runs great until any kind of effects processing starts to happen. The config screen runs at 99% cpu and stutters its way through. The opening video runs smoothly. Waking up is just as stuttery as the config screen. Man it's pretty though.

5) Enabled: 2x cycle rate, intc sync hack, iop x2 cycle rate (dunno if this is redundant or not), idle loop fast-forward, status flag hack, and VU cycle stealing to the second tick (moderate speedup). Keep in mind I have no idea what any of these mean, and my casual perusal of other performance threads haven't taught me much. Gets a little choppy in the intro, I assume due to the speed hacks based on their warnings, and once it enters the config mode I see (and hear) identical stuttering and 99% cpu usage. Test abandoned. Maybe it's that I can't configure speed hacks properly, but I'm hoping this thread will help explain my failures as a tweaker.

6) Turned the reso down to 800x800 for giggles. A wee bit better performance but still too stuttery and 99% cpu usage. At this point I foresee the same headache that was tuning my OC to stable and turn to all of you.

Here's a shot of all the configurations I can think to list. Everything is as it was for the first, highly successful and terrible looking test, including both sound configs. I'm hoping to tune the game to both run well and not in native resolution. Any tips for speed hacks and other optimizations I can try would be greatly appreciated, although I think I'm bottlenecking at a poor gpu. Pardon my terrible cropping job, but that's why this is last instead of first.

edit: I also tried disallowing 8-bit textures which provided a small graphical improvement for another 10-20% cpu (capping at about 60%). It's still nothing like I hope it will be.

[rama]

You're limited by your graphic card. As such please revert all settings back to default (simply delete the pcsx2.ini), as some of the settings you made will cause you trouble later.
Also re-enable timestretching in spu2-x to fix the sound (sigh, you ticked everything that even slightly hinted at speed >< ).

Now you need to get the gpu bottleneck fixed. Your options are:
- Try different versions of GSdx, making sure you keep native resolution checked.
- Overclock the graphic card
- Replace the card (best solution)

[manguadi]

You're limited by your graphic card. As such please revert all settings back to default (simply delete the pcsx2.ini), as some of the settings you made will cause you trouble later.
Also re-enable timestretching in spu2-x to fix the sound (sigh, you ticked everything that even slightly hinted at speed >< ).

Now you need to get the gpu bottleneck fixed. Your options are:
- Try different versions of GSdx, making sure you keep native resolution checked.
- Overclock the graphic card
- Replace the card (best solution)

I'm not really sure you read my whole post, but there are some things I'd like to clarify.

What are the settings that will cause trouble later? These are precisely the things I'm posting to learn about.

There are no problems with sound, except during fmvs with speed hacks enabled. The major problem with my sound seems to be p.e.op.s. which I am not using anymore. Sound is, in fact, rather flawless under the settings you see for spu2-x above, except in the case where I hit 99% cpu.

As for your suggestion to try different versions of gsdx, I tried the only other option available and saw no change. You also mention I should always use native, which, as I noted in my post, is what I am hoping to not do.

[zero29]

I'm not really sure you read my whole post, but there are some things I'd like to clarify.

What are the settings that will cause trouble later? These are precisely the things I'm posting to learn about.

There are no problems with sound, except during fmvs with speed hacks enabled. The major problem with my sound seems to be p.e.op.s. which I am not using anymore. Sound is, in fact, rather flawless under the settings you see for spu2-x above, except in the case where I hit 99% cpu.

As for your suggestion to try different versions of gsdx, I tried the only other option available and saw no change. You also mention I should always use native, which, as I noted in my post, is what I am hoping to not do.

the cpu usage shown in the titlebar of pcsx2 when using gsdx is the usage of the gsdx thread, not the whole cpu usage of the emulator and plugins. when it reaches 99% it means that your gpu is the limiting factor. if it hits 99% even on native, then your gpu is just not fast enough to speed up the emulation. and rama meant you could try an older revision of gsdx, like the r1398 e.g., it might be faster on your ati card. regardless of the revision, always use the ssse3 gsdx, it's the fastest variant that your cpu (yes, your cpu, as a lot of the gfx work has to be done by your cpu) supports. don't expect miracles though, your gpu is rather weak for pcsx2.

the combination of the "ee sync hack" and the "vu cycle stealing" is prone to create false fps readings and slowdowns instead of providing additional speed compared to when only one of them is active. try every speed hack alone and compare the fps against the speed without any to see which speed hacks seem to work at all for this game, then try some combinations. and if you changed the advanced options of pcsx2 set them back to their defaults.

like rama already mentioned: your best option for pcsx2 would be to upgrade your gpu, especially because it would enable you to use the directx10/11 renderer of gsdx, which is usually faster, looks nicer and is more compatible than the dx9 one.