Couple Of Performance Questions
#1
I've been playing Tales of the Abyss enjoyfully this last month or so and recently started looking into what I should play next. Star Ocean 3 is high on my list, but the opening scene cuts me off with the last 7fps out of my grasp. Thing is, my CPU is not at full load. Only at about 75% actually, unless I'm unsure of how PCSX2 deals with multicores.

My specs before going any further...

CPU:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 Yorkfield 2.66GHz 1333MHz FSB
GFX:
GeForce GTS 250 1GB (Core Clock - 738MHz) (Shader Clock - 1782MHz)
RAM:
WINTEC AMPX 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800

The problem I'm having with my CPU is that one of my four cores are running at around 75%, two are going at about 25-30% and the fourth around 10%. I know PCSX2 doesn't rely on quad cores, but shouldn't it be using the full power of the two it's using? Why would it be spreading out like that?

I've also not noticed any difference in Star Ocean after upgrading my CPU to the one above from the Q6600 (I threw the Q6600 into a second machine for network rendering Laugh). I know it's not much of an upgrade, but I've noticed the difference in other games.

Right now I'm just relying on Window's performance tab in the task manager and eyeballing how high it gets. It's fluctuating a lot, but never peaking out on the core getting the most usage. Is there another free CPU performance analyzer that I could use for a better idea of what's going on?

Pic:
[Image: CPU.png]

Another question I wanted to ask is whether or not Windows XP 32-bit with DirectX 9 VS. Windows 7 64-bit with DirectX 10 should show any difference. I've got them both on dual boot and I've tried both of them on all the games I've been playing and haven't really noticed any difference at all. What should my choice be?

Sorry for the long winded post. I'm just determined to get some information on the issue. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.
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#2
First, PCSX2 will NEVER use 100% of 2 cores, even on dual core systems because that is simply not possible due to the nature of threading.

Now about your quad core: What you see is normal and is not caused by PCSX2 rather than Windows. Your OS detects that there is heavy load on only 2/4 cores while the other 2 are idling, so it automatically spreads the load to all 4 cores.

Windows 7 should give a good speed boost, mainly due to the fact you will be able to use the DX10 renderer of GSdx there as opposed to Windows XP
[Image: newsig.jpg]
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#3
Thanks for the quick response.

I figured it would be something like you said with the workload being spread, I just wasn't sure that Windows did that it's self. Same sort of thing happens with my animation software, so I guess I got a bonus explanation.

Would anyone be able to give me a rough idea about what the rest of the game would run like compared to the opening scene? I've not gotten too far into it since I always wind up getting anal retentive about the emulation settings. If things don't get much worse it's probably something I could deal with.
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#4
Use some speed hacks you should be able to get near full speed, though not entirely full speed. Considering that actually I had the Q9300 before which is almost the same as your Q8300 and I was never able to achieve fully 100% speed all of the time. Although if you overclock it a bit, then you will. Have you looked into overclocking?
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#5
I did a bit of overclocking with my Q6600 and got it up to 2.85GHz from 2.40GHz while keeping everything stable. It's not something I'm completely familiar with though.

I've only tried a little bit with my new CPU, clocking it to 3.08. Got a BSOD once the Windows loading screen came up, switched it back to stock and haven't messed with it since. Keep in mind I only got it yesterday though, I'll be playing with it a bit for sure Tongue.

The major issue with me was the sound issues, stuttering and slowing down. I seriously can't stand playing with lagging audio. After finding AsyncMix in the sound settings though, I was pleasantly surprised. What exactly does this do? Am I running the risk of audio in cut scenes going horribly out of sync?

These are the emulation settings I'm using to get the highest possible speed for me. Setting cycle stealing higher helps with the audio, but chunks up the game play. Which is what it's supposed to do I guess.

[Image: th_pcsx2_CoreSettings_EE-IOP.png]
[Image: th_pcsx2_CoreSettings_VUs.png]
[Image: th_pcsx2_CoreSettings_Speedhacks.png]
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#6
Quote:Am I running the risk of audio in cut scenes going horribly out of sync?

That and some games may just hang randomly with it.

The min/max and IOP x2 hacks don't really help much and they have bad compatibility, you should check if they even give you extra speed and then decide whether to keep them on or not.
Core i5 3570k -- Geforce GTX 670  --  Windows 7 x64
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#7
any increase performance if im take pcsx2 in task manager process set priority to realtime?
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#8
(06-04-2010, 12:58 PM)^KamilskaZ^ Wrote: any increase performance if im take pcsx2 in task manager process set priority to realtime?

maybe just a little if your pc is very bad, but it maybe make the pcsx2 to crash or something else bad.
OS: Win 7 Ultimate x64 sp1, MoBo: Asus P5QD Turbo, CPU: Q6600 @ 3,0Ghz, RAM: Trancend 2x2gb 6-6-6-18 800 MHz, GPU: HD 4850 1gb.
Pcsx2: Always Latest
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#9
(06-03-2010, 10:35 AM)Bositman Wrote: Windows 7 should give a good speed boost, mainly due to the fact you will be able to use the DX10 renderer of GSdx there as opposed to Windows XP

Is the boost good enough to upgrade from XP? I'm running a dual boot (linux and windows) just because of pcsx2 so I installed WinXP, is Win7 really better for pcsx2? Can I install dx10 on WinXP?

Thanks in advance.
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#10
(06-04-2010, 07:35 PM)wingnux Wrote:
(06-03-2010, 10:35 AM)Bositman Wrote: Windows 7 should give a good speed boost, mainly due to the fact you will be able to use the DX10 renderer of GSdx there as opposed to Windows XP

Is the boost good enough to upgrade from XP? I'm running a dual boot (linux and windows) just because of pcsx2 so I installed WinXP, is Win7 really better for pcsx2? Can I install dx10 on WinXP?

Thanks in advance.

Yes, going from DX9 to DX10 is a lot better. You cannot install DX10 on XP. It was a selling point for Vista.
OS: Windows 7 Professional
CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz @ 3.5GHz
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