[DIY] Portable PS2 via MS Surface
#1
I've been dreaming about portable PS2 for over 6 years.
Here's the result of my research and reading : The Microsoft Surface Go 2
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Been using it for almost a month. Overall it's playable. However, slowdowns do occur frequently.

Quote:Intel Core M 3rd generation (1900 passmark score)
8 GB of RAM
Intel UHD Graphics 615
128 GB SSD Storage
PCSX2 version : downloaded from GIT build around Jan 12th, 2021

Odin Sphere & Devil May Cry 1, 3 runs just fine. I had to set the screen resolution to 640x480 or lower. 800x600 will always slow down the game.
The small resolution is quite acceptable since I can double-touch the PCSX2 to enable full-screen mode.

Though, slow down will always occur after an hour long of play. This occurs too while playing other emulators such as MelonDS.
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During the slowdown I notice an intense heat from the machine. So,my guess is the CPU reduces its clock during the heat maybe ?

Ace Combat Zero : Belkan War : this game however, suffers from massive slow down during the mission and cannot be played at all. (In other words : it's totally playable but slow a_ f_ ) I saw this game was listed as a game that pushes PS2's CPU to its limit before I bought. Guess that's the reason.

Last thing for this topic : PS2 emulation seems to drain out battery so fast (lol). I can play around 2 hours for each session and need to recharge. When Windows 10 went into battery saver mode, everything will always become very slow.

I wish for a more powerful machine with less heat in the future. Or if the PCSX2 team could find a way of optimization, that would be good and appreciated (I know it's very hard though...)
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#2
MelonDS and PCSX2 are two different emulators where one is based on a handheld device vs one console device. Be happy that it runs at all on it, PCSX2 emulation is a hungry beast on CPU which will drain the battery.
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#3
Despite the low-performance of CPU the NDS had, NDS emulation using melonDS seems a CPU-intensive task too because I have to set battery mode to "maximum performance" or the game will be slow.

... oh well, this should go into MelonDS forums. Just wanted to point out about my guess when PCSX2 was very much slow.

Seems like Intel Core m3 does not have fan nor heat sink.

Additional info. though :
- always using "Native resolution" and let all the settings as is
- OpenGL software or hardware seems slower than Direct3D 11 hardware
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#4
Found a way to increase speed : Go back to the "latest release" of PCSX2 (lol)

PCSX2 1.6.0
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GIT Development Build (approx. Feb 10, 2021)
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Same settings for both :
- Use Direct3D 11 (as OpenGL is always slower for me)
- MTVU enabled
- native resolution

Newer builds come with "Instant VU" below the MTVU. It is still slower in my machine. Weird thing is, it keeps being "checked" whenever I close PCSX2 and open it back. Seems like a glitch.
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#5
(02-13-2021, 10:32 AM)BouncingBreasts Wrote: Newer builds come with "Instant VU" below the MTVU. It is still slower in my machine. Weird thing is, it keeps being "checked" whenever I close PCSX2 and open it back. Seems like a glitch.

Seems like a problem with your setup not saving settings. Works fine here, if I untick it, then quit the emulator and reload it, it's still unticked.

Anyway if you want performance, keep it turned on (Instant VU1 is 1.6.0 behaviour by the way). The slow down is probably because VU0 is now synchronized, you could try enabling the VU0 Kickstart gamefix, that might make up some of the performance loss.
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#6
(02-13-2021, 04:37 PM)refraction Wrote: Seems like a problem with your setup not saving settings. 

My tablet doesn't use any Anti-Virus nor 3rd-party Firewall software. Just let the Windows Security takes care of.
Ransomeware protection is also turned off. So, really have no idea what could've prevented the save. (I'm trying so hard to install only software I often use, just wanna keep it as light-weight as possible)
Anyway, unticking "MTVU" seems it saves just fine (lol)

BTW, uh... did you mean the "Instant VU" thing was already included since the 1.6.0 ? just hidden somewhere in the "game fixes" category ?
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#7
(02-13-2021, 05:18 PM)BouncingBreasts Wrote: My tablet doesn't use any Anti-Virus nor 3rd-party Firewall software. Just let the Windows Security takes care of.
Ransomeware protection is also turned off. So, really have no idea what could've prevented the save. (I'm trying so hard to install only software I often use, just wanna keep it as light-weight as possible)
Anyway, unticking "MTVU" seems it saves just fine (lol)

BTW, uh... did you mean the "Instant VU" thing was already included since the 1.6.0 ? just hidden somewhere in the "game fixes" category ?

Instant VU1 was always how PCSX2 worked for a very long time. It causes problems in a small number of games, so we added a checkbox to actually turn it off with. That's all it is.
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#8
(02-13-2021, 10:04 PM)pandubz Wrote: Instant VU1 was always how PCSX2 worked for a very long time. It causes problems in a small number of games, so we added a checkbox to actually turn it off with. That's all it is.

I see. Thank you very much for the answer.
I'm really exciting to see PCSX2 moving forward.
Cheers to PCSX2 team.
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