Kingdom Hearts 2 performance issue - CPU usage low

[fullwall]

Basically, I keep getting slowdowns in large areas, which I would normally understand, but the CPU and GS usage percentages are still showing ~50%. This happens particularly during transitions or special effects, but happens at other times as well, for example at the train station in Twilight Town. Is there a reason for this/can I fix this? Kindom Hearts 1 ran at full FPS for the whole game; KH2 is obviosly more graphically detailed, but the low CPU usage yet low FPS is confusing me .

Using Windows 7, with latest beta (r3878) of PCSX2.
Plugins : GSDX r3693, SPU-2X r3702, Lilypad. Also using microVU, and have tried without speedhacks.

[Air]

The GPU %'s on current betas is not accurate on Windows 7 with recent ATI/Nvidia drivers (I'm writing a blog now detailing why). So chances are you're GPU-limited. Typically if you get low CPU+GPU loads and low framerates, it means you are bottlenecked by the internal resolution setting in GSdx. Try using native res as a test, for example, and see if your FPS jumps (the GPU load % should jump too, amusingly).

[fullwall]

I am using native res . But this is a laptop (Geforce 320M, Intel C2D P8600), which I'm using for the better CPU. Maybe I'll have to go back to my desktop - a worse CPU (AMD 5200+), but a 'proper' GPU.

Anyway, thanks for the reply, and I'll read the blog post when it comes out. Always cool to see a developer answering questions - seen a lot of your revisions.