Low FPS problem for God of War II
#1
I just installed PCSX2 on my system and was able to have it running. I even managed to run God of War II and everything was fine from the menu screen to the opening cutscene. It was a smooth experience (with FPS ranging from 58-61) until I was given control of Kratos. From that point, the emulator was only able to run roughly around 35-50 FPS.

I think that it might be because the part where I am getting good FPS rate was a cutscene. However, I believe that God of War's cutscenes require the same amount of processing compared to the actual game itself because God of War uses the game's in-game graphics for both.

What I am not sure is if this is a known issue for the game (in this case God of War II), an emulator mis-configuration or hardware requirements. Listed below is my setup.

Hardware:
Intel Core i5 @2.40GHz
6GB DDR3 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M 2GB

Operating System:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Plugins:
Various, the one's I tried are:
Graphics: GSdx SSE2, SSSE3, SSE4 (played around with the settings as well)
Sound: SPU2-X

Media:
ISO converted copy of God of War II

Already tried activating speed hacks but it only managed to increase the FPS rate by a very small amount (about an increase of 3-5 FPS)

*Also, I read this on PCSX2's FAQs
"Why not use CUDA to make things faster?

CUDA works best when doing simple operations on many parallel threads. This isn't very useful for ps2 emulation, and any implementation that attempts to use CUDA will most-likely slow down the emulator."

The sticker on my system's graphics card has the word "CUDA" on it. I'm worried. Does this mean that I can't run PCSX2 with my graphics card OR does this simply mean that PCSX2 would never be released with CUDA as its component (or something to that effect)?

Sorry for the long post. I just believe that explaining the isolations I did would help give more info about my problem. I hope you guys can help me. =)
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#2
Try the latest svn : PCSX2 It might give a boost. Try the MTVU Hack too. Try enabling/disabling it.

Other things to try:

Enable allow 8-bit Texture.
Speedhacks
Frameksip
Native Resolution. etc..Laugh
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#3
Quote:It was a smooth experience (with FPS ranging from 58-61) until I was given control of Kratos. From that point, the emulator was only able to run roughly around 35-50 FPS.

What I am not sure is if this is a known issue for the game (in this case God of War II), an emulator mis-configuration or hardware requirements.
It is a known issue, not only with GoW2 but with GoW1 as well. The cutscene framerate is good but drops when you control Kratos. Of course you can consider it a hardware issue if you want. I hear an i5 2500k OC to 4.5 Ghz is able to runs GoW2 without slowdown and speedhacks.

Quote:The sticker on my system's graphics card has the word "CUDA" on it. I'm worried. Does this mean that I can't run PCSX2 with my graphics card OR does this simply mean that PCSX2 would never be released with CUDA as its component (or something to that effect)?
Your video card has CUDA. PCSX2 does not use it doesn't means it causes slowdown. In other word CUDA has no impact on PCSX2 performance.

Last year I ran GoW2 on my cousin's Dell Studio with the exactly same CPU (i5 450M) on 0.9.7 and I got 50 FPS in the first battle, while I only get 40 FPS on my Phenom II @ 2.0 Ghz (VU Cycle Stealing level 3). But in the latest SVN with MTVU hack I get full speed (60 FPS) only with VU Cycle Stealing level 2. I have not tried again on my counsin's laptop but it may help. You can download the latest SVN by clicking the SVN tab on PCSX2 homepage.

Nonetheless, I don't believe the i5 450M is able to pass my crappy CPU performance in GoW2 because the MTVU works best for CPUs which have more than 2 cores. I love GoW2 because it is the only game that my CPU can match the i5 450M in term of performance Tongue.

Anyway, take my advice and tell me the result. I'm eager to see it.

Edit: Here's some settings I recommend
  • GSDX: SSE4.1 or AVX if you use the latest SVN.
  • Allow 8-bit texture: not sure if it increases speed. I have never used it in all games I played. Try and see for yourself.
  • Resolution: Don't use custom. Use scaling instead. 4x is recommended. If it slows down your game then use 3x.
  • EE Cyclerate: No
  • VU Cycle Stealing: level 2
  • Check all other speedhacks except for fast CDVD.
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#4
I rather not use vu cycle stealing cuz it fakes the fps and usually makes the gameplay slower but music/animations/videos etc.. faster.
Use EE cycle hack instead.

don't use 8-bit textures, it'll make it slower.
and 4X or even 3X native is hell for this GPU, especially when you run GPU demanding games like GOW2.
use 2x instead.

Main Rig: i7-3770k @4.5ghz | 16GB DDR3 | Nvidia GTX 980 TI | Win 10 X64
Laptop: MSI GT62VR | i7-6700HQ | 16GB DDR4 | Nvidia GTX 1060 | Win 10 X64

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#5
Like in SotC, EE Cyclerate does not help in God of War series. The VU Cycle Stealing works very well however. The FPS is real, not fake with slow gameplay, and I only notice less smooth motion when the VU hack is set to max. Set it to 2 and you won't notice any changes except for the speed increase Tongue.

My crappy HD 4570 (64 bit, 512 MB DDR3, laptop) can handle GoW2 at 2x. His GPU must be 3 times or 4 more powerful than mine and has pretty much VRAM, so I suppose 4x shouldn't be a problem.
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#6
Thanks for the replies recoder, Livy and Nexxxus. I'll try out your suggestions when I get home later. Hopefully the SVN versions of PCSX2 will help me play GoW2 with a better FPS rate.

Anyway, I have a follow-up question. I read that the Intel Core Processor Family (i5 included) has a built-in feature called Intel HD Graphics. What I am wondering is if this one is overriding my graphic card's own features in running games. Is there a way to disable this for PCSX2 (or any games for that matter) so as to allow my graphics card to work instead of my processor. Perhaps this is limiting my graphic card's potential. I may be wrong so I'll appreciate it if someone can enlighten me.
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#7
With the release of Intel Core i series, the integrated graphics processing unit (IGP) was no longer attached to the motherboard chipset, but bundled into the processor itself, true. The IPG comes with the first generation of Intel Core i series is called Intel HD Graphics.

Accoding to my experience, the first generation of Intel Core i always has the Intel HD disabled if the laptop has a dedicated graphics card (your i5 450M is first gen). But recently, on laptops with the second generation of Intel Core i, they usually enabled both. Read your computer manual and see if it states somethings like "Optimus" or "dual video card". "Optimus" is the technology from Nvidia that allows the dedicated and integrated GPU to be switched without rebooting the system, but I don't know what it is called on AMD side.

Edit: AMD calls it "PowerXpress".
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#8
The IGP works mainly for windows text rendering etc. The other Nvidia/ATI Card focuses mainly on running applications and game.
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