Need For Speed Most Wanted - Low FPS

[Diandredofus]

Hi all,

I've been using PCSX2 for a long time now, and I haven't really encountered any games where I have a low FPS count. I usually run most games on Full HD with texture filtering and without speedhacks. FFX, FFX-2 and Kingdom Hearts are examples. Hell I could run these games in stereoscopic 3D if the PS2 permitted that.

Yet, I've decided to try Most Wanted. I get 15-25 FPS even on menus. I use the latest version of GSdx with DX11 Hardware mode (I've tried software with multithreading as well as DX9, it's worse). Speedhacks give a boost but that's not enough. I read on the compatibility list and on the Wiki that the game isn't that demanding and people could run it on max FPS most of the time. I don't see what's wrong: any help would be much appreciated.

Config :

Inter Core i7 2670QM - 2.2GHz with TurboBoost up to 3.00GHz
NVidia Geforce 555M 3D - 3GB
8GB Dual Channel RAM

PCSX2 1.2.1 - GSdx 0.1.16 - SPU2-X 1.4.0 - LilyPad 0.11 - DEVNULL - USBNULL - FWNULL - BIOS USA v2.2

[jesalvein]

2.2 Ghz is probably too low for this game.
Make sure you set your power plan to high performance, and that you aren't running on batteries.
But don't expect miracles...

[Rassane]

Isn't even 3ghz too low for nfs titles? Especially so on mobile chips

[willkuer]

Will be hard to find a mobile intel cpu clocked at 3GHz.
But those i7-xxxxHQ/MQ have some very nice/strong models. Even if they are clocked around 2.4 GHz. I guess they easily beat high end intel cpu's of some years ago and probably most of current amd's stuff (at least in single threaded applications).

Even the 2670QM is already sufficient to play some games with full speed and only minor lags. But as you said NFS is just very demanding (I guess as all racing games).

[Diandredofus]

Will be hard to find a mobile intel cpu clocked at 3GHz.
But those i7-xxxxHQ/MQ have some very nice/strong models. Even if they are clocked around 2.4 GHz. I guess they easily beat high end intel cpu's of some years ago and probably most of current amd's stuff (at least in single threaded applications).

Even the 2670QM is already sufficient to play some games with full speed and only minor lags. But as you said NFS is just very demanding (I guess as all racing games).

Damn.. My CPU floats from 2.7 to 3GHz when running the game (power settings are of course at max), yet the framerate is just too low to play. I don't get any kind of lag in other 'moderate games', I can even launch turbo framerate mode and go sometimes as high as 100 fps. Such a bummer not to be able to play one of my fav' PS2 games.

I'm building a gaming rig next spring, and I really want it to run most games marked as "playable" on the compatibility list : Does that mean I should go for a CPU with a higher clock speed, even though another CPU outperforms it and is clocked lower?

Thanks for your replies

[Nobbs66]

It's really not the clockspeed that's the issue here. IPC(instructions per cycle) makes a huge difference. My i5 4200U at 2.5ghz is actually faster than your 2670MQ because the newer chips can execute more instructions per clock cycle. Even though NFS Most Wanted is exactly demanding, it still requires a fairly quick cpu in order to run at full speed. Your best bet is to use MTVU and the speed hacks marked as "recommended". Also, mess with the EE cycle rate slider, as that should offer a decent speed boost as well.