PCSX2 barely utilizes CPU?

[GTarablus]

Before anyone redirects me to old threads, I looked some up and their problem is not the same.
I've been happily playing KH2FM on my laptop the past 2 days, with my Core i7 3610QM with maximum speed @2.3 Ghz and can get to 3.2 Ghz if needed (Turbo Boost).
While playing I noticed my FPS tends to drop from the 60's all the way down to ~35-40 (especially when there's a fade in/out transaction between scenes). So I opened task manager and saw my speed at 1.17Ghz, with utilization at 20%. I have MTVU speedhack on. Any suggestions on how to get PCSX2 to utilize the CPU more or am I mising something here?

[jesalvein]

try this : http://www.techinferno.com/downloads/?did=41

[refraction]

That sounds more like your graphics card is struggling than your cpu not being utilized. PCSX2 will never not utilize it unless your speed is capped at 60fps. So if its not using it, something outside of pcsx2 is either using the cpu power, or your other hardware is making your cpu wait. As you said transitions, im going to assume graphics cards.

I'm also going to make the assumption that you have an onboard intel graphics card, so i would suggest making sure your drivers are up to date by using this utility to check them: http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect

also in GSDX, make sure you are in "Native" mode and DirectX 11 Hardware, these 2 settings will help (if not already selected).

[GTarablus]

That sounds more like your graphics card is struggling than your cpu not being utilized. PCSX2 will never not utilize it unless your speed is capped at 60fps. So if its not using it, something outside of pcsx2 is either using the cpu power, or your other hardware is making your cpu wait. As you said transitions, im going to assume graphics cards.

I'm also going to make the assumption that you have an onboard intel graphics card, so i would suggest making sure your drivers are up to date by using this utility to check them: http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect

also in GSDX, make sure you are in "Native" mode and DirectX 11 Hardware, these 2 settings will help (if not already selected).

I doubt it's my GPU, AMD Radeon HD 7670m, although no Nvidia Titan or a high end GPU, it still plays many PC games on a more than reasonable graphics; DMC4 ultra settings X16 at 60, Serious Sam 3 medium at 60, high at 40, ultra at 20, Witcher 2 in high at 25.
And yes I do have an onboard but I think it uses my 7670 since at my first startup it chose the low end video plugin and after setting PCSX2 to high performance and did a new startup it chose the high end plugin.
DX11 HW is set, but I'm playing at 3X native res. But even without the 3X it struggled to get past the 40 at some areas.

[tsunami2311]

I doubt it's my GPU, AMD Radeon HD 7670m, although no Nvidia Titan or a high end GPU, it still plays many PC games on a more than reasonable graphics; DMC4 ultra settings X16 at 60, Serious Sam 3 medium at 60, high at 40, ultra at 20, Witcher 2 in high at 25.
And yes I do have an onboard but I think it uses my 7670 since at my first startup it chose the low end video plugin and after setting PCSX2 to high performance and did a new startup it chose the high end plugin.
DX11 HW is set, but I'm playing at 3X native res. But even without the 3X it struggled to get past the 40 at some areas.

same issue with native res? if so it probably the cpu throttling, Also you can not compare what GPU/CPU can do with PC games to what it can do with Emulation. Emulation way more demanding it terms of what is needed to run correctly and full speed. ps2 emulation is probably more demanding then most PC built games.

[GTarablus]

same issue with native res? if so it probably the cpu throttling, Also you can not compare what GPU/CPU can do with PC games to what it can do with Emulation. Emulation way more demanding it terms of what is needed to run correctly and full speed. ps2 emulation is probably more demanding then most PC built games.

Ye sorry about comparing, I was told CPU is a huge difference, didn't know same applies for GPU.
So yes, Native res has the same problem though in 3X the menu is at 52 FPS and in native it's at 60. (The menu has 4 characters rendered live if anyone was wondering why there would be a slowdown in a menu).
So what does it mean "throttling"? what can I do?

[miseru99]

Throttling is just decrease of clocks either caused by overheating or power saving technology, soo first thing on laptop to do is checking windows power profile and ensuring it's NOT set on any power saving mode, if the case is not burning hot and slow down doesn't happen every X minutes with high speed moments(in same place) then you can be pretty sure it's not caused by overheating. You might get a GPU-Z and check your clocks, full power for your gpu should be 600mhz if current clock shown in gpu-z is less than it while you play the game, then it might have some driver problems. HD7000 series had some problems like that on the start, soo if it doesn't show 600mhz there you might think about updating your drivers(no need to if it does;p).

Even at full power your gpu will be too weak for such res, in addition to lowering the res try changing "allow 8 bit textures" option, this can be as much of a speedup as a slowdown, but the change is usually significant since it changes limitations and on your gpu it could be rather positive since it's memory bandwidth sucks more than the rest(less than a half of desktop version;]). Mobile gpu's are just like that ~ raped versions, except in some graphically ultra light games it'll be too weak for any nice upscalling, let's not forget this is just a budget gpu even at desktops, forget about going crazy and start from native.

Emulation from the definition is a process that needs alot of power just to transfer same thing on different mediums, what you see(one way or another ~ 10 yo graphics;p) doesn't matter soo much, much more matters how much it differs between ps2 and pc.
To give you something to think about ~ upscalling internal res multiplies both dimenstions soo simplifing a bit for better effect x3 is like 9 times more demanding. And to give you more stuff to think about this ancient ps2 GS chip was actually more powerfull in some ways than your mobile gpu(hell yeah and that counts for native res). The only reasons that's not much of a factor is thanks to ps2 games not really using it's full power and GSdx being one vast hack ground optimized in any place it could be.(<3)

[nosisab Ken Keleh]

There is an common issue with Intel CPUs and Windows power saving plans which don't work well with the way PCSX2 appear to then, seems more common on laptops (where those plans and CPUs are yet more "conservative" than in desktop).

As we see it, the system becomes confused when the combined load from two or more different processes from the same application is lower than should, for example if the EE is taking much of CPU power but GS is not, the system see the average as low and throttles down the CPU clock further increasing the problem, the inverse is true also, the graphics being the one struggling and EE becoming low loaded.

As already pointed, just setting the Windows Power plan to "performance" reduces or remove the problem, but in this case the laptop might overheat if not well cooled.

Edit: This could help understanding why sometimes increasing the graphics quality actually increases the performance instead reducing it as expected,, although the mechanics in this case is a tad more complex and involves the graphics drivers also.

[GTarablus]

Throttling is just decrease of clocks either caused by overheating or power saving technology, soo first thing on laptop to do is checking windows power profile and ensuring it's NOT set on any power saving mode, if the case is not burning hot and slow down doesn't happen every X minutes with high speed moments(in same place) then you can be pretty sure it's not caused by overheating. You might get a GPU-Z and check your clocks, full power for your gpu should be 600mhz if current clock shown in gpu-z is less than it while you play the game, then it might have some driver problems. HD7000 series had some problems like that on the start, soo if it doesn't show 600mhz there you might think about updating your drivers(no need to if it does;p).

Even at full power your gpu will be too weak for such res, in addition to lowering the res try changing "allow 8 bit textures" option, this can be as much of a speedup as a slowdown, but the change is usually significant since it changes limitations and on your gpu it could be rather positive since it's memory bandwidth sucks more than the rest(less than a half of desktop version;]). Mobile gpu's are just like that ~ raped versions, except in some graphically ultra light games it'll be too weak for any nice upscalling, let's not forget this is just a budget gpu even at desktops, forget about going crazy and start from native.

Emulation from the definition is a process that needs alot of power just to transfer same thing on different mediums, what you see(one way or another ~ 10 yo graphics;p) doesn't matter soo much, much more matters how much it differs between ps2 and pc.
To give you something to think about ~ upscalling internal res multiplies both dimenstions soo simplifing a bit for better effect x3 is like 9 times more demanding. And to give you more stuff to think about this ancient ps2 GS chip was actually more powerfull in some ways than your mobile gpu(hell yeah and that counts for native res). The only reasons that's not much of a factor is thanks to ps2 games not really using it's full power and GSdx being one vast hack ground optimized in any place it could be.(<3)

Thanks for replying
First of all, no it doesn't decrease every X minutes, only in cerain areas of the game, and in certain views of the field (I could stand in the same place and look one way with 60fps and turn around and down to 52, that's the main issue)
Secondly, my GPU has surpassed my expectations in an incredible way, it played Metro on high at 30-40 fps and Metro doesn't even support AMD cards. And it actually has 2GB of ram so it's fine memory wise (In response to: since it's memory bandwidth sucks more than the rest(less than a half of desktop version;]), unless you meant something else, please correct me )
And about overheating and power plan, while it was on Power Saver a few times, bumping it to High Performance didn't change the game noticeably, and my PC will never overheat as I'm extremly carfeul about that and when I game I use a Cooler Master cooling pad.

There is an common issue with Intel CPUs and Windows power saving plans which don't work well with the way PCSX2 appear to then, seems more common on laptops (where those plans and CPUs are yet more "conservative" than in desktop).

As we see it, the system becomes confused when the combined load from two or more different processes from the same application is lower than should, for example if the EE is taking much of CPU power but GS is not, the system see the average as low and throttles down the CPU clock further increasing the problem, the inverse is true also, the graphics being the one struggling and EE becoming low loaded.

As already pointed, just setting the Windows Power plan to "performance" reduces or remove the problem, but in this case the laptop might overheat if not well cooled.

Edit: This could help understanding why sometimes increasing the graphics quality actually increases the performance instead reducing it as expected,, although the mechanics in this case is a tad more complex and involves the graphics drivers also.

Thanks for replying
My drivers are up-to-date, using the latest catalyst drivers and latest Intl Graphics, so that's not the problem. If there is a problem with the GPU than it's that my Intel Graphics is playing KH2FM and not the AMD Radeon HD 7670m.

And just a side note, I have had an incredible improvement in FPS in the areas the game used to struggle by lowering the sound settings and disabling a feature I cannot remember right now. The menu still stays at 52FPS though.