Performance Issues with Ridge Racer V

[Isamu]

I see, thanks for the clarification refraction.

Interesting and thanks tuanming.

[Isamu]

In this game actually the slowdown happens because the GS plugin is using too many resources so you need a fast CPU... and because of the slowdown being the GS plugin speedhacks or other pcsx2 settings (other than frameskip) won't help and might actually have the opposite effect (like the fake fps you seemed to have a while back).

Hmm, I posted this in response to rezard's question but I'll go ahead and post it here:

>>>>>

when the slowdown occurs, the EE% is higher, at around 50-60%, while the GS% is around 15-25% at its highest. These are the percentages on average it says during the slowdown. Does that mean the EE is the bottleneck because it's higher?


Shadow Lady, just curious but if the GS is using so much resources, why does it hover around 15-20ish percent even during the slowdown in Ridge Racer V? Shouldn't it be higher than that?

[refraction]

neither is 98% or higher, so neither EE or GS is the bottleneck. It's possible the sound plugin could be causing it, or your videocard drivers, or youre running out of memory and using your pagefile, all these things will cause it to slow like that.

[Squall Leonhart]

or its a feature D: (and your system isn't up for it)

[Shadow Lady]

He's getting those EE/GS% when he's using high resolution I think at which point it's the GPU that's becoming the bottleneck, as said already lower the resolution since you already know 6x does lower speed even more

[rama]

FPS low and EE / GS / VU percentages all low too? => GPU is overloaded > reduce upscaling. Always has been this way

[Isamu]

*sigh*.....I have come to the conclusion that a large part of the problem is not with PCX2......it's with ME.

Not my PC, but with me personally. Yes, by all means, I AM getting damn near 60fps 80%-90% of the time at res scale x3 or lower. At Native res it's 60fps around 95% of the time.

The thing is, I love this game to death, and I've simply been in denial of just how damn UGLY it looks at native res. I didn't want to accept the fact that my beloved Ridge Racer V really looks like ass, and the reason PCSX2 makes it look even worse, is obviously due to playing it on a progressive scan 720p display via HDMI.


Shadow Lady I admit your suggestion to play the game at a lower res initially fell on deaf ears, as I was determined to play it at at LEAST x5 scale with smooth framerates. Now I realize I should have listened to you and just accept the sheer ugliness of RRV. This certainly has not been helped by me being exposed to current gen high res graphics over the last 3 to 4 years, and playing gorgeous games such as Ridge Racer 7, Wipeout, Dirt 3, F1 2010, etc. It's amazing how quickly a current gen racing game can make going back to a last gen 1999 one a painful experience.

Secondly, my old 1998 Toshiba big rear projection screen TV was limited to an interlaced S-Video signal, and I never noticed how bad RRV looked, because it simply masked the majority of the flaws, as it did on all games from the PS2. So playing RRV via emulation is kind of an eyesore now because it has among the worst aliasing issues in all PS2 games.

At res scale x6, the game is GLORIOUS in comparison, but my mistake was being foolish enough to think that PCSX2, at least in its current state, can't run PS2 games at that res at a constant and rock solid 60fps.....at least on *my* PC rig. I guess I was expecting too much. At x3, the game runs nicely, and I apologize if I gave you all the impression that it doesn't. Like Tuanman, I too get nice 60fps framerates around 80% of the time and at some parts it does dip a little. I just wish I get the best of both worlds...the wonderful visual fidelity that the x6 scale provides *AND* at a rock solid 60fps with no lag.

I am guessing that with a newer nVidia card like a 580, I could probably achieve around 60 or so framerate but at x4 or maybe even 5. Unfortunately switching out my AMD 5870 for an nVidia is not in the cards(no pun intended) for me at the moment

With all that having been said, I still am convinced however, that future versions of PCSX2 can run Ridge Racer V even better, and that there's plenty of improvement to be made. The cars looking all glitched out on the track in GDSX Hardware mode really takes away the immersion of the game. Hopefully this will be looked into when you guys get a chance?

Anyway thanks and keep up the great work rama, refraction, SL, etc. I'm rooting for you guys to help make PSXC2 the best emu out there

[tuanming]

A 4.5GHz or a 5GHz Sandy Bridge i.e., 2500k or 2600k paired with a GTX 580 3GB at 6x res should be enough, I think

[refraction]

Im curious, if you can only output at 1280x720, why do you want x5 or x6 res? most games run in like 520x370 or something so x5 would be 2600x1850, most of which you will never see, just waste video ram, causing it to slow down more. youd be better off more around x3, which will be optimial usage for your screen. or x2 and put some AA on in the hacks section of gsdx.

[Shadow Lady]

Games look sharper at higher resolution besides of the supersampling like antialiasing effect you get with it, low resolution with high AA don't quite look the same. I don't see much difference between 4x and 6x but the difference between 3x and 4x is quite noticeable despite both being higher than my screen size