Performance tip
#1
I did a LOT of trial and error with PCSX2 1.0.0 settings(with the default plugins). I have several games I tested:

Metal gear Sons of the Patriots
Metal gear SnakeEater
Shrek(it's a game I play with my son, hey!)
Gran Turismo 4
Fatal Frame 1

My specs are:
A sucky Core2Duo E7400
A kickass Nvidia 560 Ti
8gb RAM(1066 Mhz Dual Channel)

I almost gave up with the speed I get with this emulator. Compared to the wii emulator(my son broke our wii console), performance of PCSX2 was TERRIBLY SLOW regardless of game I tried.

Anyway, to cut the long story short, I read a LOT of articles and guides and such and FINALLY... FINALLY I GOT IT WORKING AT 100% on ALL of my games except Metal Gear 2.

Here are my settings:
GSDX 5334 SSE41(included)
- D3D11 Hardware
- Interlacing(Auto) - weird that performance takes a hit with any other setting
- Scaling(2x native) - this is my BIGGEST discovery. Using native resolution(which I always stuck to) was really SLOW. But when I finally tried upping the resolution, I was mindblown. Suddenly EVERYTHING was faster. I could only assume that with native setting, it did not use the GPU at all, but once I set it to anything else(even 6x), performance boosted to what it SHOULD be.
- Hardware mode settings
- Everything checked except Logarithmic Z(this took a lot of trial and error and I found this is the optimal setting, for those games I tried anyways)
- Configure HW Hacks so that 1. Skipdraw is 2 and Aggressive CRC is checked. everything else is unticked.(trial and error as well)
- Emulation Settings(Preset to 5)

Note that the LAST thing I tried was the native resolution change. Everything else, I got a gain of approximately 10fps. But the game changer was really the native resolution.

Please let me know if I'm right and if this helps you out. Remember though that my computer specs include a sucky CPU and a great GPU. Even then, if you have an external GPU and if my theory is correct, you should get a big boost on performance.
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#2
Quote:Scaling(2x native) - this is my BIGGEST discovery. Using native resolution(which I always stuck to) was really SLOW. But when I finally tried upping the resolution, I was mindblown. Suddenly EVERYTHING was faster. I could only assume that with native setting, it did not use the GPU at all, but once I set it to anything else(even 6x), performance boosted to what it SHOULD be.

Blame your GPU drivers, not PCSX2. It is quite obvious the additional load made the GPU drivers set it to 3D clocks instead of 2D clocks you were getting with native on.
Skipdraw at 2 will break many games and/or remove needed effects. It should ONLY be enabled on a per game basis and not as a general setting. Speed hack preset to 5 will also break most games and/or give you less speed than lower presets or false FPS readings (as its description says). Recommending that too is a really bad idea.
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#3
I wish I knew of a working way to make sure PCSX2 / GSdx get full performance from current drivers.
Something with their load balancers is off ><
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#4
with the nvidia driver
the driver ramps up to p0 when gpu usage exceeds 45% of low power 3d and 2d
the driver ramps down to p2/p3 when the gpu usage goes below 15% of full power


I've actually found this is causing choppiness framerates in Pj64
the driver will randomly fall back to low power 3D and thats when the framerate gets choppy.
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#5
(09-02-2012, 12:42 AM)Bositman Wrote: Blame your GPU drivers, not PCSX2. It is quite obvious the additional load made the GPU drivers set it to 3D clocks instead of 2D clocks you were getting with native on.
Skipdraw at 2 will break many games and/or remove needed effects. It should ONLY be enabled on a per game basis and not as a general setting. Speed hack preset to 5 will also break most games and/or give you less speed than lower presets or false FPS readings (as its description says). Recommending that too is a really bad idea.

You think so? Because I always have the latest drivers. And 3d clock vs 2d clock is a GREAT explanation that makes perfect sense. Thanks! Laugh

And yes, skipdraw at 2 and speedhack preset 5 does produce graphical glitches on all of them, but they were still playable on all the games I tested and does improve performance even if by just about 4 fps. Although I did have an experience in Fatal Frame when I couldn't get past a certain point(door). But the solution there was using Dx9 instead of Dx11, so if that's what you meant by "breaking" the game, you are correct. But in my case, I'd rather go with 100% playing speed then fiddling with settings only when it's causing a problem(if there are any that pop out).

Oh yes, and one more thing. I forgot to mention that I made sure all my processing power was for PCSX2. So before and while running a game in PCSX2 I monitored the task manager processes by sorting according to CPU then closing any other CPU consuming process other than PCSX2.

I know this sounds very basic, but you never know who your readers are and how much technical knowhow they have(if any). Just trying to help. Laugh
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#6
(09-02-2012, 08:23 AM)Squall Leonhart Wrote: with the nvidia driver
the driver ramps up to p0 when gpu usage exceeds 45%
the driver ramps down to p2/p3 when the gpu usage goes below 15%

If that's true than we might have to contact them and ask about whitelisting pcsx2.exe ><
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#7
people just should buy gtx 4xx if they want perfomance, its less buggy in drivers Tongue
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#8
no its not.

Rama

i actually found the performance state affects pj64 now too, gets choppy when it drops back to low power 3D.

the max power profile works on both emulators though, but i haven't really seen pcsx2 drop below full power 3d.. then again i rarely use native
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#9
Emulators will often show weird usage patterns.
Something like a 60% memory controller load but just 10% GPU load.
Dropping to 2D clocks then naturally slows everything down..
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#10
i haven't tested since updating to 306.02 though, maybe it drops back to low power 3d without getting choppy now :|
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