While playing SOTC today I was screwing around with Cheat Engine and stumbled across the value that displays the game's real framerate. I couldn't figure out how to lock it but I did screw around a bit more to see what effect pcsx2's speedhacks had on it. I'm posting this here for future reference
RESULTS (from first area, in real fps*):
EE 1, VU 0 (default; for beast PC) <maybe currently impossible to get 100% 60vps>
60fps explore (rarely 30), 30fps battle
EE 2, VU 0 (for good PC) <better fps than real ps2>
30fps explore (rock solid), 20-30fps battle
EE 3, VU 0 (for decent PC)
20-30fps explore, 15-20fps battle
EE 1, VU 1 (for decent PC)
20-30fps explore, 15-20fps battle
Any other combination results in 10-15fps battles, so don't bother. Also, other speedhacks have no effect on real fps, but MTVU hack will boost your virtual fps. In other words it will compensate for a weak PC, but it won't make the emulated PS2 more powerful. That requires a a feature not yet implemented. With an OC'd EE, you should be able to play the entire game in real 60fps, and probably some others... Of course you'd need a PC from the future, or a record overclock
*If you don't know the difference between real and virtual fps, basically the game can be running as low as 10fps real and you'd still see 60fps virtual in pcsx2 because technically it's supposed to run at 10fps and therefore it's full speed.
RESULTS (from first area, in real fps*):
EE 1, VU 0 (default; for beast PC) <maybe currently impossible to get 100% 60vps>
60fps explore (rarely 30), 30fps battle
EE 2, VU 0 (for good PC) <better fps than real ps2>
30fps explore (rock solid), 20-30fps battle
EE 3, VU 0 (for decent PC)
20-30fps explore, 15-20fps battle
EE 1, VU 1 (for decent PC)
20-30fps explore, 15-20fps battle
Any other combination results in 10-15fps battles, so don't bother. Also, other speedhacks have no effect on real fps, but MTVU hack will boost your virtual fps. In other words it will compensate for a weak PC, but it won't make the emulated PS2 more powerful. That requires a a feature not yet implemented. With an OC'd EE, you should be able to play the entire game in real 60fps, and probably some others... Of course you'd need a PC from the future, or a record overclock

*If you don't know the difference between real and virtual fps, basically the game can be running as low as 10fps real and you'd still see 60fps virtual in pcsx2 because technically it's supposed to run at 10fps and therefore it's full speed.