Tips on why dx9 runs better than dx10 for Persona games?

[Gvaz]

Hiyo,

Currently I'm testing playing my two Persona games (persona 3:fes and persona 4) and I find that using dx10 on GSdx makes these games have choppy or slow or glitchy audio. I'm using a compiled version of 0.9.7 so i don't expect any support, however I was wondering if I could get any feedback or your opinions! Thats fine right?

Anyways, here's my current setup:

AMD Phenom II x3 720 BE @ 2.8
4GB DDR2-6400 in dual channel
creative x-fi xtrememusic
playing from the hard drive
ATI Radeon 4890 1GB

Nothing is overclocked, speedhacks are off, the VU Clip Flag Hack is on (persona games it said), framelimiting is on, etc. You can see in the images.
Here is my dxdiag if you need it: http://gvaz.pastebin.com/njGSqU0S

Here's what I tried: (p3:fes, I tested less with p4 but suffice to say it's the same)
dx10 on (hw) (no interlacing, d3d internal res @ 1920x1080, 1x scaling, texture filtering on square) and spu2-x on linear, 1x normal reverb, xaudio2 w/ 50ms latency, no aa, Vsync is on (mandatory. screen tearing is not allowed) window size at 1024x768, resolution is at 1920x1080 60hz
>Looks nice, and runs fast, however audio is mostly slow and cutscenes are about 50% speed of what they should be. fps is at 40 fps, ee at 80%ish, gs at about 0-5% for the opening cutscene. Audio is sort of slow at the entrance of Tartarus, with clicking and popping. In game menus and all that seem to work fine without any lag. Main menu is however a bit laggy, ZeroGS is "faster" in this regard I found.
I'd take a screenshot but for some reason fraps is being retarded.
Same settings as above, but with "ps2 internal resolution" checked.
>Runs worse, looks worse, opening fmv runs slightly better, but in game audio runs like *****. FPS is at 53 or so.
Same settings as first one, except audio is set to portaudio, and d3d scaling set to 3x
>Looks good, get about the same fps, but audio is even worse. Main menu is kinda sluggish
Trying something else now, same settings as first one, however resolution set to window size, d3d resolution set to window size. Scaling at 3x.
>Same audio issues. Main intro audio is poppy. Audio is still slow, but get 40 fps in some places, 60 fps in others. Menus are okay.
Okay. Time to try dx9 (hw):
1024x768 @ 60hz, no interlacing, stretch, d3d at resolution, 3x scaling, no aa, texture as a box, log z on, alpha correction on. otherwise same as the first one.
>Main opening video runs around 95-100% speed that it should be getting with barely noticeable slowdowns if at all. Almost no popping, perhaps 3 pops total. Noticing no audio issues whatsoever. In game audio @ Tartarus entrance proper speed with very minor audio popping or slowdowns. Menus are fine, no audio glitches. 55-60 fps. However, shadows and some textures get kind of wonky, and the "fading" aura in tartarus looks weird, like you're in a dream. This is less apparent on dx10.
Same as above one, turned persona hack off, but put back to dx10,Changed clamp mode to full, turned vsync off.
>OP runs fine, menus run fine, in game battle is still rather slow audio wise. Graphics run about 40-60 depending on whats on screen. all three cpu cores are 40-50% generally. EE is very high, about 95-100%, gs is about 10-20%. FPS is at 45-50 in battles.
Same as above, but the persona hack on:
>Better, but places with lots of people like the auditorium or classroom or big enviroments, the game says it runs around 30-35 fps and the audio works at about 40% speed as does the game. GS is around 20-27% and CPU is about 50% over all three cores as per usual.

Dx10
Click
Dx9
Click

As you can tell, it's missing shadows on the player character on dx9. Depending on the camera angle, I'll get these glitches too on dx9:
Click
Notice the walls and carpet. This shows up at a range of camera angles, but mostly when you're looking down the hallway.

Anything you could suggest that I didn't try?

[Bositman]

What does the GS % say when you run the game? If it is anything above 90% it means you are using way too high internal resolution/scaling in which case you have to reduce it.

[Gvaz]

I have never seen the GS % go above 35. I saw it at 33% once, but mostly it doesn't go higher than 35%

[diegochiha]

just try reducing the scaling to x2 or disable it,and see if that improves something

[Bositman]

Well then you are clearly CPU limited. Normally DX10 HW of GSdx should give you the best speeds. Try updating your DirectX too: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/detai...6652CD92A3&displaylang=en
and your ATI card drivers.
Nothing else you can do (except using speed hacks)

[Gvaz]

How am I cpu limited if it never goes above 50% on all three cores?

It's not some weird "half of all cores = 100% usage" Like i remember hearing about in the past, cause prime95 uses up 100% on all three.

Is there more to it than that?

ed: I'm also using the latest drivers for my card.

[Bositman]

PCSX2 uses only 2 threads. So the OS spreads the load to all 3 cores. You are CPU limited. It is impossible to have 100% usage even in 2 cores, due to threading limitation (yes you can do it but you will get no extra speed so no point)

[Gvaz]

Hrm, is it possible for pcsx2 in the future to create more threads to spread the load to tri cores and quad cores in the future?

Also, since I'm cpu limited, I might be able to overclock to 3.0 with my stock cooler. Would this 200mhz help at all in my situation do you think, or would I have to either clock it to like 3.2 or simply get a better CPU?

(I'd also have to update myself on overclocking, its been a while)

If it's the latter, then I'll have to hold off on playing in dx10 mode for a few years (I just upgraded to this, and the mobo is am2+ with support for am3).

You said dx10 gives the "best" speeds, but it does work a lot better for me on dx9 (albeit looking worse with graphical abnormalities), so as long as the audio doesn't pop or move so slowly that the characters sound mentally challenged, I can deal with it I think.

just try reducing the scaling to x2 or disable it,and see if that improves something

In the op I stated I tried 1x, and disabling it (by selecting ps2 rez)

[Bositman]

We've found that speed increases linearly with the processor's Mhz so yeah it will help. Yes it is possible to expand PCSX2 to use more threads but it will be extremely difficult and the speed boost might not be worth the effort.

Only reason DX9 works better for you than DX10 would be either some ATI driver bug or your specific model is pretty weak when using DX10

[Gvaz]

I don't know, other games for me seem fine (though this is a different ballgame) in that I can max out anything but crysis or stalker on dx10 and get an acceptable framerate.

As for an ati bug, I have no idea. I'm pretty much using the latest non-beta drivers for my system.