Which games are the MOST demanding to run at full speed?

[stabwound]

We have a thread asking which games can be played on a low-end PC, but I want to know which games take a very high end PC to run.

I'm mostly wondering because I'd like to know which games I have no chance of being able to play properly with PCSX2. I have a nicely working PS2 but I actually prefer the emulator thanks to the much improved graphic capabilities.

To start the list, I found that the original Splinter Cell ran horribly from the get go no matter what settings or speed hacks I used. I don't know if I just had something set wrong but it was the first game I've tried that didn't run at full speed no matter what I did.

[sakraycore]

It would help if you posted your system specs lol.

Valkyrie Profile 2 seems to be the most demanding game I've tried thus far.

[stabwound]

Well, I really meant it as a general question, not really specifically for me. Just wondering what are generally considered to be the hardest games to run at full speed. Another one I just remembered is someone mentioning Metal Gear Solid 3 as being almost impossible to run at constant full speed no matter what kind of computer you have.

[CKL]

It should be GT4. I don't recall seeing anyone says having the game run full speed all time. Even a 4.4ghz E8400 and 4.2ghz i7 can't seem to do it according to the "best setting for gt4" thread.

[jesalvein]

Shadow of the colossus, Xenosaga 1, & MGS3

[Sythedragon]

I wonder what a 4GHZ Thuban using software mode at 6 threads could achieve?

[refraction]

reasonable speeds, not amazing tho I run it sometimes in software mode with 7 threads on my i7 920 @ 3.4Ghz, needless to say i get a playable speed, although i dont believe it is full speed.

[rama]

Tales of crashes, eh, Legendia.
Due to massive texture generation / swapping it's one of the slowest games. And then it crashes

[mashakos]

It should be GT4. I don't recall seeing anyone says having the game run full speed all time. Even a 4.4ghz E8400 and 4.2ghz i7 can't seem to do it according to the "best setting for gt4" thread.

yeah? I can say that doesn't aply to me BUT... I only play on Arcade mode
Check out my thread, it might help you get better performance on that game.

Short answer to the question is: any game that uses excessive post processing will cripple PCSX2.

Although I'm a programmer, I am not familiar with PCSX2's source so these are just guesses:
- The timing and fpoint calculation procedures of the PS2's processors have not been fully emulated yet, so some of the slow downs are related to in-progress code rather than a limitation of PC hardware.

- The kind of post processing effects used by game developers on the PS2 do not translate well on HD resolutions. A depth of field effect meant to be output at 512x512 resolution will require 20x processing power when output to 1920x1080


I've also found one game that is unusually slow on PCSX2: NBA Street 2. I don't know if it's because I didn't try enough to get the right settings or a limitation of PCSX2, but last time I ran it, the minute a match starts the framerate drops to 15fps.

From my collection:
MGS3
ZOE2
NBA Street 2

[fischkopf]

Gran Turismo 4. Its almost impossible to get FULL speed.
All Ratchet and Clank games.