[jasn]

Hey guys,
Ive been playing round with the emu for about a week..
I read the whole guide on the pcsx2 site, and have made a bit of progress.
Went from hanging up to random errors to working but completely unplayable.. to the point where i just need a couple of pointers or bits of advice. I've been doing the testing with Final Fantasy XII. Its running and is fine in game but i get 30fps and VERY skippy sound in any FMVs, including the start menu.

My PC specs are in my signature and ill post up my config screen. Any questions, let me know and hopefully someone has an idea how i can get this going 100% (or if i can). Thanks!

Also, im running the game from an ISO.

 

[Princess Garnet]

Speed hacks on or off? CPU clock speed default or overclocked (2.4GHz won't net you full speed, at least not without speed hacks)? Have you tried lowering the internal drawing resolution?

 

[jasn]

Ive tried various different configs with speed hacks and all have net the same or very similar results. These are my current speed hacks and CPU configs. I wont get full speed even with a quad core? I am running it at stock clock. I get full speed in gameplay?

And yes even with native resolution, i get a very similar frame rate in the FMVs (maybe 3-4fps difference)..
Thanks Zedeck

 

[kingis85]

well you could try a newer beta with newest plugins and remember to keep your drivers updated.

And using quad core wont really help here because if i,m right pcsx2 uses only 2 cores. So good dual core would be the best for pcsx2.
But just get a new beta and try those speed hacks.
I beleive you could get atleast better speeds.

 

[Princess Garnet]

If using native resolution doesn't help much, then the CPU is the bottleneck.

It doesn't matter if it's a quad core CPU. Since PCSX2 only takes advantage of two cores, it may as well be a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo as far as PCSX2 is concerned, and that is just barely nudging in at full speed there (and that's probably with speed hacks). PCSX2 may very likely support quad cores in the (maybe somewhat soon) future, but the gains probably won't be too big. It'll be limited quad core support, since the two extra things they're branching out won't gain much from what I've been reading.

For now, if you ensured you're running the latest drivers for your GPU for the reasons I mentioned, you really have two choices.

Overclock the CPU. Considering your motherboard and RAM at your disposal, I'm kind of surprised you're running it stock at a paltry 2.4GHz.

Use speed hacks. From my (limited) understanding of the way the Playstation 2 works, it's the EE you want to speed up for the biggest impacts, so set that to a 1.5x or 2.0x cycle rate. Note that speed hacks come with a "breaks the normal operation of things and may cause side effects like glitches, freezes, errors, and so on" disclaimer.

 

[jasn]

^ Thanks very much Zedeck. I was overclocking the CPU. But I havent really been playing games much lately so I put it back to stock. Its pretty much a push of a button in my MB.

I didnt realise that ps2 emulation put so much strain on the CPU, as it only ever seemed to be using about 50% CPU max. But i will overclock it and see how i go. How fast should I run the clock do you suggest? Ill try about 2.8.

 

[jasn]

well it wasnt a push of a button to re-overclock. I updated my bios and it deleted my O.C profile. Its a real ***** to O/C this board, really fiddly.

Ive been playing around at work, and i have it running stable at 3.15ghz. I cant really test the game here.. small screens and no speakers. But it looks like the fps is definately better.
Will let you know when i get home but looks like u hit the nail on the head Zedeck. Thanks again!!

 

[Princess Garnet]

~3.0GHz for a Core 2, without speedhacks, was the recommended minimum once upon a time, with the "more is better" approach being the next step.

Also, it was only using ~50% for the reason I stated, it was only using two cores. Two cores of four is 50%.

While we're on that subject, note something. Don't trust Windows task manager. Windows has a tendency to shuffle threads around, even if it's virtually only running on one (for example, a single core game I run usually takes ~70% of one core, and ~30% of another). That's Windows trying to be efficient, which it is, but it's also misleading for real usage.

As for the CPU, I'm not well versed on the Q6600, but ~3.3GHz seems to be the "average" from what I remember. Your mileage may vary. Some lucky ones get 3.6GHz (maybe even more with very good cooling and pushing it), and some, especially with the most recent G0 stepping (not the older, better, G0 stepping) get less and have trouble past ~3.1GHz-3.2GHz, again, maybe even less.

That motherboard has the 965 chipset, right? That chipset is supposed to usually overclock to the moon (granted, you have the CPU and RAM for it), at least from what I've read.

 

[jasn]

Okay well, running it at 3.15ghz has definately made a big difference.
Its running at 48-50fps during FMVs. (which is at limiter for PAL) so thats great.

Sound was still skippy but I tried a few different plugins and ZeroSPU2 seems to have sorted that. If you know of a better one, let m know because it does seem to go out of sync forvery small intervals occasionally.

Only problem now is i have scanlines in the cutscenes and its constantly flashing a black screen. :S any ideas on that one?

As far as the windows CPU usage being unreliable, that definately makes sense. I was going on what pcsx2 says but i guess that it gets that figure from windows. This board is supposed to be a good overclocker yeah. But from what ive read, its definately more friendly with the high end Core 2s than the quads. I know i can get it a little bit higher. I was close to having it stable at 3.3ghz.. It really doesnt like my RAM though... i cant figure out why.. ive tried plenty of timing combinations.

This board has the 780i triple-SLI chipset. im running it at 1400fsb (350x9).
It runs at about 29 degrees celcius idle, which is really good.