Towndrunk Posted April 3, 2019 Share Posted April 3, 2019 I wanted to see what others are using for Big Box, as far as hardware. I can run all the common ROMs with no issues, but when I try something like Wii, the video and audio are a little glitchy. The audio will pop, and the intro to the video will get hung up. The ROM I have been using for a "benchmark" is Mario Kart. I am currently running Windows 10 Pro (X64) with 16GB RAM. I have an i7 processor and an 4G 1050ti Video card. I don't know what the issue is, but this happens every time it starts a new "race", and sometimes in between. I'm not sure where I am lacking. As a test, I also ran the game directly from the Dolphinx64 emulator, and not through BigBox, and it did play a bit better. There was still a small issue, but it wasn't as bad. I would appreciate if anyone could point me in the right direction on this one. I'm not sure if it is a setting in BigBox, the emulator, if it is just the ROM, or if I am lacking in hardware. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted April 3, 2019 Share Posted April 3, 2019 What i7 do you have ? There is quite a lot of generations of the i7 and a first or 2nd generation is significantly slower than even a 4th generation one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted April 3, 2019 Share Posted April 3, 2019 Also it's worth noting that Gamecube emulation isn't perfect either, its just the nature of emulators for 3D based systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towndrunk Posted April 3, 2019 Author Share Posted April 3, 2019 I have tried on two different i7 computers with the same result. One was on older i7-880, while the other was a newer i7-4790. Granted both processors aren't exactly "new", but I figured they would work, especially the 4th Gen i7-4790. I don't have any issues with Gamecube games at this point, using Retroarch. So far the only times I encounter anything abnormal is with Wii, using the Dolpinx64 emulator. Also, not sure why it seems to play better when I launch directly from the emulator outside of LaunchBox/BigBox. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted April 3, 2019 Share Posted April 3, 2019 Something weird is going on with your system then, the i7-4790 along with the rest of your hardware is more than plenty for Launchbox and Dolphin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towndrunk Posted April 3, 2019 Author Share Posted April 3, 2019 It is a brand new load. I just installed Windows a few days ago, ran updates, and installed the software needed by LaunchBox, that is it. There is nothing on this PC, and it is currently running on a 250G SSD. I was running things from an external USB 3.0 drive, and thought that was my bottle neck so I moved a few ROMS to the SSD, and still had the same result. I have a friend with pretty much the exact same setup as the i7-880 and he has the same issue. I told him I would look into it and see what I found out, so I'm not sure that it is a Windows issue. I think he may be using Win 7 though. I just wasn't sure if there was something I was overlooking since I'm a little new to LaunchBox. Maybe it has something to do with the emulator, and I should try another? Although it seems to work if I launch outside of LaunchBox. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted April 3, 2019 Share Posted April 3, 2019 I'm really not sure what to tell you because on my 2nd PC which has an AMD 8350 CPU in it doesn't have any problems with Dolphin being run through Launchbox at all and the 8350 is significantly worse when it comes to emulation than the i7-4790: https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-4790-vs-AMD-FX-8350/2293vs1489 There can be other factors such as drivers or background apps running causing performance problems, even a fresh Windows 10 install has a lot of garbage running with all those live tiles and telemetry. I can only say to take a look at the Performance thread here and see if any of it helps out: Another thing to check would be the Nvidia GeForce Experience software if you have it installed, it can be problematic. I have had it cause significant performance issues with even things like Genesis emulation and I no longer install it because of the issues it can cause. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towndrunk Posted April 3, 2019 Author Share Posted April 3, 2019 I did install the driver for the card, and the latest update is somewhat recent with a date of 01/30/2019. I did install the GPUTweakII as well, which is most likely the "Experience" you are talking about. I think I may try and uninstall all drivers/software for the video cards, and then go back and install just the drivers. I will also take a look at the link you provided and see what it has to say. I appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted April 3, 2019 Share Posted April 3, 2019 One of the biggest problems with PC gaming is the fact that there is so much going on in terms of hardware, drivers and software that it is so easy to have some sort of conflict in the chain causing weird hard to track down issues. The hardware you listed is definitely more than capable and shouldn't be a problem. In that performance thread you will see 2 of my systems that I have running Launchbox / BigBox on, one is particularly old but it has no problems within the limits of the hardware and the other is much more powerful and has no issues with up to and including Dolphin and PCSX2. I have never experienced the issue you are describing where running an emulator outside of LB is fine but when run through LB there is a performance issue. I have seen some people run into this issue before and it is most often down to a driver or some other software conflict. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towndrunk Posted April 3, 2019 Author Share Posted April 3, 2019 I will do some investigating to see what I can come up with. I have ran PCSX2 ROMs with no issues either. It seems to be the only ones I can't get to run great all the time are Wii. I'm going to download a few of the applications from the other thread and look at things. It appears there may be some settings I can change to make things a little quicker or more pleasant in the menus, but I don't see anything that is directly associated with the playing of ROMs yet. I will continue to read though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted April 3, 2019 Share Posted April 3, 2019 Quick Question are you running the stable version of Dolphin or a development version? If you are using the stable you need to upgrade to a dev build as it is has improved since the last stable release which was quite some time ago. Also have you looked at using the Vulkun video renderer in the video settings. Your GPU will definitely support Vulkan. I've used it on a laptop with no GPU and I can play GC games with Dolphin on it if you are having any performance issues I would suggest trying it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towndrunk Posted April 3, 2019 Author Share Posted April 3, 2019 I'm not totally sure, since I installed it about two weeks ago when the Retroarch emulator didn't work. I believe I installed the stable version, however it did just have an update a few days ago. Looking at it right now, and I can tell what I installed. I do know that it is Dolpin 5.0-9888. I can always install the other version, and associate one game with the emulator and see if it makes a difference or not. I have not looked at, or even heard of, using Vulkun. I will have to look at that. I have really done most of the basic setup within LaunchBox, and haven't went through the options of BigBox as much as I know I should have by now. I will add that to my notes of "things to do", and give is a look see. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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