All cores run at 50-56 FPS

RetroArch General
#1

The RetroArch menu runs fine. My refresh rate is good and I stay at a solid 60 FPS. However, when I start any core, the FPS drop to the 50-56 range. My estimated screen framerate drops to ~52 Hz with over 100% standard deviation. I have an overclocked i7700k, so I shouldn’t have any issues running gambatte at full speed. Hard GPU Sync, threaded video, and switching video drivers all have no effect. This occurs with the latest nightly and latest stable release. I’ve already tried a fresh install and re-adding my custom settings. Any idea what would cause this?

Windows 10 x64

Intel i7-7700k

Nvidia GeForce 1070

RetroArch 1.6.7

#2

Well, you’ve done most of the troubleshooting steps already, which is good (and bad, i guess, since they didn’t fix your problem :P).

Have you checked your GPU control panel to see if there’s anything weird in there? How about checking your resource monitor to see if anything is maxed out (be sure to check individual cores rather than just the combined usage)?

#3

I just did a clean install of the latest driver and no resource usage is above 25%

#4

I’ve had a similar issue a couple of weeks ago: RetroArch showed 53.6 Hz (although in contrast to your situation it was consistent). I thought it happened only in RetroArch and not in native games (because Steam built in fps counter showed 60), but then decided to double-check with MSI Afterburner. And turns out games actually ran at 53.6 fps too!

My CPU was pretty significantly overclocked at the time and, being an old i5 750, by means of the FSB clock raise (175 MHz vs stock 133 MHz). So I’ve rebooted, dropped to stock clock, rebooted again - et voila: everything runs at 60 Hz. Then I’ve found it stays at 60 at 150 MHz FSB too, so my CPU is still somewhat higher than stock.

Now, your method of overclocking is different, but it might still end up with issues of bus synchronization I think. I suggest you try disabling overclocking and checking in RetroArch and also in games with RivaTuner Statistics Server/MSI Afterburner

1 Like
#5

I tried setting my clock rate back to stock as a profile for RetroArch. No effect. I was actually using Steam’s fps counter when I discovered that the cores run at 50-56 FPS. So it seems like our issues aren’t the same :confused:

#6

try posting your retroarch.cfg

#7

https://pastebin.com/YjuYBk4b

#8

im guessing you already tested with a clean-stock retroarch.cfg and frame rates is stil low? if you did this probably not RA thats slowing down. I dont see anything in config that might have caused it aside from vulkan and wasapi drivers.

#9

I would be inclined to agree, if any other program, especially another emulator, had the same issue.

#10

Change your video driver setting in RA to GL or Direct x and see if that has an effect.

Frame time deviation with dsound, resampling issues with xaudio
#11

I first noticed the issue with GL as my driver.

Edit: d3d doesn’t help, and has severe graphical issues in the main menu.

#12

audio_driver = “wasapi”

Change that to xaudio.

#13

Looks like the wasapi driver was the cause! I guess that’s something I should have used a little intuition on, since the slowdown only occurred with running cores. Shame, wasapi has such low latency when applied correctly. Thanks!

#14

wasapi does causes issues with some setup, like mine.