FPS drop when fullscreen

RetroArch Windows devices
#1

Hello,

I recently migrated my 1.0.0.2 install over to a new laptop. I noticed some pretty heavy Framerate drops so I did a fresh install of 1.2.2 and the problems persisted. I need some help as I can’t figure out why.

The frame loss is noticeable most in the Mupen64plus and ppsspp cores. While fullscreen and using the crt-hyllian-fast shader, framerate is only 40 and audio is choppy. If I switch to Windowed mode it immediately solves itself back up to 60 fps. It drops only when fullscreen. The framerate drop even exists for other cores like Nestopia and PicoDrive, but to a less-noticeable degree of 50fps.

Turning the shader off gives me a slight boost, but not enough to make a difference.

The laptop is an Intel i7, 16GB of RAM, and an nVidia GeForce 840M on Windows 10.

I’d appreciate any suggestions.

1 Like
#2

Have you gone into your Windows monitor refresh rate and made sure it’s set to 60hz?

#3

I’m pretty sure. Everywhere I look it references a 60hz refresh rate. It doesn’t let me change it to anything else.

RetroArch reports a refresh rate of 59.950hz

#4

Try running OBS or antimicro in the background and see if it helps. Windows 10 seems to introduce a CPU throttling issue with RetroArch that didn’t happen on Win7. It happens to me in fullscreen as well (windowed runs better) and I’ve seen others post similar reports: https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/1491

#5

No change. Ran OBS on preview mode while playing Smash Bros… OBS was taxing the CPU at about 10% while RetroArch sat at 5%. Your link also mentions changing the video driver, which I did previously. Neither D3D or SDL2 have any noticeable impact on the “slow cores” compared to GL.

#6

I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time messing with this, but I have one development. Changing the base resolution of Windows down from 1920x1080 to 1280x720 alleviates all of my fullscreen framerate problems. Which for me presents a possible workaround: Is RetroArch able to force a resolution change upon launch?

#7

I have never been able to reproduce this issue tbh, I get hjigh CPU usage but no frame drops

#8

IIRC, the video_fullscreen_x and video_fullscreen_y options will cause a resolution change, as long as you’re not using windowed fullscreen (i.e., your fullscreen is exclusive).

#9

Radius: Am I able to provide any additional information to help you? I’m sure it’s hardware-related on my part, or in combination with Windows 10.

hunterk: I thought I tried this, but I probably left windowed fullscreen on while doing so. It works perfectly now, thanks!

#10

Hey… i’m with the same problem, and this only happens when i put on fullscreen 1920x1080 if i use windowed form works well, even not fullscreen but force 1920x1080 causes slowdown… my pc specs: 32gb ram, I5 Skylake , 960GTX 4GB… I don’t know what to do to play fullscreen