Intel NUC - general slowness of emulators

RetroArch Windows devices
#1

Hello there,

I recently tried to install first recalbox on my Nuc and then Retroarch.

My system is this one precisely: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/76978/intel-nuc-kit-d34010wyk.html

The issue I have is that every emulator seems to work slowly, whatever the emulator.

I tried using emulators for NES, SNES, Master System, Megadrive but the result was always the same, (mainly tried NES and SNES).

I find it difficult to believe the the system would be the issue since I was able to run perfectly PSX emulators back in 2000 on a far less powerful CPU at the time.

I initially used the configuration from the install but then tried changing drivers and cores, and also the resolution (which was 4K initially, thought it might be the issue) and at some point the NES emulator seemed to work properly but that’s as far as I could go in terms of improvement.

I tried to browse the forums for an explanation in terms of requirements that would explain the issues I have but it seems people are able to run even N64 emulators with a configuration quite similar to what I have.

I am probably missing something big here but I can’t see what unfortunately, maybe the community can help.

Thanks

#2

In my personal experience with low spec machines. I have not had good experiences with CPUs with less than 2.2ghz (crappy ITX AMD A10) with turbo boost to 2.5ghz

Emulators have evolved over the years and have become more accurate, this in turn has added to the amount of resources need to run them.

Have you tried running any standalone emulators on it?

#3

Not yet, I will try. Maybe I can try old versions as well, do you think they will use less resources ? Do you have any good core candidates I could use to validate that theory ?

#4

snes9x instread of bsnes for snes

fceum for nes

picodrive for genesis

The above are less CPU intensive cores

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#5

I’m new to RetroArch and I also have a NUC. Mine is higher spec system (I think) running Core i7 @ 3.1 GHz, 32 GB of RAM and 4GB of video RAM (this one). But I’m having some problems with N64 emulator too. Specifically, trying to run Ocarina of Time in the middle of the opening scene RA goes into “slow motion” mode. I can’t figure out why.

I’m think that something in RetroArch isn’t working with the video driver of these systems which are more of an laptop-style integrated system rather than an add-on video card. But that’s just a guess.

#6

I’m perfectly able to run the less demanding cores of the 16bit consoles even on a thin client with 1GHZ AMD CPU. Clockspeed doesn’t tell you all, but those Nucs are much faster CPU-wise. In terms of ressources, it could be an issue when Videofilters are activated though. Same for the GPU, I don’t think you’ll be able to use a lot of shaders at 4K with integrated stuff. So everything in that regard should be turned off first if something was active. If that’s out of the question, perhaps it’s really some driver issue.

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#7

Yeah that’s what makes me think that there’s something else going on than CPU power. I’ve seen lots of other devices on YouTube running OOT at full speed.

#8

Thanks for your answers, it’s really appreciated to have them already !

I tried some more tweaking yesterday with the cores you suggested and finally was able to run quite smoothly by reducing the base resolution, it took my screen resolution by default (4K) and it seemed to cause some issues to emulators. I tried to reduce it before posting this thread but must have done something wrong because it did not improve like it did yesterday.

So, thanks all for your inputs, it helped me trying new things and it worked!

I still have some issues but at least I know now it’s worth continuing working on them.

Just in case, I’ll list them here, waiting to be able to try some tuning again tonight or this week end:

  • I experienced a lot of controller input lag playing mario world on SnesX, did not try another emulator yet
  • I’m not sure how roms for PSX should be, I thought unzipping them and leaving only the .iso .bin .img file would be OK but RetroArch only sees a few of them that way, maybe someone has an advice on the matter ?

Thanks all again !

#9

I just installed RetroArch on my Fire HD 8 tablet, which is super low spec, but it runs OOT insanely well. Same core, same ROM as I’m trying to use on my NUC. I actually didn’t expect the Fire 8 to be able to run much at all, and only tried it as a fluke.

Anyway, I think that suggests that there’s something else going on with the NUC that is causing problems. I don’t know if my problems are the same as @CappCorp because our hardware is pretty different, but there’s something going on here.

#10

As a matter of fact, drivers for intel gpu are well known for being insanely bad (i’m not talking about low specs, i’m talking about buggy drivers).

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#11

Strange thing is, I don’t have any problem playing regular PC games - I haven’t pushed the limit with really intensive titles, but stuff like the latest Wolfenstein run just fine at full resolution.

#12

While id software (or whoever do this series now) has the time and ressources to track and fix issues specific to a gpu and its drivers, we don’t.

My point when i say the intel gpu drivers are insanely bad is that (GL) code that works with any other gpu doesn’t necessarily work the same way (or at all) with an intel gpu with the same specs. Furthermore with the same (GL) code, the same intel gpu, but using 2 different OS (linux and windows), you also get totally different results (if any result at all), this is solid proof that their drivers are totally unreliable.

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#13
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