SNES Games Running Slow in RetroArch

RetroArch Windows devices
#1

Hello everyone,

I have posted this issue in the LaunchBox forums, but they were stumped with the issue that I have, and told me to try posting in here.

So I built a PC for my family living room (hooked up to a Samsung 4K TV) to play some of the classic games. It has a Intel i5 6500 clocked at 3.2GHz and 8GB of RAM. It uses the Intel HD Graphics 530 for graphics. I got Project64 up, and most N64 games run really well. Some minor hiccups, but still really well.

However, there’s a weird issue that I’m running into. So I downloaded RetroArch, and tried setting it up for SNES games. I also tried using the the BSNES balanced core, as well as the snes9x core. However, SNES games just run really slow. I found that turning on Threading does fix it, but I’ve also been told that it’s really meant for lower end PC’s. When I had it hooked up to my 1080 monitor in my room, it plays the games fine, so I’m really stumped. I did set the TV to gaming mode, but that didn’t help it either.

Could anyone here shed some light on this?

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#2

Are you using any shaders?

Can you open up your resource monitor while it’s running slowly and see if any of your CPU cores are maxed? If not, your CPU may be clocking down. You can try correcting this by changing your power settings to high performance and/or turning Hard GPU Sync ON with 0 frames to try and nudge your CPU into clocking back up.

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#3

[QUOTE=hunterk;53857]Are you using any shaders?

Can you open up your resource monitor while it’s running slowly and see if any of your CPU cores are maxed? If not, your CPU may be clocking down. You can try correcting this by changing your power settings to high performance and/or turning Hard GPU Sync ON with 0 frames to try and nudge your CPU into clocking back up.[/QUOTE]

I am not using any shaders at all. I actually haven’t checked to see if any of the cores are maxing out, though. I’ll have to take a look at that. I’ll look at it later tonight, as well as what you recommended, and get back to you.

#4

I have a Core2Quad @2.66Ghz , and I’ve been playing at full speed, even on a older machine, so it’s not a CPU problem. Take your time and check everthing at your computer.

Get yourself Zsnes or Snes9x standalones, and try some games. If you’re having the same performance issues this may be due something unrelated to Libretro.

#5

hunterk, I tried what you recommended, and still no difference. Changing to High Performance did boost my CPU from 3.2GHz to 3.5 GHz, though. While the game is running, it isn’t anywhere near 100% utilization. Could it have something to do with being hooked up to a 4K TV?

pioj, my bad, I did fail to mention to this. I did get Snes9x, and games do indeed work on there. So it does seem to be an issue with RetroArch and with it being a on a 4K display. It played fine on my monitor in my room, which is at 1080.

#6

ok, do other libretro cores work at the proper speed? It’s possible your TV’s refresh rate is being detected wrong.

#8

I have tried bsnes accuracy/balanced/performance, as well as the Snes9x (without any dates), and all have the same issue.

EDIT: So I just tried running a N64 game (with the Mupen64 core) and it lags at 30 FPS as well. However, I use Project64 by default for N64 games and games run without issues.

#9

So I went and turned off VSync, and everything seems to be working great. I’m also not getting any input lag, and was able to play without any issue. Is the VSync completely necessary? I’m running at a constant 60 FPS, now.

#10

If you’re getting 60 fps without vsync, it’s probably using audio sync to limit the framerate, which is fine. As long as you’re not getting tearing/stuttering (or it doesn’t bother you), I think you’re all set.

#11

What’s your frame delay setting?

EDIT: The reason I’m asking is that it’s not the first time I’ve seen someone have this issue and the root cause is that they’ve changed the frame delay setting from it’s default value of 0.

#12

Thanks a million hunterk. I have been experiencing slow video and slow/growling sound. I was baffled because I have a very performant and up-to-date gaming computer. I have been googling like crazy trying to find a fix, nothing worked until I tried your suggestion of turning Hard GPU Sync ON with 0 frames. It worked instantly. Games are working wonderfully now. Thumbs up.

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#13

Old Forum but I had this issue and managed to fix it thought I’d post my findings… Laptop has an Intel GFX card and NVIDIA and audio was synicing to the Intel GFX which was likely in a low power state thus setting the sync to 30hz instead of 60 and since GFX is synced to audio we have slow gameplay…

Goto Settings --> Audio --> Audio Device (note this is typically set to 1) I changed mine to 2 presumably the NVIDIA audio device a boom full speed gameplay…

#14

Try SNES9X Core as uses lot less Resource’s