High CPU usage

[dax]

Hello, my friend and I are experiences the same thing. Gens and Fusion are using ~100% of CPU when running games, while ZSNES for example, uses only 2%.

Is this a common problem? Is there a fix? Thanks.

[cibomatto2002]

Why is that a problem for people.

ZSNES will use 100% also when you are using it in full screen :)

[Jale]

Emulation is a processor intensive task.

[dax]

Nevermind, found a solution in Fusion. Just select "Sleep While Waiting," and CPU load goes to 0. This is not really a problem, but I have a laptop, and the fans go crazy when CPU load is high.

Anyway, now that I found a fix in Fusion, is there something similar in Gens?

[Zach]

Windows' CPU meter is also not the best measure.. Also depending on what the program is doing it may simply be reserving those cycles, but not actually using them.. But usually emulation is very intensive and will eat all the CPU it can. It's just a fact of life.

[Spellsong]

Nevermind, found a solution in Fusion. Just select "Sleep While Waiting," and CPU load goes to 0. This is not really a problem, but I have a laptop, and the fans go crazy when CPU load is high.

Anyway, now that I found a fix in Fusion, is there something similar in Gens?


IN Gens surreal, there is an option for Low IDIE. Its similar to sleep waiting.

[dax]

Thanks for all the replies. I don't want to create another thread in the PSX forum, so do you guys know if there's something like "Sleep While Waiting" in ePSXe?

Thanks

[Jale]

I don't understand why it bothers you. Are you running 2 or more different emulators or what? I've never had any problem, even on my old 850 MHz Celeron.

[Spellsong]

Are you using Graphics filters? That is why it might be at 100% for you. I kinda don't blame the TC, because I feel it might put wear on the CPU to have a constant 100% all the time.

[dax]

No, I am not using any filters, just the default video plugin.

I'm not running 2 emulators at the same time. It's a 2Ghz laptop, so you'd think it shouldn't use all the cycles. Turns out, it just reserves them, in the case of Fusion, I can turn that off, and the emulator uses about 2% CPU then. Now, I'm looking for a similar solution in ePSXe (maybe something along the lines of a command switch in a shortcut).

The reason it bothers me is because my laptop fans go crazy. The laptop (old Dell) has a temp sensor, and when the temperature in the CPU area gets hot, it turns on the fans. For the case when it's really hot, the fans are on highest settings, and are really loud.

[Spellsong]

Try this emulator. I heard is suppose to be as good as epsxe.


http://psxemulator.gazaxian.com/

[dax]

Try this emulator. I heard is suppose to be as good as epsxe.
http://psxemulator.gazaxian.com/

Sweet! Thanks Spellsong! Looking through the readme, seems like this emulator has an option "sleep while idle."

Now, I'm having DirectX problems, I need to upgrade. The thing is, when I bought the laptop, I remember the specs say that the video card supported DX7. Will it be fine if I install DX9c? It's a Radeon Mobility 7500.

[Spellsong]

I did some reasearch, and I got some mixed reports. Just try it, and see if it works.

[dax]

I did some reasearch, and I got some mixed reports. Just try it, and see if it works.

Yeah, I did the same thing, and get mixed reports as well. I'm not really desperate though, I'll back up my data first, then will try it.

[Spellsong]

Good idea. I was going to say make sure you have a system restore point.

[Solis]

hello dax,

You can try e}|{ soft driver gpu 0.98. It's less cpu intensive but, its less compatible than peopsoft v1.17 and has more glitches.

[cibomatto2002]

You think your laptop get hot LOL. I have the Dell Inspiron 5150 Laptop it has a
3.06GHz mobile Pentium 4 processor now it gets hot let me tell you

http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/dell-inspiron-5150/4505-3121_7-30418693.html

Also almost any emulator will get the laptops fun running at high speeds so live with it I do.

[dax]

Solis: I'll give it a try and will report back.

cibomatto2002: Yes, my laptop gets hot. Yours can be 10Ghz, it doesn't really matter, some emulators just reserve the cycles all to themselves. This is the problem, and is something everyone doesn't care about since they use desktops. However, some emulators allow for this to be disabled, which results in the CPU load to go WAY down.

[dax]

Holy shit Solis, E}I{'s softGPU is awesome! Although I'm still playing around with getting the screen the right size, I'm able to get the CPU load to be under ~30%, with no degradable graphics or glitches, even in full screen. Any other plugins that work in the same way? I'm going to try Kazzuya's Soft GPU later.

Spellsong, I tried out pSX on another PC that had DX9, and it actually does a better job at emulating a game than ePSXe, with only a ~50% CPU load on a 2500+ Barton (1.83Ghz core). Definitely a great emulator, I'll have to seriously look into updating to DX9.

Keep the comments coming guys.

[Solis]

yeah i know its dam good, too bad the authur stopped working on it. As far as other plugins i don't think there are any that light but i could be wrong but E}|{ is the lightest i found. The highest resolution is 640x480 i believe for windowed and fullscreen.

BTW you may want to turn off 'Try to Reduce Update lag' for games like Final Fantasy 9 and Other Final Fantasy games. And have Syncronize framebuffer must be on for Final Fantasy 9 not sure if you need it for others.