Stuttering problem with emulators

[YagamiBrando]

Hello guys, not sure if this is the place to ask this, but i may assume many of you like retro games and play them (including on emulators too).
I would like to ask for advice or maybe even solution to a problem i am having recently. I noticed some rare micro stuttering while playing 2d games. It happens like once a minute, or sometimes like once every 30-40 seconds. If i check fps, then it generally shows stable 60 fps, but when this happens it drops to 58 or 55 fps. Sometimes even sound is intact when this happens, but other times you can hear sound stutters too. This is happening when i am using Mednafen emulator to play sega genesis games, also this happens with melonDS, tested with Contra 4 game. Tried to limit fps to no more than 60, and turn on and off the vsync in nvidia console, but nothing works. Interestingly, some other emulators like mame or even more modern consoles ones like xenia canary - do not have this problem. Also common pc games i have on steam also don’t have it. What can be the case, you think? And what else can i try? It’s pretty rare and barely noticeable but for me if i see an imperfections it is driving me crazy
Is it possible it is somehow related to opengl?
Anyway, i am on asus tuf gaming laptop with rtx 3060 laptop gpu, ssd, Windows 11 if that helps

 

[danno]

I had a similar problem just before Christmas and my Graphics card died, I had a similar problem a couple years before and it was the CPU, If it happens only with emulators I would guess it's a CPU issue, might need a slight overclock.

 

[YagamiBrando]

I had a similar problem just before Christmas and my Graphics card died, I had a similar problem a couple years before and it was the CPU, If it happens only with emulators I would guess it's a CPU issue, might need a slight overclock.

Yeah, this happens with *some* emulators. MAME and xbox emulators like xenia canary and xemu are working fine. I wonder what's up with DS and Sega Gen. emulators. Maybe that's a cpu issue, but I wonder if anything can be tweaked in settings to improve that.

 

[Kratus]

Yeah, this happens with *some* emulators. MAME and xbox emulators like xenia canary and xemu are working fine. I wonder what's up with DS and Sega Gen. emulators. Maybe that's a cpu issue, but I wonder if anything can be tweaked in settings to improve that.

+1 to @danno's point about CPU. It also happens with me when I'm running some apps in the background together with some emulators, I suggest checking your task manager to see the CPU usage for every app, plus try to disable every app that runs at the startup to check which one is demanding CPU.

Many emulators run in software mode and it's entirely CPU based, so the performance will highly be affected in this case.

 

[YagamiBrando]

After some more observation, I came to think that my SSD is actually at fault here. when I open Task manager and monitor the situation, Disk 1 SSD graph show some spike during the lag. When the situation is stable at 60 fps it shows 0%, but when the stutter happens it shows 10%. Tested on both Mednafen and melonDS emulators - same situation.

https://imgur.com/a/cc6lcgz

funny thing is, if I just copy-paste the folder with emulator and games to my other ssd (i have 2) - it doesn't help. But I could bet that I didn't have the problem before. Maybe it all started when I got that second new SSD, I got and installed it by the end of December. I won der what can be done here aside from replacing this ssd?

 

[DCurrent]

I won der what can be done here aside from replacing this ssd?

If your drive really is at fault? Not a whole lot beyond replacement and ensuring there are not odd compatibility issues. There shouldn't be, but I've seen stranger things happen. When a drive malfunctions or mismatches (again very rare), it causes ripple effects throughout the system.

DC

 

[oldyz]

I came to think that my SSD is actually at fault here. when I open Task manager

crossing fingers that your ssd is not HP brand

avoid HP ssds like the plague, around last year i found out that a line of 'em had planned obsolescence of 3 years but a programming blunder made them last around 35 hours - those lucky enought to update the firmware avoided the issue, bu the symptoms where laggy and unresponsive reads....

how did i found out this? purchased a 240 gig hp sdd at a low price- lasted about 2 months and it would freeze me machines - and HP pretends they never manufactured the thing (you have to punch in the serial# to start the RMA process) - lots of users are told to resolve the "3 year warranty" issues via private message on the HP forums....



anyway - mednafen?

what happened to GENS? - anyway , if you want to completely rule out your Operating system as an issue - just burn a Batocera USB and see if you get the same crud happenings

 

[Kratus]

After some more observation, I came to think that my SSD is actually at fault here. when I open Task manager and monitor the situation, Disk 1 SSD graph show some spike during the lag. When the situation is stable at 60 fps it shows 0%, but when the stutter happens it shows 10%. Tested on both Mednafen and melonDS emulators - same situation.

https://imgur.com/a/cc6lcgz

funny thing is, if I just copy-paste the folder with emulator and games to my other ssd (i have 2) - it doesn't help. But I could bet that I didn't have the problem before. Maybe it all started when I got that second new SSD, I got and installed it by the end of December. I won der what can be done here aside from replacing this ssd?

I suggest checking the SSD's health using a tool, I commonly use the HD Sentinel.

In addition, try to use each one alone to see if the issue persists. You have a good setup with enough firepower to perform many tasks, especially because yours SSDs are nvme m2, not sata.

 

[YagamiBrando]

If your drive really is at fault? Not a whole lot beyond replacement and ensuring there are not odd compatibility issues. There shouldn't be, but I've seen stranger things happen. When a drive malfunctions or mismatches (again very rare), it causes ripple effects throughout the system.

DC

Will probably replace it, after I check it more and confirm it's SSD's fault. But it should be it, as task manager always shows some activity spike in that new SSD when the lag happens. Interestingly enough, I've tried to copy-paste the folder with emulator and games to my other, original native SSD and try here, but the problem still occurs, and that other SSD again is showing that 10% activity, no matter if the emulator or game is on it or on other SSD. Soo, maybe it really is sending ripple effects throughout the whole system.

>>crossing fingers that your ssd is not HP brand<<
Nope, it's Transcend brand, the model is NVMe TS2TMTE220S. My native SSD is samsung. Maybe I'll just go for another samsung one.

>>
anyway - mednafen?

what happened to GENS?<<

Gens is some old stuff. And Mednafen is probably one of the very best emulators I've ever tried. It's a bit tricky to configure (you have to edit text CFG file to change everything), but the quality is great. Also it emulates a LOT of platforms: NES, SMS, Sega Gamegear, Genesis, Gameboy/Gameboy Advance, PS1.

>>In addition, try to use each one alone to see if the issue persists. You have a good setup with enough firepower to perform many tasks, especially because yours SSDs are nvme m2, not sata.<<

Will do. And yeah, setup overall is pretty good, like I can run most modern games just fine, and besides I've tried Mednafen on my other work-pnly laptop, which is pretty old and much less powerful, and it didn't have any problem.

 

[oldyz]

@YagamiBrando

indeed, some disks fail so bad that they affect the main HDD , making the system freeze and stutter even if connected with an usb adapter

some other things to look out, how long have you had this machine, is there lot of dust where you live (my city is pretty dusty)
so i have to dissasemble laptop and machines and give them a good clean -

does it heat up a lot? again if you have had it for more than a year i have seen models that need new cooling pads or thermal paste about every 6 months - big factor in my nick of the woods is the excess contamination/dust - and this goes for the cpu and the graphics chip....

i have a batocera drive with some demanding wii games that allow me a quick look at how machines handle them, and usually a machine that has on-board graphics issues will freeze -

if using batocera is a bother,
for gpu you can use benchmark software like UNIGINE Benchmarks
if the gpu is faulty this thing will be buggy or freeze the machine

as for cpu bench marks or RAM, been lucky to not have had issues for those so i gotz nothing...

and last but not least, sometimes the newest graphipcs drivers mess up stuff - have had some win10 machines that had to have previous drivers to fix some graphics issues or HDMI issues - and i dont think win 11 might be any better (good lord 10 and 11 stink)

 

[YagamiBrando]

Hey guys, I've managed to solve the issue, but it turned out to be a bit more complicated than I expected.
So, I actually did change the ssd to another one, this time installed Samsung, as my native SSD. But, the problem still remained, and now that new ssd was showing that 10% activity spike when the lag was happening. To test this further I've disabled/deactivated the 2nd ssd in device manager, so the system was only showing 1 ssd, the native one. And the problem was gone, but when I enabled 2nd ssd back - the problem returned. So, for some reason it was there if my pc was having 2 ssd, for some reason.
I've started googling something like "2 ssd stuttering" or something, and found a post by some guy with similar problem. After trying lots of stuff, he found solution by changing some secret-advanced power settings for hard drives, namely "Primary Transition Latency Tolerance" parameter, which was set to 0 by default for performance laptop mode, and he had to change it to 15 (15 was the value for other modes aside from performance, like balanced power mode). I've found some similar posts with people saying this helped them to fix the stuttering. I've tried this and...nothing. Still there. But I knew i was close.
To be able to see and change these parameters at all I messed with some Registry editor files, but they were not showing still, so I found some free simple program called "PowerSettingsExplorer". With it you can easily change this parameter. But there were many other parameters aside from that one, so I googled to learn about them and what they do. Found this guide:

Optimize Gaming Performance: Fix DPC Latency

Learn how to create a custom power plan to reduce DPC latency and enhance gaming experience.

www.toolify.ai

Then followed the guide to change other settings to recommended values, and finally it worked. I think something like NVME NOPME (Disabling Non-Operational Power Management for NVMe devices prevents latency spikes during idle periods. Setting NVMe NOPME to off ensures consistent system performance) was causing it. Or some other similar parameter.
So, yeah, very tricky stuff, looks like it only affects laptops with 2 ssd's, and there is really not that much info about it. But in the end this finally solved the issue and now my mind can finally rest

 

[DCurrent]

Hey guys, I've managed to solve the issue, but it turned out to be a bit more complicated than I expected.
So, I actually did change the ssd to another one, this time installed Samsung, as my native SSD. But, the problem still remained, and now that new ssd was showing that 10% activity spike when the lag was happening. To test this further I've disabled/deactivated the 2nd ssd in device manager, so the system was only showing 1 ssd, the native one. And the problem was gone, but when I enabled 2nd ssd back - the problem returned. So, for some reason it was there if my pc was having 2 ssd, for some reason.
I've started googling something like "2 ssd stuttering" or something, and found a post by some guy with similar problem. After trying lots of stuff, he found solution by changing some secret-advanced power settings for hard drives, namely "Primary Transition Latency Tolerance" parameter, which was set to 0 by default for performance laptop mode, and he had to change it to 15 (15 was the value for other modes aside from performance, like balanced power mode). I've found some similar posts with people saying this helped them to fix the stuttering. I've tried this and...nothing. Still there. But I knew i was close.
To be able to see and change these parameters at all I messed with some Registry editor files, but they were not showing still, so I found some free simple program called "PowerSettingsExplorer". With it you can easily change this parameter. But there were many other parameters aside from that one, so I googled to learn about them and what they do. Found this guide:

Optimize Gaming Performance: Fix DPC Latency

Learn how to create a custom power plan to reduce DPC latency and enhance gaming experience.

www.toolify.ai

Then followed the guide to change other settings to recommended values, and finally it worked. I think something like NVME NOPME (Disabling Non-Operational Power Management for NVMe devices prevents latency spikes during idle periods. Setting NVMe NOPME to off ensures consistent system performance) was causing it. Or some other similar parameter.
So, yeah, very tricky stuff, looks like it only affects laptops with 2 ssd's, and there is really not that much info about it. But in the end this finally solved the issue and now my mind can finally rest

Nice. Glad you got it worked out @YagamiBrando, and thanks for sharing!

DC

 

[oldyz]

@YagamiBrando

interesting stuff, so if not mistaken from previous posts, we are talking about those internal ssd stick/sort of ram looking types...

it is very possible that if both ssd's where of the same model and capacity the problem might not happen, but different types have to have adjustments and tweaks

lol - my clunkers generally have double ssd's (satas) because i use optical drive caddies - i will keep this post in mind if i ever get a modern machine eventually

 

[YagamiBrando]

@YagamiBrando

interesting stuff, so if not mistaken from previous posts, we are talking about those internal ssd stick/sort of ram looking types...

it is very possible that if both ssd's where of the same model and capacity the problem might not happen, but different types have to have adjustments and tweaks

lol - my clunkers generally have double ssd's (satas) because i use optical drive caddies - i will keep this post in mind if i ever get a modern machine eventually

Something like that, though I have 2 samsungs now, didn't help (different models though). I am not sure, but maybe just having 2 SSD NVME types in a laptop can cause this, so you need to set your power options for "max performance always" (through these secret-advanced settings).

 

[YagamiBrando]

Sounds like classic microstutter possibly tied to emulator rendering or sync issues. Since it’s only in certain emulators, try switching video output drivers in Mednafen (e.g., from OpenGL to Direct3D or SDL). Also, enable "audio sync" if available. Disabling Windows Game Mode and background apps might help too.

I've actually managed to solve the issue as described in the post from February 25, tweaking some advanced power settings for SSD devices did the thing