Help- upgraded to XP, now ZSNES slow...

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 3:55 am

Poobah wrote:
franpa wrote:its getting slower due to it becoming more accurate at emulating the original console.
franpa, all evidence suggests that that is not the problem here.

I'm thinking that he's just changed from the really-fast DOS port in Win9x to the Windows port in Windows XP. I could get about 40-60 FPS in most games in Win9x using the ModeQ modes with the DOS port, using my Pentium-MMX 166MHz CPU and 2MB S3 Trio 64V graphics card, but the Windows port wasn't playable on that computer (let alone the resource-hogging Windows XP).

There definately exists a huge performance delta between the DOS and Windows port. To suggest anything otherwise is moronic. In fact, none of the ModeQ/X modes use 16-bit color, which is significantly influential in regards to performance. In sum, please stop guessing franpa. An AMD K6-2 is very inadequate for ZSNES for Windows unless you are using frame skip of 2-3 or so (a decent video card helps does help here). Anything less than the Xbox hardware will not get you 60fps or so in the Windows port. The DOS port would need like half the Xbox performance to hover around 60fps w/16-bit color.

PHoNyMiKe · Post by **PHoNyMiKe** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 11:39 pm

phonymike wrote:get a new processor man!

I swear that guy is a genius.

adventure_of_link · Post by **adventure_of_link** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 1:24 am

Eh... not really. In his case, he'd have to buy a whole new motherboard, power supply, and RAM.

So it'd probably be smarter to just buy a whole new computer.

Joe Camacho · Post by **Joe Camacho** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 1:48 am

adventure_of_link wrote:Eh... not really. In his case, he'd have to buy a whole new motherboard, power supply, and RAM.

So it'd probably be smarter to just buy a whole new computer.

Or just get some more ram. Or return to win 98 SE.

paulguy · Post by **paulguy** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 2:03 am

cmon guys gimme some credit, im not THAT stupid. The computer as a whole, not just zsnes is slow. and i haven't used the DOS version since.. probably 4-5 years. but this is offtopic and derailing this thread so lets get back to the original topic.

snkcube · Post by **snkcube** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 2:39 am

Joe Camacho wrote:
adventure_of_link wrote:Eh... not really. In his case, he'd have to buy a whole new motherboard, power supply, and RAM.

So it'd probably be smarter to just buy a whole new computer.
Or just get some more ram. Or return to win 98 SE.

I think returning back to Windows 98 SE is the better choice.

PHoNyMiKe · Post by **PHoNyMiKe** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 2:51 am

then it's agreed. there is no software solution to your problem if you want to keep xp.

maybe boot to dos and run zsnes dos? partition the hard drive to dual boot xp and 98?

adventure_of_link · Post by **adventure_of_link** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:03 am

I'd personally just buy a new computer, or move to a lightweight Linux.

I'd personally rather not use an unsupported windows.

Joe Camacho · Post by **Joe Camacho** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:07 am

adventure_of_link wrote:I'd personally just buy a new computer, or move to a lightweight Linux.

I'd personally rather not use an unsupported windows.

Sure, because it's better to get a hang of a total new OS, that it's not known to be user-friendly, isntead of using an old windows version that crashes once in a while.

Empathy AoL.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:12 am

adventure_of_link wrote:I'd personally just buy a new computer, or move to a lightweight Linux.

I'd personally rather not use an unsupported windows.

adventure_of_link... noone has to be an AOL.

Seriously, you should be ashamed for suggesting that he should use Linux in this thread.

adventure_of_link · Post by **adventure_of_link** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 3:56 am

Well, your choice... I was just merely hinting that Win98 is unsupported now...

Whatever.

kevman · Post by **kevman** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:08 am

Like it matters.

Really, I never managed to get my k6-2+ machine to go above 30fps in win2k with my virge.

I replaced it with a radeon 7500, but I don't recall if it sped it up.

A fast k6-2 (500 or 550) will easily get 50fps out of CT with win98 and 60/60 in quite a few games. NT will slow it down, though.

If your motherboard supports it, a k6-2+ CPU will run about 30-40% faster than a k6-2 400 and can be had for about $30 on ebay. But you are likely better off saving up for a new machine. Many SS7 motherboards are ATX, though.

BCprogger · Post by **BCprogger** » Mon May 26, 2008 4:06 am

This is a Mega-bump, but I found out what the problem was, or more precisely I fixed it.

This was years ago obviously, but I didn't have the internet at all and so could not post the fix. I was messing around trying to get it working, and I disabled the "Run High Priority" option. I then got it to run simple games like SMW at around 25-30 fps, which was good enough at the time. (Yoshi's Island and other SFX games ran mega slow, CPU bottleneck, I suppose).

I upgraded the Video card and was getting a consistent 50 to 55 fps in games like SMW and 25-30 in SFX games, so I guess I also had a big bottleneck with my video card.

Just recently I FINALLY upgraded (this was only like three monthes ago!) I bought a used P4 at a local shop, 1.6 Ghz. It was stripped of all but a sound card and NIC, which I promptly replaced with the Wireless card and Audigy I had in my AMDK6-2.

Now EVERYTHING in ZSNES runs 60/60, (with a few tiny hiccups in Hq4x).
It is so smooth and I'm so un-used to it...

Also, my K6 had a label on the case, "AMD K6-2 3D-NOW!" would that be the "plus" version? Irregardless, I'm letting my brother use it. Hey guess what? It can't run half-life 2!

paulguy · Post by **paulguy** » Mon May 26, 2008 7:22 am

Well, that's an improvement. P4 is still quite old, and that's not a very highly clocked one.

As for my K6-2, shitty piece of crap, I'm going to throw it out soon. Got a new computer so everything is sliding down and it's falling off. I'm pretty sure it was a video card issue.of some sort. PCI video card, crappy motherboard and I was using up all the PCI slots so I'm sure there was little bandwidth and a lot of latency so it had to wait on the video card a lot. This is just a guess.

BCprogger · Post by **BCprogger** » Mon May 26, 2008 11:46 pm

paulguy- my AMD K6-2 is stable, but it was a high-end mobo at the time too, which may be why I'm still getting mileage out of it.

I know the P4 isn't "new" but to me it is ultra-fast. Then again, when I first started using the K6-2, I thought it was so fast, and called it "FASTLORD". My new one I call "GIGATRON". much better name I think. Besides, the most demanding games I play are all older then the machine, and I really have no desire to play newer ones, and I can get full speed N64 and PSX emulation as well, which opens up a whole new avenue as compared to the K6

Completely separate question here, but the P4 is a Dell Dimension 4400- does that still use a proprietary Dell Power Supply? Because I have a New ATX PSU unit sitting right here...

snkcube · Post by **snkcube** » Tue May 27, 2008 3:12 am

I'm sure you probably need the same Dell power supply as a new ATX power supply might not fit in the Dell case.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Tue May 27, 2008 7:02 am

BCprogger wrote: I know the P4 isn't "new" but to me it is ultra-fast. Then again, when I first started using the K6-2, I thought it was so fast, and called it "FASTLORD".

Heh.

After a few rebuilds on a particularly problematic system, we began a tradition of naming the family computer Crash-and-Burn.
That label went on two or three K6 builds.

I believe the name continues to this day, though every component of said system has long since been put out to pasture(it was a Windows 95 machine, when 95 was current).

My standard name for my machine is Sinistar, and has been since I first built my own out of spare parts(it was a K6-2 400, and the family comp was an Athlon XP running at 1333 MHz).

For a while while I was getting things set up the way I wanted them, the original Sinistar was running topless. And it was named Skeletor.

My new one I call "GIGATRON". much better name I think.

Not Megatron?

I.S.T. · Post by **I.S.T.** » Tue May 27, 2008 7:55 am

>.> In one of the japanese TF cartoons that was brought over, they renamed a TF named Gigatron. The name they gave him was Megatron.

*Is a huge transformers fan*

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Tue May 27, 2008 8:01 am

I.S.T. wrote:>.> In one of the japanese TF cartoons that was brought over, they renamed a TF named Gigatron. The name they gave him was Megatron.

*Is a huge transformers fan*

Ah, japanese names.

Megatron is still better.

Galvatron is in the running, largely because he's stark raving mad. But the fact that he straps a giant dildo to his arm hurts his appeal a lot.

I.S.T. · Post by **I.S.T.** » Tue May 27, 2008 8:43 am

FWIW, the reason for the rename is because the character wasn't even Megatron in the first place, just a guy with a similar name.

Galvatron from the movie>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> by a million Galvatron from the season of the cartoon following the movie.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Tue May 27, 2008 9:13 am

I.S.T. wrote:FWIW, the reason for the rename is because the character wasn't even Megatron in the first place, just a guy with a similar name.

Galvatron from the movie>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> by a million Galvatron from the season of the cartoon following the movie.

At the time, Car Robots wasn't even the same continuity, so it didn't matter.

NO ONE is the same character. The original characters don't even exist.

Though we can also consider it payback for them renaming Optimus Primal "Convoy"

I.S.T. · Post by **I.S.T.** » Tue May 27, 2008 9:35 am

KISS robots for the lose.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Tue May 27, 2008 11:36 am

I.S.T. wrote:KISS robots for the lose.

*shudders*
KISS Players are scary.

The toys themselves are nice(I own a few Alternators, which are basically the same thing minus thirty bucks), but the fiction Japan threw up around it...

I.S.T. · Post by **I.S.T.** » Tue May 27, 2008 11:43 am

I'm not a big fan of alts for some reason... I prefer most of the other G1 homaging lines to them.

I'm frigging jonesing for the Animated toys. 21st of june can't come sooner(That's the official release date. >.>).

BCprogger · Post by **BCprogger** » Wed May 28, 2008 12:52 am

snkcube wrote:I'm sure you probably need the same Dell power supply as a new ATX power supply might not fit in the Dell case.

Well, it would fit, the problem is that Dell "silently" changed the voltage pins around, yet left the plug compatible in some models. That is, plugging an ATX power supply into a standard Dell motherboard is likely to fry them both, same with replacing the dell motherboard with a ATX standard one. Dell has since gone back to standards, but I don't know if this is after they went back. I'll have to do some research.

darn, I thought "GIGATRON" was a unique name. I called it gigatron because it is the first computer I have ever owned that was faster then a 1Ghz.