HUGE zsnes slowdown 1.4 and up

Casao · Post by **Casao** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 1:40 am

I've been a long time user of zsnes, and was recently alerted that it was still being updated. I quickly grabbed the latest version of zsnes and drooled over the feature list.

However, there is a problem. I encounter a HUGE slowdown. Akin to running at 1/2 normal speed. I spent a bit of time diagnosing and noticed that it happens on every version of zsnes after 1.337, which is what I previously used.

I've tried hitting the speed up button, but it jumps to 2x speed. I've tried adjusting frame skip, and a variety of options. No matter what happens, it runs at 1/2 speed. My system specs are more than enough for emulation, and it really bugs me that it doesn't work. I've attempted to adjust various settings, but I haven't found a thing that works.

I can provide detailed system specs if necessary, but I'm curious if this is any kind of known issue. I've spent a few hours hunting through google and the forums, but I turned up nothing. The problem isn't low FPS, as it displays 60/60, and sound also plays slow. It's just straight up slow. This is frustrating, as you can imagine, as 1.337 doesn't seem to recognize my gamepad, yet every other version is unplayably slow.

Any help you could provide would be much appreciatied. Thanks.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 1:55 am

Do you start fresh? (eg. a clean ZSNES folder) Failing to do that can cause what you are describing.

Casao · Post by **Casao** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 1:59 am

Thanks for the speedy reply,

I was not, but I just attempted this with zsnes151w and it still has the same problem.

Casao · Post by **Casao** » Sat Feb 10, 2007 5:46 am

Bumping this thread in the hopes of getting this resolved, I love ZSnes but if the games are unplayably slow I am sad =(

I'll throw my specs in here so perhaps this can get resolved:

AMD Athlon 64 3500+
1gig DDR400 Kingston ValuRam
GeForce 6800 PCI-Express
Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition x64

The only thing I can think of is x64 being the issue. I do have Cool N Quiet enabled, but that shouldn't be a problem.

I've tried overwriting my old copy and using a brand new directory. Tried different harddrives, I've reset in between attempts. I've tried raising process priority, I've tried adjusting frame skips, just about every option it could conceivably be.

What's the problem here?

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sat Feb 10, 2007 6:06 am

Lots of things have changed since 1.337.. I don't see going back on really old/bad code would solve things for you. It has been reported before that Windows x64 (XP IIRC) doesn't quite run well with ZSNES. I don't know what to tell you though. Please don't bump your own thread.

The only thing I can think of is try to make sure Disable Power Management is checked.. but that's about it.

RhymeBomb · Post by **RhymeBomb** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 12:00 am

I just thought I'd post a similar experience. I am also seeing extreme slowdown in all games whenever there are more than a few sprites on screen. This does not happen with any other SNES emulator that I have tried.

My specs:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
nvidia geforce 7950 GTKO
2 gigs RAM

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 12:54 am

That's a different issue altogether. It has more to do with timing than anything.

stfrank · Post by **stfrank** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 1:42 am

i would like to add some info here,

the game (using zsnes 1.51 on windows) runs perfectly with few sprites on the screen, slowing down to maybe 1/3 - 1/4 of the speed with a lot of sprites. none of the settings seem to change this significantly, apart from the emu speed option; if i raise it from 1x to 2x the game blasts at maybe 20x speed.

hope this can shed some light.

sweener2001 · Post by **sweener2001** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 6:17 am

i don't know, maybe if you were more vague. i think people still have a general idea of what you're talking about.

Pasky · Post by **Pasky** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 7:47 am

Are you running a dual core cpu?

If so, try setting the program to run only on one of the cores. You can do this buy CTRL + ALT + DELETE and going to the task manager, right click zsnes and select 'Set Affinity' in the 'Processes' tab. Select only one cpu core.

If that fixed it and you're running a AMD Dual core, get the dual core optimizer from Amd.com to fix these issues.

For intel, i'm unsure.

Hope this helps.

sweener2001 · Post by **sweener2001** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 7:55 am

why did you post the exact same thing in two dead threads?

Pasky · Post by **Pasky** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 8:29 am

Why do you post a useless post? I'm being helpful and as stated in the other thread, I repeated myself because I'm almost certain it's the same problem.