zsnes (btw i'm too stupid to learn the name of the emulator) IsRunningChoppy Please help

redinthesky · Post by **redinthesky** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 2:10 am

I am trying to get zsnes (btw i'm too stupid to learn the name of the emulator) to run on this old laptop. I've tried disabling sound and setting the resolution to the monitor's native rate 1024x768, but the video is still choppy. It is a Toshiba Satellite with an Intel Celeron 1.10 Ghz and 240 gb of ram. The hd is only 19 gb but it has 12 gb free. The video card is a 16 gb trident. I have directx 9.0c installed.

I am not sure exactly what could be wrong, but the system does have multi monitor support and I have disabled the 'other monitors' in system hardware and the laptop screen is set to primary display. Windows Xp service pack 1 is installed.

I am sure this system can run zsnes (btw i'm too stupid to learn the name of the emulator) at a good rate, after all I've been using zsnes (btw i'm too stupid to learn the name of the emulator) for years now, and on much, much older systems.

Earthbound_X · Post by **Earthbound_X** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 2:27 am

Hmm, not sure this will help, but I used to run a little choppy until I checked the monitor sync option in video filters.

Funny how it says you miss named ZSNES because it's not capitalized, hehe.

redinthesky · Post by **redinthesky** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 2:33 am

I tried it, but it didn't fix the choppyness. Strange cause I've ran ZSNES on a celeron 266 back in the day and it worked fine. I think the whole mispelling thing is probably cause they are sick of people calling it ZSNES (FYI, I am really really dumb) lol.

Earthbound_X · Post by **Earthbound_X** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 2:36 am

Yeah, I know it'd work on a Celeron, I had one back around 2000, and it worked then.

I have no clue why it'd be running choppy. I'm guessing you don't have a lot of programs running in the background?

redinthesky · Post by **redinthesky** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 2:49 am

At first I had no programs running in the background, now I am running firefox in the background, and there is no discernable difference in speed. If this helps the cursor moves slowly and the gui reacts slowly to inputs when no rom is loaded.

Earthbound_X · Post by **Earthbound_X** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 3:52 am

For all I know, it could be the video card, I'm assuming you made a typo when you said it was a 16gb card, since I don't think they exist.

Can you give more info on the video card?

Post by **odditude** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 5:19 am

unfortunately, your laptop sucks for any type of gaming. the processor is actually acceptable (a 1ghz celeron is likely a mobile tualatin/128, a not-too-horribly-crippled final-gen p3); however, 240mb of ram is incredibly tight for xp sp3, especially with access times getting slaughtered by the 16mb used by the horrendous onboard trident graphics... which have atrocious driver support to boot.

you can try putting more memory in the machine, but you're better off just getting a netbook.

I.S.T. · Post by **I.S.T.** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 5:26 am

He should still be able ot run zsnes just fine with that amount of ram. I ram it with that much.

Also, the 240 figure probably has the graphics ram already subtracted from it.

Post by **odditude** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 6:22 am

I.S.T. wrote:He should still be able ot run zsnes just fine with that amount of ram. I ram it with that much.

with xp sp3 and the usual load of crapware that's probably present? and with onboard trident graphics?

I.S.T. wrote:Also, the 240 figure probably has the graphics ram already subtracted from it.

of course it does, otherwise it would be the 256mb which is physically present.

@op: you'll likely get best performance at 640x480 fullscreen, no filters, no vsync.

redinthesky · Post by **redinthesky** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 6:41 am

Thanks for the tips 640x480 no filters no vsync and fullscreen runs way better, even though its strange because I was running it earlier with these same settings, except I was in the mode that allowed filters, and it was way worse. Weird. Looking back when I ran Zsnes on the older PCs they all had Win98 installed on them iirc, so that would have definitely been a factor in the speed I guess because they definitely were inferior machines. Oh well all I know now is DW3jtranslated is running playable. Many thanks.

Yes I realize how crappy this system and the majority of laptop graphic 'solutions' are.

I'm still convinced that something is preventing the emu from running as well as it could. Gonna try a few things.