Retroarch question

[Mrmikey73]

Does anyone know if the cores in Retroarch are as good as the stand alone emulators? Reason I ask is I set up Sammy Atomiswave in retroarch and fired up metalslug 6. The game was laggy especially at the end of the final stage. I tried different video drivers in retroarch and nothing helped. I then tried it in demul and it played perfect. I was using flycast core in retroarch. Any suggestions as I like using retroarch but if systems will underperform I’ll have to pass on that. Thanks

[dark13]

As far as I've seen many RA cores needs a bit more power than standalone emulators, some says some cores are faster than standalone emulators but I haven't noticed  it..
Tested mslug6 on flycast, no slowdown in the first 2 levels on my corei5 4460 gtx660.
Open quick menu, latency, deactivate "hard gpu sync", it reduces input lag but it horribly sink performances. With some cores that option completely break timings (45 fps in game but >60fps when fast forwarding). Mslug6 is ok... with shmups like ikaruga the input lag is a problem.
Flycast is compatible only with opengl drivers but vulkan is a much better choice with compatible cores: with vulkan you have "free" hard gpu sync.
Honestly it would be better to directly map games in RocketLauncher to the best emulator available for that game, even with demul some games prefer dx10 plugin or an older version of demul.

[Mrmikey73]

Thanks. I checked and hard gpu sync was off already. Might be crappy computer or graphics card? I have a i5-6500 with an Intel had graphics 530 but also has a Radeon card but not sure how they work together. Says 8912 MB of ram? Seems low but I’m not really up to date about good cpu specs. Thanks for the help at least I know it can run in Retroarch and is on my end. 

[dark13]

Is it a desktop? 6500 is even a bit better than 4460 https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i5-6500-vs-Intel-i5-4460/2599vs2230
8gb of ram is ok, only CEMU needs 16gb for the shader cache (12gb for the full shader cache on zelda).
If you have a discrete videocard, you have installed the driver and the cable goes from the videocard hdmi/dvi to the monitor/tv you are using the discrete videocard. What videocard are you using? Yesterday I was testing Metropolis Street Racing (DC) on flycast in my htpc (q6600, 4gb ddr2, gtx9800+ 512mb) and it was ok, so it dont' need a high end videocard. Mslug 6 is even a 2d games...

Set to minimum pixel buffer size
alpha sorting - per triangles
framerate - full speed (in case try normal)
turn off texture scaling xBRZ (it's really taxing)
texture upscaling max filtered - 512
render to texture upscaling - 1x
try to lower render resolution

Try also to update the core.

[Mrmikey73]

It’s a desktop but it’s weird. There’s only one hdmi port but says I have intel graphics card and Radeon card? I have settings for both cards. I think that’s my problem is the cards

[dark13]

Check it out. If you are using a discrete videocard the cable should be connected in the green area, if it is connected to the red area (motherboard connector) you are using the integrated videocard inside the cpu (spoiler: it sucks).

 

Check also if some other process is stealing cpu power or hard disk time. After a windows update there might be some problems with optimization routines using too many resources.

 

[Mrmikey73]

That’s the confusing part! I have one hdmi connection but my system says I have the Intel on board and a Radeon card. It’s a dell desktop. 

[dark13]

What do you see in "devices"?

Usually the integrated video card is not usable no visible when a pci-e videocard is connected but on a pre-assembled desktop there might be some software that permit to switch from one videocard to another like in some laptops