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Speed Issues

Systems from fastest to slowest:

  • Raspberry Pi 4
  • Raspberry Pi 3
  • Raspberry Pi 2
  • Raspberry Pi Zero
  • Raspberry Pi 1

How much faster depends on the specific game and emulator you are interested in.

Most SNES, Mega Drive, GameBoy Advance, and simpler emulators should run at full speed or close on a Pi 2.

Specific System Observations

Arcade (MAME/FBA)

Speed depends greatly on the game and the emulator version.

Certain games are just known for being really slow, like Mortal Kombat or NBA Jam.

Certain versions of the emulators run some ROMs very fast, other versions run the same game very slowly. Earlier/later isn't always better, try different emulator versions to see which performs best for the ROM in question.

Some games will never achieve playable speeds.

SNES

Some games, especially SuperFX and SA-1 games, will be slow on a stock speed Pi 1, but are generally playable on a Pi 3.

Some graphic effects in some games can cause lag when displaying specific screens, but the game will be playable overall.

PlayStation, N64, Dreamcast, PSP

Due to limited processing power and/or lack of emulator efficiency, some games will never achieve playable speeds. PlayStation runs very good on Pi 3, but N64 emulation is hit or miss, mostly miss. If you want to play it at reasonable speeds, try overclocking in conjunction with a heatsink.

Configuration Improvements

RetroArch emulators (lr- cores)

Edit /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg and set:

# Use threaded video driver
video_threaded = true

# Smoothens picture with bilinear filtering
video_smooth = false

# Audio driver backend.
audio_driver = alsathread

# Enable rewinding
rewind_enable = false

The Video Hard Sync settings don't actually have any effect, as this is not available on the Pi, there is no benefit from having them set or unset:

video_hard_sync = true
video_hard_sync_frames = 3

Resolution

Try to decrease the Render Resolution or Framebuffer Resolution in the runcommand menu, displayed just before a game starts.

Decreasing the screen size the emulator has to calculate can lead to an overall speed increase.

TV

Ensure you're using your TV's native resolution to prevent any overhead due to upscaling. Most modern HD TVs can display at 1080p (1920x1080) and 720p (1280x720) without issue.

Enable Game Mode in the TV settings for the input used for the Pi. This disables some image processing (smoothing, etc) which introduces latency when playing games.

Certain models of older Vizio TVs (and possibly others) may exhibit input lag if switching over to the Raspberry Pi from a different HDMI source. Users have discovered that if the TV's HDMI input for the Pi is already selected/activated when the TV is powered on (as opposed to a Blu-ray player, game console, etc.), this input lag can be avoided. source

Performance Governor

Try to set the performance governor in the "Run Command Configuration" menu under "CPU configuration". This will enure that the Raspberry Pi is set to the highest possible clock speed.

Overclocking

With RetroPie Setup Script

In the menu Setup you can find the options for changing the ARM and SDRAM frequencies.

Changes require a reboot to take effect.

With raspi-config

You can overclock without voiding the warranty with the official raspi-config script.

It can be started with:

sudo raspi-config

Considerations

Heavily overclocked systems (and even regular Pi) would probably have their lifespan increased by using a heatsink.

Kits are available cheap on eBay and Amazon, the bigger the heatsink the better.

Cases with fans are also available, with the fan usually powered by the 5V GPIO pins.

References