Do RetroPie emulators make use of the GPU hardware directly, or is rendering mainly in-software?
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Hi,
I'm currently investigating what appears to be an overclock instability on a Pi 3 that has been pretty bulletproof since March 1st when I first got it. I had the GPU (core_freq) set to 500, but have now dropped it back to the default (400mhz) whilst soak-testing.
I'm wondering if GPU overclocking is actually beneficial anyway - I tried to find a useful stress-test for the GPU some months ago, but never found anything that actually pushed it hard.
I know that the PlayStation pcsx_rearmed emulator uses Exophase's Arm Neon Gpu code for hardware rendering; do other emulators have similar features?
Thanks in advance for any insights.
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@RetroResolution said in Do RetroPie emulators make use of the GPU hardware directly, or is rendering mainly in-software?:
Hi,
I'm currently investigating what appears to be an overclock instability on a Pi 3 that has been pretty bulletproof since March 1st when I first got it. I had the GPU (core_freq) set to 500, but have now dropped it back to the default (400mhz) whilst soak-testing.
I'm wondering if GPU overclocking is actually beneficial anyway - I tried to find a useful stress-test for the GPU some months ago, but never found anything that actually pushed it hard.
Try running a game with a performance heavy shader. You could use crt-pi with curvature and shaper enabled at as high a resolution as you can. Change the screen settings so it completely fills the screen rather than a 4:3 box in the middle if you're using a wide screen display.
I know that the PlayStation pcsx_rearmed emulator uses Exophase's Arm Neon Gpu code for hardware rendering; do other emulators have similar features?
Exophase's code is a software simulation of the PlayStation's GPU using the ARM NEON instruction set - it doesn't use a hardware GPU to do it's processing.
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@davej thanks for the advice and insights; I was unsure if exophase's code drove the GPU directly, it sounded like it did from descriptions, but benchmarks didn't confirm.
I do use the barrel distortion shader at times, but not often. Still soak-testing the Pi with the GPU overclock removed.
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