Mupen64plus - Libretro vastly outperforms non-libretro

[RickyEarl]

Hi there. Pi 3 running RetroPie 3.8.1, overclocked as follows:

arm_freq=1350
over_voltage=6
temp_limit=80
gpu_freq=500
gpu_mem=256
sdram_freq=500

Here's my question. I know that N64 emulation is spotty at best, but the N64 FAQ at https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Nintendo-64 says that the non-libretro version of mupen64plus performs better than the libretro one. However, my experience on 10+ roms is the exact opposite. the lr version of mupen64plus runs OK, not great, but OK. The non-libretro, on the other hand, is so slow it's completely unplayable -even unwatchable. For example, if a game runs at 25fps in the libretro version, framerate is like 2fps in the non-libretro version. Each rom was the same.

I tried the different rez and render settings in runcommand and they made no difference. Also swapped through the plugins. No change.

So am I doing something wrong? Did I miss a step in the non-libretro version? All I did was switch the emulator in runcommand and then fiddle with the plugins and the res and render settings. Is there something else I should be doing?

Thanks!

[mediamogul]

@RickyEarl

Outside of a major update to lr-Mupen64plus in recent weeks, I have to say that I'm surprised at your results. You're description of "OK, not great" is how I would describe my experience with Mupen64plus, with lr-Mupen64plus coming in at mostly unplayable. In response to your question of whether or not you're doing something wrong, I would say no. It looks like you have tried all the common tactics to increase performance. I wouldn't worry too much about it though and just use what works best for you.

[dankcushions]

update mupen64plus from binaries. done.

[RickyEarl]

@dankcushions Tried that. No change. It's really weird. I'm going to try killing the overclock and see if that matters for some reason.