How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability

Riverstorm

@dankcushions said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

@Riverstorm said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

@dankcushions said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

reading the output, 189MB of your 256 vram memory split (236 effective) is free whilst running a game, so the game itself is taking up less than 50MB.

that's what I mean - the one-size-fits-all solution is the default of 256mb (on a pi 2/3). there's no need to change it.

I believe what you're saying but to throw a twist into the mix I have 600 split set through the raspi-config from that original article. I plan to lower it now after this discussion. Here's the snip from my /boot/config.txt. Maybe you can shed some light on why those numbers are those number by chance? The 236MB I mean with these settings. Is the line gpu_mem_1024=256 overriding the gpu_mem=600?

it's all in the documentation: http://elinux.org/RPiconfig#Memory
on a pi2/3, gpu_mem_1024 overrides gpu_mem

I know I am coming full circle with what you said a while ago. So do any emulators use more than the 256 or does that pretty much cover them all? I don't know RetroPie's total emulator count but it's a boatload and I surely haven't played them all. I suppose it's only the latter emulators that might use more memory but I don't know what ones they would be. So 256 it is? :) Minus what mrbwa1 was saying on potentially texture packs using more on the N64.

mrbwa1

@Riverstorm said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

@dankcushions said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

@Riverstorm said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

@dankcushions said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

reading the output, 189MB of your 256 vram memory split (236 effective) is free whilst running a game, so the game itself is taking up less than 50MB.

that's what I mean - the one-size-fits-all solution is the default of 256mb (on a pi 2/3). there's no need to change it.

I believe what you're saying but to throw a twist into the mix I have 600 split set through the raspi-config from that original article. I plan to lower it now after this discussion. Here's the snip from my /boot/config.txt. Maybe you can shed some light on why those numbers are those number by chance? The 236MB I mean with these settings. Is the line gpu_mem_1024=256 overriding the gpu_mem=600?

it's all in the documentation: http://elinux.org/RPiconfig#Memory
on a pi2/3, gpu_mem_1024 overrides gpu_mem

I know I am coming full circle with what you said a while ago. So do any emulators use more than the 256 or does that pretty much cover them all? I don't know RetroPie's total emulator count but it's a boatload and I surely haven't played them all. I suppose it's only the latter emulators that might use more memory but I don't know what ones they would be. So 256 it is? :) Minus what mrbwa1 was saying on potentially texture packs using more on the N64.

I don't believe anything uses more than 256MB for the GPU. In fact, I have had best performance with 128MB (never thought to try 64MB). The processing is going on mainly in the CPU (emulating the original hardware) so setting the memory split too high will rob ram from the CPU.

The difference between the default of 256 and the suggestion of 128MB is likely splitting hairs as far as performance goes on my Pi2. The CPU would need to be using all of the remaining 896MB of RAM before issues came up. The 128MB split came about when people were running Pis with only 256MB of RAM or even 512MB max. Some of the folks with 256MB Pis have even gone with 64MB splits.

You are better off leaving the splt at default unless you can find evidence of paging (or have a 256BM Pi version) rather than upping it for retropie. You can set the split down to 128M, but that probably won't make a difference.

Riverstorm

Ok, thanks guys. I am going to leave it at the default. Funny thing is when I changed it through the raspi-config tool it did nothing as the default entries where overriding it to 256.

It seems like possible bug in that unless you modify config.txt directly it really isn't changed through the raspi-config tool.

dankcushions

@Riverstorm said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

Ok, thanks guys. I am going to leave it at the default. Funny thing is when I changed it through the raspi-config tool it did nothing as the default entries where overriding it to 256.

yeah, the default in raspian is for these gpu_mem_X overrides to not be set (see https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt.md) so the raspi-config tool would normally work fine.

however, i think retropie has these defaults to create a sensible split for the different pi models. see https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/issues/490

i've added a note to the wiki to this effect: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Memory-Split

mrbwa1

@dankcushions Thanks for the update. I double-checked mt setup on the RPi2 and indeed gpu_mem_1024=256 is present, so my 128MB tweak wasn't even being used.

I may try settng gpu_mem_1024=128 at some point, but I really don't think it's going to make a big difference performance wise. The bottleneck isn't really RAM; It's the processing power (especially with N64 emulation).

Since the default GPU split n Raspbian is 64MB, I can see why people were bumping UP to 128MB on older builds.

Riverstorm

@dankcushions said

i've added a note to the wiki to this effect: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Memory-Split

Thanks Dank, I added this my RetroPie build bookmarks.

@mrbwa1
You'll have to let us know if you run across any issues at 128.

@Twitch0815
I was a bit distraught to see Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits and Namco Museum 64 crashed in the spreadsheet. I tried them both to the same effect.

Predator04

So sorry for noob question but wanted to know where we put all the config info:
#Overclock Settings
arm_freq=1400
#(Try 1350 if 1400 does not work)
over_voltage=6
temp_limit=80
core_freq=500

etc etc at? What file do we edit? Thanks!

Riverstorm

@Predator04 said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

So sorry for noob question but wanted to know where we put all the config info:
#Overclock Settings
arm_freq=1400
#(Try 1350 if 1400 does not work)
over_voltage=6
temp_limit=80
core_freq=500

etc etc at? What file do we edit? Thanks!

You can append it to the end of the /boot/config.txt file, reboot and you should be good to go. Hold down left shift if it won't boot to bypass the overclock settings and make tweaks.

Predator04

@riverstorm

Thanks.. So normally to get to the pi I use..
\10.90.xx.xx
hot do I get to the boot folder? Thanks :P

Riverstorm

@Predator04 said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

@riverstorm

Thanks.. So normally to get to the pi I use..
\10.90.xx.xx
hot do I get to the boot folder? Thanks :P

I think there's more than one to do it but I usually boot my Pi, exit Emulationstation and

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Make changes
Press 'ctrl-x' to exit
Press 'y' to save changes
Press 'enter' to accept

Predator04

@Riverstorm
yea i can do it that way. Thanks again!!

Predator04

@Riverstorm
error Permission Denied

Riverstorm

@Predator04 said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

@Riverstorm
error Permission Denied

Hmmm...did you use 'sudo' in front of the editor, if not it will not work.

Predator04

@Riverstorm
crap I might not have. My bad... lol

Rion

@Twitch0815 said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

I also truly believe that the pi 3 can hold to a better overclock then 1400 and I mean I think it can be pushed to 2000 but I need to get a 5.1 v 3000 or 3500 ma power supply and the only ones I have found are in china and shipping is going to take 2-3 weeks till I have one in my hand unless I try to build one from scratch. Heat just has not been a problem with proper heatsinks applied properly and active fan cooling.

Why not just go for something like this instead?

5V 10A switching power supply
MicroUSB to 5.5/2.1mm DC Barrel Jack Adapter

Twitch0815

@Rion
Absolutely worth a try

Think just a normal laptop power supply would work with the 1.95 adapter sure if it was 5v switching it would probably work.
Awesome man thanks I appreciate it giving me somewhere to go with the power problem.

mrbwa1

Laptop power supply bricks can be a bit finicky. I have a 12V 5A one for my Lipo battery charger and it gets hot when charging 32 batteries at the 2-2.5 amp settings.

I would be tempted to go for this design for heat dissipation reasons:

http://www.amazon.com/uxcell-AC110-Switching-Supply-Adapter/dp/B0076UJZX0

Might have to cut and strip an old usb cord to get the power to the Pi

Zigurana

@mrbwa1

I have something very similar to that one (5A version) and it works like a charm. The adjustable voltage is nice, as the pi likes to get a bit more than 5.0V, (mine is at 5.2V).
It puts out no noticable heat.

dankcushions

@dankcushions said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

@Riverstorm said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

Ok, thanks guys. I am going to leave it at the default. Funny thing is when I changed it through the raspi-config tool it did nothing as the default entries where overriding it to 256.

yeah, the default in raspian is for these gpu_mem_X overrides to not be set (see https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt.md) so the raspi-config tool would normally work fine.

however, i think retropie has these defaults to create a sensible split for the different pi models. see https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/issues/490

fixed! https://github.com/RPi-Distro/raspi-config/issues/24
not sure if an apt-get update would grab this but i guess it'll find its way into the next Retropie release, at which point we should update the wiki again to get rid of my warning

mrbwa1

@dankcushions said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

fixed! https://github.com/RPi-Distro/raspi-config/issues/24
not sure if an apt-get update would grab this but i guess it'll find its way into the next Retropie release, at which point we should update the wiki again to get rid of my warning

I rad an update and dist-upgrade, but no change yet. Also did an update on raspi-config.

I'm thinking it will take a few days or another release before this is completely live.