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Why does emulation slow down with a bad power supply?

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3b+power supply
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  • C
    Cayaco
    last edited by 26 Nov 2022, 13:28

    Recently tried a not powerful enough power supply on my 3b+ to see what would happen, just a basic phone charger and a random USB cable. Got the lightning bolt because of undervoltage. I noticed that the games were slowing down, not all of them but quite a few had noticable lag and were going in what felt like slow motion. Went back to the proper power supply and everything was going nice and smooth.

    Why does this happen? What makes the emulator cores slow down because of not enough power?

    M K 2 Replies Last reply 26 Nov 2022, 15:47 Reply Quote 0
    • M
      mitu Global Moderator @Cayaco
      last edited by 26 Nov 2022, 15:47

      @Cayaco said in Why does emulation slow down with a bad power supply?:

      What makes the emulator cores slow down because of not enough power?

      Not sure what's the surprise here - to get more performance from your CPU/GPU you need more power. If your power supply is not enough, the system will permanently be running under-clocked to prevent a fatal crash/stop.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • C
        Cayaco
        last edited by 26 Nov 2022, 22:44

        I didn't know it would clock down. I figured it was electronic so it is either on or it's off. So the system can sense that its not getting enough power and instead of just conking out it slows itself down?

        L 1 Reply Last reply 29 Nov 2022, 04:34 Reply Quote 0
        • K
          kounabi22 @Cayaco
          last edited by 27 Nov 2022, 19:20

          @Cayaco also sometimes the case of the pi is not good and the cable dont reach to connect well with the pi board and may cause power failure.

          Currently running Retropie 4.7.19 on a Pi 4B 2GB
          Overclock Settings: CPU 2000, GPU 600.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • L
            lostless @Cayaco
            last edited by 29 Nov 2022, 04:34

            @Cayaco Anything using electricity is not just on or off. The amount of electricity being used is called power (measured in Watts) and when a computer is doing more, it requires more Power. If your power supply cant deliver the power, a computer can be programed to recognize that not enough power is there and slow down, or you'll just get crashing and shutdowns.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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