Poor performance on retro 4.1 , pi3 b

artimus

I've used retropie in the past on a pi2 and do not recall any performance issues for nes or snes games. I've purchased a new pi 3 and was really hoping to see if it could handle some n64 or psx games. I'm using as close to a default install of retropie as I can. To my surpise, I am having performance issues even with nes.

I have, atari7800, nes, snes, and pcengine set up so far. I've not tried 7800 or snes enough yet to comment on them.
nes - runs at normal or close to normal speed most of the time. It does get sluggish though which I was very surpized about. Audio at times also gets distorted.
pcengine also seems to run at normal speed. Although less often, I do see the same performance and audio issue.

This is a default retropie install, with minimal changes. I've installed the xbox driver to use my controller via the menu.
I've set audo_driver = alsa per https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Speed-Issues, but so no difference.
I've not really made any other changes to the system other then mounting nfs for storage.

One thing to note is that my pi is powered via the usb port on my tv. I do get the lightning bolt frequently in the corner of the screen. Not sure if this is just a warning, or if it is performance affecting.

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
PNY 128G Micro SD (advertised as ~80 Mb/s)
RetroPie 4.1

artimus

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/651/3-7-performance-tuning

I'll try some of these tweaks as well, but wasn't thinking of storage as my roms are on nfs

synack

One thing to note is that my pi is powered via the usb port on my tv. I do get the lightning bolt frequently in the corner of the screen. Not sure if this is just a warning, or if it is performance affecting.

This is not a warning you want to ignore. Your pi is under-powered and it will impact performance. You need a power supply capable of 2.5A @ 5V.

obsidianspider

The Pi 3 requires more juice than the previous generation Pi 2 (the new ones are just a Pi 3 without radio). Get a separate power supply and you should be OK, but that USB port on your TV can't supply enough power.

artimus

Thank you both. That is what i suspected, but wasn't coming across this as a common topic.

artimus

Power supply arrived today. While I no longer get the under-power warning icon, I don't see any gain in performance either.

Also tried the kernel tweaks and boot/config items mentioned in the link on my previous post. Although I haven't tested thoroughly, my initial thought is that there is no major improvement (at least with FFIV on lr-ppsspp).

Will have to test more to find the right settings.

edmaul69

@artimus psp is not very well emulated yet on the pi. Dont expect to play very many psp games.

dankcushions

you don't need to do any tweaks or changes from default to get nes/snes running at fullspeed. in fact, i would revert all as you may have created a problem if you solved your power issues.

audio distortion/sluggishness - we need specific examples. many nes games had audio distortion/sluggishness on the original hardware, which will be the same when it's emulated.