RetroPie extremely slow on larger TV

[masteryoer]

Hello there,

I just got the latest version of retropie installed, and used the retropie-setup script to ensure everything was up to date. When I first set the system up, I did so on a standard 21" monitor using hdmi. Once I finished setting it up and adding my roms, I moved it to my 70" tv. As soon as I did, the system becomes extremely sluggish and unresponsive. Does anybody know what the problem could be? I have checked my resolution settings, and at first they were set high on the emulators themselves, so I set them to 320x something, however emulationstation itself is the one acting sluggish. It takes 2-3 minutes between menus, and sometimes when I am navigating through my rom list, it proceeds to jump ahead 5-10 roms at a time.

What could be the problem?

[obsidianspider]

@masteryoer What resolution is being output by the Pi in EmulationStation? (My TV will tell me the resolution of the input that's plugged in, not sure if yours does). Is it a 1080p TV or a 4K TV?

I have a Pi 3 connected to a 65" Samsung 1080p set and it works very well.

[masteryoer]

I have a pi2 on a 70" tv. After a couple of restarts, emulationstation is back to working at normal speed (I think it was trying to index all of my roms), however, the emulators themselves are having a hard time running. I can't seem to find a resolution that allows it to run at full speed, and also allows the audio to work. I tried setting it at 600x800 (via the config when you launch a game), and even smaller, but either the sound gets choppy or the game itself lags.

[Darksavior]

TV shouldn't matter, since the Pi outputs up to 1080P, so on my 40" 4k Samsung tv it outputs to 1080p. On my Pi2 oc'd to 1Ghz I don't have any issues with slowdowns playing games at 1080p with the crt shader, except the games that are just too slow for my pi in general. Are you getting that yellow lightning icon? If so, then it's a power issue and you'll need to use another phone charger. The pi will also slow itself down if it overheats.

[obsidianspider]

What hdmi_mode is in your /boot/config.txt? Here's some more information about those settings. Since you're having trouble, it may be worth looking up what's in your config file.

[masteryoer]

@Darksavior I am not getting the yellow icon. I'm powering the pi inside of a modified original Xbox case, using its original power supply at 12v so it's getting more than enough power.

[masteryoer]

@obsidianspider I will check as soon as I can and get back to you. I wonder what everybody else's settings are set to.

These are snes games I am trying to play so I wouldn't think they are taxing at all.

[Darksavior]

@masteryoer Which emulator/game? snes2002,2005,etc? I wouldn't use anything past 2005, it's too slow for pi2's

[demesauce]

@masteryoer You mean 5v? Did you splice a micro usb cord into a 5v line? Hopefully not 12v.....

If you think its the massive number of roms, delete a bunch of the roms and try it again

[masteryoer]

@demesauce yes 5v I'm sorry. I only have 1000 or so roms.

[edmaul69]

@masteryoer do you have your tv set to game mode?

[masteryoer]

@Darksavior 2010 is set right now. I haven't tried 2003 or 2005

[masteryoer]

@masteryoer said in RetroPie extremely slow on larger TV:

@Darksavior 2010 is set right now. I haven't tried 2003 or 2005

The options I have are 2002, 2005 and 2010. 2010 has the worst performance, and the performance is the same between 2002 and 2005. It is a lot better, but still has some slow down and lagging especially during intros and during a lot of movement. I am attempting right now to play Donkey Kong Country 3.

[demesauce]

Do you have another SD card you can use? If it were me, I'd try to start from scratch with a new (probably different brand) SD card. I have had major slow down issues with cheap/off brand SD cards. I prefer SanDisk

[masteryoer]

I have a sandisk, It's a 16gb SDHC card.

[Darksavior]

@masteryoer 2010 does not run fullspeed on Pi2's. Not even on my Pi2 @ 1Ghz. Not sure how you mysteriously had it playable on a smaller monitor.

[masteryoer]

@Darksavior no idea either. I just know when I tested the configuration it ran smoothly. I tried it with a different game Though and no sound so maybe that's why.

[Neo-Rio]

Does your TV have different picture display modes? I know mine does. It has Cinema mode, normal mode, vivid mode, Intelligent Sensor mode, and in amongst them.... GAME MODE!

Set it to game mode. That should clear up the input lag that seems apparent when playing.

[masteryoer]

@Neo-Rio I ended up resolving most of the issues by first setting the emulator to 2005 and then overclocking the pi to 1000mhz. Once I get everything ironed out, I'll move it all over to a pi3 but just trying to flush it out now with the device I do have.

[arnolddozsa]

@masteryoer
I had the same issue. The games under nes was slow and the audio was laggy.
The solution was not the resolution setting.
The solution was to change the audio driver under the raspiarch config and disable audio synchronization