@sleve_mcdichael

OK, I fiddled with it for like two hours and I found the culprit!

I restored backup of my "bad config" and it was lagging and doing 30 frames per second - as expected.
Then I started deleting lines half of the file at a time and after a lot of problems with auto-generated cfg in NES folder, I found that removing this line stops the stuttering:

video_vsync = "false"

To double-check it, I restored the original "retroarch.cfg.rp-dist" and added this line - it's 100% reproducible on my system. Put it on "false" and it's choppy, put it on "true" or remove it and it's not choppy.

Without this line, it is:
-> not choppy with vsync ON and any setting Max Swapchain images
-> not choppy with vsync OFF and Max Swapchain images 3 (default is 3).
-> choppy with vsync OFF and Max Swapchain images 1 or 2

If I put this line in, it's choppy whether the vsync is OFF or ON
-> It's choppy with vsync OFF and any setting Max Swapchain images
-> it's choppy with vsync ON and Max Swapchain 3 (default is 3)
-> it's NOT choppy with vsync ON and Max Swapchain images 1 or 2.

I guess something happens when retroarch.cfg has 'video_vsync = "false" ' line and Max Swapchain images is set to 3, behaviour is the same with Max Swapchain 1 and 2.

Also - why would vsync OFF make it choppy? It should make it less choppy with some potential screen tearing - it makes no sense!

Using display_rotate needs more GPU memory and usually has a performance impact.
What's your resolution ? What version of RetroPie are you using ?

Thanks for providing the log file. I don't notice anything different between the 2 runs, so it's not something related to a configuration.
Try removing pulseaudio completely then reboot the system, this might get rid of any PA interference.

Excellent thank you!

Please do not post a support request without first reading and following the advice in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

Actually, it did work but instead of adding these lines I uncommented the same in the config file and just changed the values. Thank you very much for you fast and adequate response.

Yeah. I guess you're right.

THe standered emulator works ok with slowdown and glitches. The other emulators ether back out or just get sound. IDK why. The guy reccemended one emulator but it doesn't work for me.