Low framerate on main EmulationStation menu - Pi 4

mitu

@rilight Sure, why not. Use code tags (```) to surround the config.txt contents.

rilight

The version I've been using up until this point (by which I mean, without the changes to make it more like the 3B+ config):

[pi4]
max_framebuffers=2

## Overclock settings
# Uncomment to overclock the arm. 700 MHz is the default.
#arm_freq=2147
#arm_freq=2000
#arm_freq_min=500
#v3d_freq=750
#over_voltage=6
# Enable turbo temporarily at boot to speed up times
#initial_turbo=60
# Increase the SD reader clock speed (default 50)
dtparam=sd_overclock=100

[all]
# Enable DRM VC4 V3D driver on top of the dispmanx display stack
dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d

## Base settings
disable_splash=1
boot_delay=0
gpu_mem=256

## Audio settings
# Enable audio (loads snd_bcm2835)
dtparam=audio=on

## HDMI Settings
# Remove black borders on display when scaling
disable_overscan=1

# Request "Game Mode"
edid_content_type=4

## Disable the optional hardware interfaces
dtparam=i2c_arm=off
dtparam=i2s=off
dtparam=spi=off

## Disable 4K?
[hdmi:0]
hdmi_max_pixel_freq=200000000

[hdmi:1]
hdmi_max_pixel_freq=200000000

mitu

Configuration seems fine. Do you have WiFi enabled ?

rilight

@mitu I have wpa_supplicant enabled, yes. Does that cause performance issues? To be clear, this isn't a problem with laggy inputs. It's what's being displayed on the screen that's the problem.

mitu

I have wpa_supplicant enabled, yes. Does that cause performance issues?

No, just checking what might cause any interference with the HDMI signal. At this point I'd probably try another mini-HDMI to HDMI cable or switching to a lower resolution (720p ?) and see if the problem still occurs.

rilight

Unfortunately I don't have another mini-HDMI adapter... I haven't seen anything from other users of the adapter indicating it could be causing problems like this (the part number for reference is B07K21HSQX). I'll try changing the resolution.

rilight

@mitu I changed the resolution to 720p with hdmi_mode=85 and hdmi_group=2, and performance in the main menu of ES is all but normal again. Gambette is no longer showing the same kind of tearing issues, though the framerate does occasionally dip just below 60fps (EDIT: I checked the game I'm running in a benchmarking spreadsheet and I believe this is normal). Why would this be happening? I thought the Pi 4 had more than powerful enough of a graphical processor to drive 1080p.

roslof

@rilight said in Low framerate on main EmulationStation menu - Pi 4:

I thought the Pi 4 had more than powerful enough of a graphical processor to drive 1080p.

The 4B can handle it. We haven't figured out your issue quite yet.

If it helps, here are some of my config.txt settings:

hdmi_group=1
hdmi_mode=16

hdmi_max_pixel_freq:0=200000000
hdmi_max_pixel_freq:1=200000000

dtparam=i2c_arm=on

dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d
max_framebuffers=2

dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d

enable_uart=1

rilight

The 4B can handle it. We haven't figured out your issue quite yet.

That's reassuring at least 😄

It looks like the only difference in config you have listed there related to video is the hdmi_group and hdmi_mode settings, I can try that out.

rilight

Looks like that one has the same problems, darn :/

roslof

@rilight for Gambatte, I'm running 1.88 - Gambatte (v0.5.0-netlink).
Normally, I get a solid 60FPS, and with speed-up enabled, I literally get >1600 FPS (with overclock) and that's with a 5-pass gb shader enabled.

Is your RA Threaded Video set to enabled?

Let's compare our RetroArch video settings. Launching "RetroArch" from the Raspberry Pi settings menu, mine are:

Output:
Video: (gl)
Monitor Index 0 (Auto)
Video Rotation (Normal)
Force-Disable sRGB FBO (Disabled)

Fullscreen Mode:
Start in Fullscreen Mode (Enabled)
Windowed Fullscreen Mode (Enabled)
Fullscreen Width (1920)
Fullscreen Height (1080)

Windowed Mode:
Windowed Scale: (1.0x)
Window Opacity: (100)
Show Window Decorations (Enabled)
Remember Window Position and Size (Disabled)
Window Width: (1280)
Window Height: (720)

Scaling:
Integer Scale (Disabled)
Aspect Ratio (Core provided)
Crop Overscan (Enabled)

Synchronization:
Vertical Sync (Vsync) (Enabled)
Vertical Sync (Vsync) Swap Interval (1)
Frame Delay (0) 
Hard GPU Sync (Disabled)
Max swapchain images (3)
Sync to Exact Content Framerate (Disabled)

Threaded Video (Enabled)
Black Frame Insertion (Disabled)
GPU Screenshot (Disabled)
Bilinear Filtering (Enabled)
Auto-Shader Delay (0)

...and no Video Filter set.

rilight

It looks like I have the same version of Gambatte as you do. Here's my video settings from the RetroArch menu after launching the game:

Output:
  Video: gl
  Monitor Index: 0(Auto)
  Video Rotation: Normal
  Force-Disable sRGB FBO: Off

Fullscreen:
  Start in Fullscreen Mode: On
  Windowed Fullscreen Mode: On
  Fullscreen Width: 1920
  Fullscreen Height: 1080

Windowed Mode:
  Windowed Scale: 3.0x
  Window Opacity: 100
  Show Window Decorations: On
  Remember Window Position and Size: Off
  Window Width: 1280
  Window Height: 720

Scaling:
  Integer Scale: Off
  Aspect Ratio: Core Provided
  Crop Overscan: On

Synchronization:
  Vertical Sync (Vsync): On
  Vertical Sync (Vsync) Swap Interval: 1
  Frame Delay: 0
  Hard GPU Sync: Off
  Max swapchain images: 3
  Sync to Exact Content Framerate: Off

Suspend Screensaver: On
Threaded Video: On
Black Frame Insertion: Off
GPU Screenshot: On
Bilinear Filtering: Off
Auto-Shader Delay: 0

Video Filter: N/A

I'm not sure why I'm missing some of the options you have, maybe you have an advanced settings option enabled? The only difference I see here is that my windowed scale is set to 3x instead of 1x.

roslof

@rilight said in Low framerate on main EmulationStation menu - Pi 4:

I'm not sure why I'm missing some of the options you have

Hmmm... Maybe:
RetroArch / User Interface / Views / (enable everything except "Display Start Screen)
RetroArch / User Interface / (enable "Show Advanced Settings")

rilight

Ah, enabling "Show Advanced Settings" did the trick. I'll edit my post to add the missing values.

rilight

The only other differences I notice now are GPU Screenshot being on and Bilinear Filtering being off, I think that's everything.

roslof

@rilight Boo. Between config.txt for overall video setting, and RetroArch video settings, seems all good.

I can't argue with @mitu 's logic at this point. The software appears to be correct, and unless I'm missing something, this only leaves hardware between your Pi 4B and your TV.

Silly, terrible questions:

You are using physical video port 0, correct?
Can test your setup on a different TV?

rilight

If port 0 is the one next to the USB-C port, then yep! I'll go ahead and hook this up to the TV instead of my monitor, I probably should have thought of doing that earlier.

rilight

Same issue on the TV.

rilight

Also @roslof, the issue isn't happening just with RetroArch but also in the main menu of EmulationStation... but it's not slow all the time. If I move from a custom category (unthemed, so no background) to a regular category, the animation is noticeably smoother than when I move between themed categories.

rilight

@roslof I remembered this HDMI adapter came in a two-pack, so I dug out the other one and tried switching it out. Still the same performance... either this adapter is just bad in general (which I wouldn't guess from the reviews saying it worked great with the Pi 4), I got shipped a bad batch, or the issue is something else.