Low framerate on main EmulationStation menu - Pi 4

rilight

If anyone has more suggestions, let me know. For now I'll probably just deal with the low framerate and graphical problems and/or force it to run at 720p but I'd really like to figure out what's going on.

Krakatoa

To improve the themes try bumping up the vram. I was getting terrible performance in cardcrazy with the default vram (80). Once I upped to the max all my issues went away.

rilight

@Krakatoa I just tried cranking up the VRAM Limit setting to the max and restarted EmulationStation, no change. It still sits at 60fps when idle then drops down to 30-45fps or so when switching categories.

rilight

Oh, I also noticed that ES stays at a consistent 30fps when I'm in the start menu. No idea why that would be different than sitting on the main menu, but it is.

rilight

It looks like a few others have reported the same issue off-forum:

rilight

@d3sim8 Out of curiosity, what kernel version are you running?

roslof

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

Oh, I also noticed that ES stays at a consistent 30fps when I'm in the start menu. No idea why that would be different than sitting on the main menu, but it is.

Curious: I've found that editing config.txt and setting force_turbo=1 solves any of my ES framerate problems. Careful with this, in that it throttles your CPU, but if you're feeling frisky, you may consider it.

Below are my current overclock settings. I'm using active and passive cooling, so these are good for me. Leaving these here if you want to experiment. WARNING: Without proper cooling, overclocking could harm your pi and possibly corrupt your microSD card. It could also prevent booting, and you'd have to inject your microSD into a computer to change config.txt to reasonable settings. Warranty may also be voided:

#overclock
force_turbo=1
arm_freq=2000
over_voltage=6
h264_freq=750
isp_freq=750
v3d_freq=830
hdmi_enable_4kp60=1
#the above line (hdmi_enable_4kp60=1) enables core_freq of 550 instead of default 500

rilight

Hmm, I'd really like to avoid overclocking if at all possible - I plan on making this a portable build and that would reduce battery life, as well as the warranty issue you mentioned. Besides, the 4B should be able to handle this without overclocking and since other people are having the issue I think it would be good to find the root cause instead of getting around it with OC. That said, I'll keep it in mind as a backup option.

roslof

@rilight I'm suggesting adjusting the throttle force_turbo=1. I this is not classified as overclocking provided you don't use it in conjunction with over_voltage . If you don't want to overclock, steer away from the chunk I pasted in 'code' format.

Here is the write-up from the Raspberry Pi crew:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt/overclocking.md

Specifically regarding force_turbo:
Forces turbo mode frequencies even when the ARM cores are not busy. Enabling this may set the warranty bit if over_voltage_ is also set.*

rilight

Oh, okay. Given what it says, ("forces maximum frequencies even when the ARM cores are not busy"), this could still decrease battery life though right? I'll give it a try and see how ES performs.

roslof

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

Oh, okay. Given what it says, ("forces maximum frequencies even when the ARM cores are not busy"), this could still decrease battery life though right? I'll give it a try and see how ES performs.

Not sure what you mean by battery life. I've been running force_turbo since the Pi4B first came out and I haven't experienced any wear-and-tear or issues. Always keeping my Pi cool. Never had any warnings...

rilight

I mean in a portable build, without being always plugged into a power socket 😄 As for the effects of the option, setting force_turbo=1 did increase performance on the main ES menu, making it workable in Carbon and pixel-metadata, but the metapixel theme still struggles during movement between some screens. It's an okay workaround for now, but I still feel like it shouldn't be necessary...

rilight

Update: Even having force_turbo=1, I'm still getting tearing in Gambette randomly. I'll record a video.

rilight

It doesn't look like I have permission to upload videos on the forum, unless there's another way to do it?

mitu

@rilight Yes, we limit the size of attachments so I guess a video is too large for the limit.

rilight

Makes sense, how large is the limit? I just scaled the video to a terrifyingly low resolution and it still wouldn't upload

rilight

Never mind, I just uploaded it to imgur instead:
video

dankcushions

please provide a verbose log for that game: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Runcommand/#launch-with-verbose-logging

rilight

@dankcushions Sure, here you go: https://termbin.com/fk91
(I know they can decrease performance, but while shaders are enabled on startup the video I recorded above is with them completely disabled.)

rilight

I just discovered that the 30fps problem on the ES main menu only happens when the UI transition style is set to "Fade". Using "Slide" or "Instant" it stays around 57 - 60fps according to the framerate display, although opening the start menu still causes it to drop to 30fps instantly. This also still doesn't fix my issues with screen tearing in-game.