Retropie GBA Games lagging

dplumley2

I am running an overclocked Pi Zero W (1050mhz) with a heat sync and a fan (so it stays super cool). I have just installed Retropie on a fresh sd card, and I added a few GBA roms. I am experiencing lag on my GBA games and I am not sure why. I have spent hours trying to figure it out and I cannot seem to find the issue. I am on a 1080p 60hz tv, but I am only running the video at 640x480 60hz 4:3 clock: 25mhz, progressive. I also have wifi enabled and connected on this pi.

My current overclock is:
arm_freq=1050
gpu_freq=500
core_freq=500
sdram_freq=500
sdram_schmoo=0x02000020
over_voltage=2
sdram_over_voltage=2

I am running a 5 volt 1.8 amp power supply, and I have also tried using a 5 volt 2.1amp portable battery with no difference performance wise.

I only have 2 different emulators (lr-gpsp and lr-mgba). lr-gpsp won’t run any of my GBA games, as they will not boot up. lr-mgba is working, but I am experiencing lag.

Does anyone have any ideas for what I can do to mitigate this lag that I am experiencing? I am new to Retropie and raspberry pi in general. This is my first ever project, so I am really inexperienced.

lostless

@dplumley2 do you have a gba bios installed? Gpsp requires a bios and is the better emulator for a pi zero, even though it’s a tad buggy. Mgba is slow on a pi zero but has a built in bios that’s not perfect.

dplumley2

@lostless I just installed the bios for gba games. gpsp emulator still is not running gba games at all. They won’t boot.

mitu

@dplumley2 Which file did you use and where did you copy it ?

dankcushions

@dplumley2 gpsp (ie, standalone, not lr-gpsp) is the faster GBA emulator. lr-mgba will be too slow also. see https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Game-Boy-Advance/#emulators-lr-mgba-lr-vba-next-lr-gpsp-gpsp

gpsp should be full speed without an overclock, even. if you can't get games to, please supply a log. see the note section here

dplumley2

@mitu I connected to my pi zero through wifi and added the gba bios to the bios folder. It didn’t work at first, but for some reason I removed it and re added it and now it works. I am, however, running into another problem now. First of all. lr-gpsp runs good, but still has a few small lag spikes. When I leave a game and return to the main menu, my menu always freezes and I have to restart the pi entirely. I see that gpSP apparently runs better than lr-gpsp. Any tips on how I add this emulator to my Retropie and how to add the gba bios to that?

dplumley2

@dankcushions Is there a forum or video that will help me install this gpSP emulator to retropie and also add the gba bios to that? Also, how do I supply a log? I am new to this so it’s a learning experience for me and lots of reading forums and watching videos.

mitu

The doc page on GBA has some info about each emulator for the system. To install a new package use the RetroPie-Setup menu entry - see https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Updating-RetroPie/#manage-packages.

How to get a verbose log (though not sure if needed at this point, since the games are running) - see this page.