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Ultimate Fpse device?

Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 9:16 pm
by Jmmy84
Hi Guys, Im running FPse on a Galaxy note and it seems great even using the openGL plug-in. But I want to know what technically would be the best hardware set up for FPse, I ask because I'm thinking of getting a 10" tablet and there seems to be no end of set ups to choose from. Will a quad core Mali 400 be any better that a dual core? what can FPse use? The Targa chips seem good but from looking at the openGL problems are they worth the extra cash? Please tell me your thoughts. If FPse had a benchmark tool for openGL performance that would be awesome.

Re: Ultimate Fpse device?

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 12:40 am
by Rezard
I'm pretty happy with how fast most things run on my Snapdragon S4 (GS3),
but some thing are kinda slow.

Not really sure of what's normal, to be honest--
I am still new to using FPSE (and Android in general).

I am still curious how much better a quad would run the emulator.
Is FPSE well threaded...?

Re: Ultimate Fpse device?

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 4:18 am
by bluezeak
yes, it is multi-threaded, at least we know it is in softGPU mode. You can turn that off.
I'm not sure if it is or not in openGL. We think it is.

i900frenchaddict says he's seen 3 cores working (I believe in opengl), though he and I chat about that a bit and that may actually only be 2.

When multithreading was implemented, the conecept was (and still is as far as I know) that the emulator runs on one thread, the GPU plugin runs on another. Several versions back when this was implemented, there used to be a 'force priority' setting that would try to prioritize the emulator over the GPU - I think. I don't really know - but Schtruck took that out so I suspect he got it working the way he wants.

For me, multithreaded in softgpu makes games run ... stuttery, as if the frameskip is on. but they run very very fast. I don't like it though, so I only use it if I want to use filtering in softgpu. i usually prefer things more pixilated but smoother - sometimes i try it the other way (softer but more stuttery).

Other people have said with modern devices they have issues when using multi-core. I don't know if it's a ICS issue or a GPU / hardware issue.

Is it multi-threaded? Yes. Is it 'well' multi-threaded? I don't know. I don't think so. It works, and it's worthwhile much of the time. If it causes things to crash then no, it not 'well' implemneted - but I think the crashes are the exception and uncommon.

Re: Ultimate Fpse device?

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 12:39 pm
by Jmmy84
Ok, that gives me somthing to go on. As my galaxy note almost runs the openGL plug-in perfectly I'm guessing the Mali 400 is a good chip, but a lot of tablets boast a quad core Mali 400 as part of a cortex a9 setup, i would like to see how it runs on that. Also the tablet version of the a9 seems to be under clocked to 1.6ghz as ARM state is native speed as 2ghz, so maybe some over clock potential?

Re: Ultimate Fpse device?

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 8:47 pm
by Jmmy84
Thinking of getting this, any comments? It's a budget item but seems half respectable :)

http://www.ebuyer.com/392404-sumvision- ... pc-titan-9

Re: Ultimate Fpse device?

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 7:51 am
by bluezeak
i900frenchaddict wrote:...and Fpse has always like raw mhz power, I mean, overclock your GPU by 20% gives no real difference, BUT overclock your CPU by 20% usually means a visible difference. Fpse with a 1.6ghz-2ghz must be fast ;)

i900 - is that ture for opengl mode also? seems softGPU can't use gpu overclock, but openGL should be better with GPU overclock - but only for games that are actually using the GPU 3d enhancements. OpenGL still uses a lot of CPU for some things.

Re: Ultimate Fpse device?

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 1:50 am
by bluezeak
@frenchaddict - it would depend on the game, right? 3d games would be able to take advantage of it more. isn't tekken 3 one of the most intense 3d games? I haven't played it ... but it seems if that game is full of 3d textures it would be a good example. interesting that overclocking the gpu makes no real difference for you. If you've read my opengl thread you'll know tehre are multiple versions of the GPU I have (forget at the moment) -mine runs @ 300Mhz. The others in the forum had a device @ 200Mhz. OpenGL fails for them, but works for me. there could be other issues, but I think the difference is the GPU. so, I don't know about performance, but CAPABILTY - the faster GPU seems to be able to do more, even if it can't do it ... better. Interesting that when you overclock you see no difference.

@Jmmy84 - that device looks very nice. Seems fantastic for ~$200. With that mali GPU though you'll need to deal withall the issues that affect the mail. it's the one that used to have to use the tekken3 trick for opengl that schtruck has been working on, and someone else is reporting that for him he can't get fpse to work in opengl at all. I think his issue is unique to his device .. but it's the same gpu (malil). Also, I'll bet you can overclock that CPU to 2.0Ghz, if not faster. I saw the same chipset offered at 1.4 Ghz. But - I'll bet there's a reason they're underclocking it :). May not be very stable, orit may just not be very durable. I'd overclock it myself if I got it, but I would be careful and do it slowly and mointor the heat a lot.

Re: Ultimate Fpse device?

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 7:58 am
by Jmmy84
Thanks Bluezeak I read your openGL thread. Back to my original question then if the Mali 400 is buggy then what is the best gpu chip out there for running openGL? I have a Mali 400 in my galaxy note and it seems to be very choosy as to what it runs well, but what it runs well is incredible, Wipeout 3 looks fantastic in openGL and with nill lag. But then it crashes a few games like ape escape when run in GL. Let's face it once you have got used to the quality of the openGL graphics going back to softgpu sucks.