winuae 3.5.0 - high cpu utilisation and sound distortion

[gntavelis]

Hi all,

I am using 3.5.0, i was trying yesterday to watch Alien from Scoopex. Its aga so i used the non expanded configuration. At the very first minute of the demo i had some issues with the sound due to high cpu utilisation. It was 110-117%. Sound was terrible distorted. I am using a laptop with AMD a10 8780p and 8gb of ram. I am using gfx drivers from HP which they are outdated because i cant use the AMD's ones after version 17.4.2. They just dont work.

Do you have any suggestions?

I dont think that emulating a 68ec020 with aga chipset is big deal for a two-core 4 thread machine but i leave this to Toni because he is the coder

Thank you

PS: I tried FS-uae and everything works just fine. I cant really understand this because FSuae is a fork of winuae

[Toni Wilen]

Most likely it is display related (which are totally different in winuae and fs-uae). It can be driver specific too, forcing vsync or something other similarly bad.

[gntavelis]

Could you please tell me Toni where is the vsync option? I am totally lost with so many options in winuae I will try again AMD's drivers today.

Thank you Toni for your answer and for your effort keeping the WinUAE up to date You are a star

[Toni Wilen]

First step: Tick full logging checkbox in Paths panel before starting emulation, then boot, wait a bit, F12, Click save all, attach the file.

Check also Direct3D is selected in Misc panel. Also check it after starting emulation. If it was switched to DirectDraw -> install dx9 redistributable. DirectDraw is usually very very slow in modern systems.

[gntavelis]

Please find attached the file Toni.

I checked the Misc section, WinUAE is using Direct3D as graphics API. I am sure that i have dx9 already installed because when i started the first time winuae it was asking for a dx9 library (?).

[Toni Wilen]

Hmm.. winuaelog.txt was not included but it was logged as enabled in winauebootlog.txt. I gues the problem is Program Files, it is not normally user writable (and should not contain any user data), copy and set paths to somewhere else to fix it.

Config is looks fine but try switching off triple buffering in Display panel. You can also try switching to DirectDraw, if there is obvious speed difference: it has to be something drivers. Check also possible display driver control panel that it does not have any forced settings enabled.

[amilo3438]

Originally Posted by gntavelis

Hi all,

I am using 3.5.0, i was trying yesterday to watch Alien from Scoopex. Its aga so i used the non expanded configuration. At the very first minute of the demo i had some issues with the sound due to high cpu utilisation. It was 110-117%. Sound was terrible distorted. I am using a laptop with AMD a10 8780p and 8gb of ram. I am using gfx drivers from HP which they are outdated because i cant use the AMD's ones after version 17.4.2. They just dont work.

Do you have any suggestions?

Tested on over 10 yrs old 2.13GHz Pentium M (Dothan) laptop w/WinXP!
------------------------------------------------------------------
Alien-Scoopex - WinUAE CPU usage at "inside of torus rotation" part:
------------------------------------------------------------------
WinUAE 2.8.0 - 86%
WinUAE 2.8.1 - 90%
WinAUE 3.0.0 - 91%
WinUAE 3.1.0 - 97%
WinUAE 3.2.0 - 100%
WinUAE 3.3.0 - 104%
WinUAE 3.4.0 - 112%
WinUAE 3.5.0 - 114%
WinUAE 3.6.0b2 - 116%
------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: For all cases has been used the same config! (attached)

So for the same demo scene at "inside of torus rotation" part the CPU usage has increased for 30% from WinUAE 2.8.0 till 3.6.0b2 version!?

[gntavelis]

I did some changes like switched the triple buffering to none, switched to directdraw instead of direct3d graphics api, changed from 48000khz to 44000khz the sound quality, i changed from approximate a500/a1200 or cycle-exact to fastest possible. I upgraded my graphics drivers with the version 17.4.2.

Still nothing , same sound distortion. Very high cpu utilisation inside winuae.

Amilo thank you for this nice test! I am using for years winuae and i am sure that in earlier version this demo was working perfectly. What is wrong now?

[Toni Wilen]

Your system is much faster.. Another possible reason is too aggressive power saving mode.

EDIT: Check task manager/resource monitor CPU usage/speed.

[amilo3438]

Originally Posted by gntavelis

Amilo thank you for this nice test! I am using for years winuae and i am sure that in earlier version this demo was working perfectly. What is wrong now?

Have you tried with attached configuration I posted ?
(just extract the file in winuae configuration folder, run winuae and double click on the same file inside configuration tab)

[Toni Wilen]

Your PC is far too ancient to compare with anything modern.. (small cache, slow memory etc)

[amilo3438]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Your PC is far too ancient to compare with anything modern.. (small cache, slow memory etc)

Cache is L2 = 2Mb and memory is dual channel ddr2 533!
How this can be ancient ?

Of course that it is, but how much can be seen, it is still well-worn with "modern" competition.

[Toni Wilen]

Modern is 4M+ cache and at least DDR4 2333 RAM (Memory bandwidth matters far too much in emulation)

Seriously, it can help if you can narrow major speed change in some specific beta but if reason is some fix/update: speed loses.

[gntavelis]

@amilo3438: Yes i used your config file and still the sound is distorted :/

@Toni: I found a few days ago a guy here having the same problem with me and he changed something to the power settings (power plan) , it was something to the cpu and he managed to fix the problem. I am trying to find this post but i cant. Maybe you know what i have to do...

[gntavelis]

maybe it was something to minimum processor state ?

[amilo3438]

Found something interesting!

I load the config from post #7 on WinUAE 3.0.0, start the emu with Alien-Scoopex demo in FD0 and immediately save state file when WB screen showed.

Now I load the config from post #7 on WinUAE 3.5.0 and load that saved state file... max CPU usage at "inside of torus rotation" part is now 96-97% instead of 114% !

I tryed same with savestate file from WinUAE 2.8.0 and got same 96-97% result in WinUAE 3.5.0 !

So, when WinUAE 3.5.0 is started with config from post #7 it give 114% and when is started + savestate file from WinUAE 2.8.0/3.0.0 it will give 96-97% !

EDIT:
Alien-Scoopex CPU usage at "inside of torus rotation" part tested on WinUAE 3.6.0b2 with same config file + savestate file from:
------------------------------------------------------------------
WinUAE 2.8.0 ---> 110-111% on 3.6.0b2
WinAUE 3.0.0 ---> 98-99% on 3.6.0b2
WinUAE 3.1.0 ---> 110-111% on 3.6.0b2
WinUAE 3.2.0 ---> 110-111% on 3.6.0b2
WinUAE 3.3.0 ---> 110-111% on 3.6.0b2
WinUAE 3.4.0 ---> 117-118% on 3.6.0b2
WinUAE 3.5.0 ---> 117-118% on 3.6.0b2
WinUAE 3.6.0b2 -> 117-118% on 3.6.0b2
------------------------------------------------------------------

Alien-Scoopex CPU usage at "inside of torus rotation" part tested on WinUAE 3.5.0 with same config file + savestate file from:
------------------------------------------------------------------
WinUAE 2.8.0 ---> 96-97% on 3.5.0
WinAUE 3.0.0 ---> 96-97% on 3.5.0
WinUAE 3.1.0 ---> 96-97% on 3.5.0
WinUAE 3.2.0 ---> 96-97% on 3.5.0
WinUAE 3.3.0 ---> 107-110% on 3.5.0
WinUAE 3.4.0 ---> 101-102% on 3.5.0
WinUAE 3.5.0 ---> 113-114% on 3.5.0
------------------------------------------------------------------

Alien-Scoopex CPU usage at "inside of torus rotation" part tested on WinUAE 3.4.0 with same config file + savestate file from:
------------------------------------------------------------------
WinUAE 2.8.0 ---> 100-101% on 3.4.0
WinAUE 3.0.0 ---> 100-101% on 3.4.0
WinUAE 3.1.0 ---> 100-101% on 3.4.0
WinUAE 3.2.0 ---> 100-101% on 3.4.0
WinUAE 3.3.0 ---> 105-106% on 3.4.0
WinUAE 3.4.0 ---> 105-106% on 3.4.0
------------------------------------------------------------------

Alien-Scoopex CPU usage at "inside of torus rotation" part tested on WinUAE 3.3.0 with same config file + savestate file from:
------------------------------------------------------------------
WinUAE 2.8.0 ---> 98-99% on 3.3.0
WinAUE 3.0.0 ---> 98-99% on 3.3.0
WinUAE 3.1.0 ---> 98-99% on 3.3.0
WinUAE 3.2.0 ---> 98-99% on 3.3.0
WinUAE 3.3.0 ---> 103-104% on 3.3.0
------------------------------------------------------------------

Alien-Scoopex CPU usage at "inside of torus rotation" part tested on WinUAE 3.2.0 with same config file + savestate file from:
------------------------------------------------------------------
WinUAE 2.8.0 ---> 95-96% on 3.2.0
WinAUE 3.0.0 ---> 95-96% on 3.2.0
WinUAE 3.1.0 ---> 95-96% on 3.2.0
WinUAE 3.2.0 ---> 95-96% on 3.2.0
------------------------------------------------------------------

Alien-Scoopex CPU usage at "inside of torus rotation" part tested on WinUAE 3.1.0 with same config file + savestate file from:
------------------------------------------------------------------
WinUAE 2.8.0 ---> 91-92% on 3.1.0
WinAUE 3.0.0 ---> 91-92% on 3.1.0
WinUAE 3.1.0 ---> 91-92% on 3.1.0
------------------------------------------------------------------

Alien-Scoopex CPU usage at "inside of torus rotation" part tested on WinUAE 3.0.0 with same config file + savestate file from:
------------------------------------------------------------------
WinUAE 2.8.0 ---> 85-86% on 3.0.0
WinAUE 3.0.0 ---> 85-86% on 3.0.0
------------------------------------------------------------------

Alien-Scoopex CPU usage at "inside of torus rotation" part tested on WinUAE 2.8.0 with same config file + savestate file from:
------------------------------------------------------------------
WinUAE 2.8.0 ---> 85-86% on 2.8.0
------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: After every test the emu was quit, started again, loaded with same config file, loaded with next state file and run!

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Modern is 4M+ cache and at least DDR4 2333 RAM (Memory bandwidth matters far too much in emulation)

This 4M+ cache is not L2 cache! On "modern" laptop PCs L2 cache is 512KB or 1024KB and slower L3 cache is 4M+ but shared with other cores!
Also, with high resolutions + integrated gfx cards the bandwidth of DDR4 2333 RAM may drop drastically.

[amilo3438]

Here is a savestates of previous tests! (find in "TheZone")

Interesting that in some newer WinUAE versions an old savestate file can influence on the CPU usage % make it higher or lower for the same demo (Alien-Scoopex) on the same scene (at "inside of torus rotation" part) !? (How is that possible?)

[Saghalie]

Can we see the config file you are using? I just ran in to a sound distortion problem on one of my configs and fixed it by overwriting with a known good config, I just didn't look in to it to find out where the problem was.

When I did look for a problem I noticed that if I switched the display to Native, the distortion of sound went away.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by amilo3438

Interesting that in some newer WinUAE versions an old savestate file can influence on the CPU usage % make it higher or lower for the same demo (Alien-Scoopex) on the same scene (at "inside of torus rotation" part) !? (How is that possible?)

If savestate was made before or after some new feature or changed feature (like memory ce mode), loading it to old or newer version may not have exactly same config.

[amilo3438]

Hmm, so it is not like in some other emus that keeps only emulated "cpu and memory" states in their savestate files?

But WinUAE also keeps HW config (as I can see); obviously there are more stuff saved in an WinUAE savestate files !? (that may influence on the behaving)
If so, I wonder whats the reason for that? Why would any change in the emu (i.e. improvement) should deal with something like statesave file?