Configuration Guide

Configuring Dolphin the right way is very important to run games smoothly. This performance guide will show a "quick and dirty" example of how to speed up Dolphin. There is also a guide offering a Configuration Explanation. Open Dolphin and there are three configuration related buttons: Config, Graphics and DSP, which will open the options described below.

First of all you must understand why emulation of you game is slow. This may be because of 2 things: 1) you CPU is slow (most of cases): 2) you GPU is not fast enough. Depnding on that - you must tune configurations in different way's.

Config

Apply the following settings:

• Enabled Dual Core - if your CPU supports it. Note: some games doesn't work with it.
• Enable Idle Skipping.
• Use JitIL recompiler - it's faster in theory.
• Set FrameLimit = OFF; and Enable Audio Throttle. Use Tab key for speedup. Note: will work only if you have spare CPU power.

Graphics

If speed emulation is slow because of video card - try to use usual tricks such as:

• Reduce resolution of you monitor to minimum (e.g. 256x192)
• Set Internal Resolution to 1x or lower (0.375x)
• Disable AntiAliasing
• Disable Anisotropic filtration - set it to bilinear/trlinear or even nearest.
• Disable Vertical Sync
• Direct3D9 render is fastest (if supported by your OS). It is recommended to you use it unless problems encountered.
• Setting the "Fullscreen resolution" to your monitors native display resolution is recommended. However, a lower "Fullscreen resolution" may boost performance for users with inferior graphics cards.
• Set Internal Resolution to "Auto - (Multiple of 640x528)". If your computer has slowdown, change to "1x Native (640x528)" and go up from there till you can find the highest setting without slowdown.
• If needed enable "EFB Copies = Texture".
• Texture cache - one position to left from right end is enough in most cases.
• Disable External FrameBuffer. If needed try to use "Virtual" first.

Next is questionable speedup's:

• Cache Display Lists = speed up??? Create Scary GFX bugs in Fragile_Dreams.
• Checking "Skip EFB Access from CPU" can provide a speed boost. However, some games like Super Mario Galaxy require this to be unchecked to function properly.

DSP

• If FrameLimit enabled - uncheck "Enable Audio Throttle".
• If FrameLimit = Off - Enable Audio Throttle & use TAB key for speed up.
• Set "Volume" to 100% - in theory it will give micro speedup.
• Use DirectSound backend.
• It's questionable: will setting SampleRate to 32 kHz give any speedup???
• DSP HLE emulation is the fastest DSP Emulator Engine, however it is somewhat unreliable. DSP LLE recompiler is more accurate and is required by some games.

Other way's

• The x64 versions of Dolphin is up to 3-7% faster then the x86 version, but you must have a x64 OS to use it.
• Try to use earlier version of Dolphin (e.g. 2.0). Sometimes you can get up to +15 fps with it compared to recent revisions (e.g. 3.0).
• Overclocking - use for your own risk.

The Gamespeed is too fast!

Some games like New Super Mario Bros. Wii or Super Smash Bros. Brawl run on modern Systems too fast. There are two ways to slow the Gamespeed down to normal:

• Framelimit Off + Audio Throttle checked
• Framelimit Auto + Audio Throttle unchecked
• Framelimit Off + Audio Throttle unchecked, Enable V-Sync (with a 60htz monitor refresh rate)
• Declocking - use for your own risk. Try to reduce CPU multipler first - 'cause it most safe way.

How can I play in 720p or 1080p?

To play in 720p go to "Graphics -> Direct3D" and change the Window Size to 1280x720. For 1080p simply choose 1920x1080.