PlayStation 2 Emulation

[hansolo77]

Hey all, me again!

I'm just curious what the current state of PlayStation 2 emulation is. Just for fun I pulled out my old phat PS2 to play some Baldur's Gate on it. To my dismay, it looks like the old boy bit the dust in the fire we had. So I've got a fair amount of PS2 games (about 20) that I can't play anymore without buying another console. Granted, you can probably find them pretty cheap USED online. But I'd like to know how well the emulation is going right now for this system. I fear it's probably not up to par just yet, but I was hoping.

Just let me know if it's worth trying to install a new emulator on my system. I really wanna play Baldur's Gate. Hehe.

[nullPointer]

You may be pleasantly surprised at just how far PCSX2 has progressed in terms of PS2 emulation. I find their compatibility list to be fairly reliable (and even slightly behind sometimes). The only issue is that it requires a thoroughly modern, somewhat beefy system in order to run well (heavily dependent upon processor speed). It's definitely worth checking it out if it's been a while since you've looked (and your system is up to the task).

[hansolo77]

Well I'm afraid about that. I have 2 systems, but my primary one isn't as new. It's only an Intel Core2Duo E6600 running at 2.40GHz. I have 6gb RAM. I run Windows 7 x64. Video Card is an EVGA GTS 250 with 1gb ram. The new one is a laptop that's Intel I7 but I can't install stuff like emulators on it because it's not really mine.

It runs some things fine, but others not so well. For instance, it looks like PSX (PlayStation 1) is running fine with no issues. However, N64 is still a bit hiccupy. But that might be limitations in the N64 emulator. I can run some GameCube games ok, but others not so well. Again, might be a limitation of the emulator. But it looks like games not heavy in 3D are much better; Smash Bros and Mario Kart are fine, but Star Wars Bounty Hunters, Jedi Knight 2, and Metroid are really slow. I haven't tried running WII. Actually I recently discovered I can run Atomiswave and NAOMI games. While the emulation seems off, the speed is actually fine. I lowered the resolution on MODEL 3 games and can now play Star Wars Trilogy with no speed issues. The only problem is where emulation isn't correct.

I know the PS2 is a bit more hefty. When the PS1 was out, the N64 was too, but N64 emulation isn't good yet. So I'm just curious about the PS2 since it's newer than the N64.

[hansolo77]

I installed PCSX2. It looks promising. I've got a bit of a headache tonight though so I think I'm gonna go to bed early. I don't have to be at work tomorrow until 4:00 pm so I'll have all day to play around with the settings and stuff. According to the website, all the games I have are playable, so that's promising. The videos they have also show high quality playability so I'm eager to see if It all works.

Thanks for telling me about this. I'm so upset my PS2 didn't survive the fire, even though my PSX and Xbox 360 did. Oh well. It was a piece of crap anyway. It was a 1st generation that suffered terrible reading issues. It hated reading CD based games but loved DVD's. And for some reason my memory card got corrupted and I couldn't save games anymore. Hehe, maybe it's for the best that there's a good "alternative."

[hansolo77]

I couldn't wait. I took some aspirin for my headache and tried to load up Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance. The screen "cracked" right down the middle and only rendered the left half. It was soooo slow and everybody was talking like they were some kinda ENT (Lord of the Rings). I then tried Devil May Cry. Although the opening videos were ok, the actual gameplay was really slow. Oh well. Guess I just don't have the system resources to run PS2. One possibility though might be because my Media Center had just kicked on to record something, so maybe it'll run better tomorrow during the day when it's not recording.

[ClassicGMR]

I had to check this out. You got me curious as well and since I did a helluva upgrade recently I think I can run PCSX2 extremely well. I'll be setting this up in the morning and see how it runs. I'm VERY excited about this emulator. I may have to retry N64 emulation also...

Yeah I know I'm showing off(SORRY!) but I scored this machine from eBay on a cheap Buy It Now because the guy said it needed a new HDD. That's cake for a computer tech so I snag stuff like this all the time. This time instead of flipping it I kept it... and of course I absolutely had to go SSD! Keep in mind I upgraded from a Pentium4 3.06GHz system with XP and 1GB RAM.

[DazzleHP]

You may need to tweak the graphics plugin per game Han as with PS2 emulation there definitely isn't a "sweet spot" setting that works for all games. What works for one will break another. As for DMC i find that playing in anything other native resolution causes horrible graphical glitches - it looks a bit ugly at native res but runs at 60fps on my system. As i said though tweaking is key if you want to get a lot of games working.

Here is probably one of the most thorough guides around for using PCSX2. I know there is a lot to it but once you tame this beast you'll learn to love it - unconditionally

And seeing as we're showing off - here is FFX (@1080x1080) running on my:

i3 (2nd gen)

4GB DDR3

1GB HD5750

[hansolo77]

Yeah videos like that made me excited to try it out. But I guess my system just isn't up to the task. It does look like your audio might be delayed though. I wish I didn't loan my copy of FFX to my brother.. He moved down to South Carolina and then lost it.

With Devil May Cry, I WAS in Native. That's why I don't think it'll ever work for me. If I can't get playability out of Native, it's probably not worth trying.

I wonder if I might get better performance if I make an ISO out of the disk rather than try to read it directly through the DVD drive.

[nullPointer]

So here are the recommended system specs for PCSX2 taken from their Getting Started guide. I would even go so far as to say that their recommended specs are actually much closer to being the minimum specs, but as with everything in emulation YMMV. PCSX2 is definitely a power hungry beast, but also a total blast once running and configured properly.

It is highly recommended you read the first post of this thread: Will PCSX2 run fast on my computer? and if you still have questions reply to the thread, there are many helpful members who will answer.

System Requirements

Minimum (most games will be unplayable slow)

• Windows/Linux OS
• CPU: Any that supports SSE2 (Pentium 4 and up, Athlon64 and up)
• GPU: Any that supports Pixel Shader model 2.0, except Nvidia FX series (broken SM2.0, too slow anyway)
• 512MB RAM (note Vista needs at least 2GB to run reliably)

Recommended

• Windows Vista / Windows 7 (32bit or 64bit) with the latest DirectX
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 3.2 GHz or better OR i3/i5/i7 @ 2,8 GHz or better OR AMD Phenom II @ 3,2 GHz or better
• GPU: 8800gt or better (for Direct3D10 support)
• RAM: 1GB on Linux/Windows XP, 2GB or more on Vista / Windows 7

Warning: Because of the nature of emulation, even if you meet the recommended requirements there will be games that will NOT run at full speed, due to emulation bugs or other limitations.

[hansolo77]

Heh according to the "Will it work" thread, I should be fine. But not. My CPU supports SSE3 (minimum is SSE2). I have 6gb RAM (minimum is 512mb or 2gb in Vista). As for recommended however, I do have the Intel Core2Duo but it runs at 2.4GHz, not 3.2GHz. I don't want to overclock because I don't know how and I know it's not safe. I can't afford to break my computer and get a new one right now. What's interesting is they say you can have the i3/i5/i7 at a lower speed. So aside from that, I should be good.

[hansolo77]

I dunno, I think I'm bust on this. I have all the speed hacks I can find. I'm using the latest SVN and versions of the drivers. I've tried all different driver configs, changing between hardware/software, enabling/disabling different things. Everything in Native and 4x3 mode (thinking 16x9 might be making it work even harder). Nothing seems to work. I even use framskipping and turbo at 300%. Nothing seems to help. Baldur's Gate is a complete loss. I can't play it when half the screen in garbled, and it runs at like 12 fps. Devil May Cry runs at a choppy 40 fps. Too slow to have any real ability to play. I'm going to try a couple more things, but I think I'm just gonna have to live without being able to play my PS2 games. Such a shame.

I'm ripping my copy of Devil May Cry to see if I can get any kind of speed boost playing directly off the hard drive. If not I'm going to call this project over. It might work great for some but my system specs are apparently not good enough.

[hansolo77]

Now this is interesting:

Would this indicate that I'm not running at the 2.4 GHz range but rather 1.6 GHz? If so, I'm apparently UNDERCLOCKING my processor. When I look at the "My Computer -> Properties" screen it shows 2.4. I wonder if that's just cause the operating system knows that process runs at that speed. But CPU-Z shows it's not running that speed. Anybody know anything about overclocking? If I truly am underclocking, I'd like to get my speed up to at least where it's supposed to be heh.

[nullPointer]

Hmm ... Does that speed remain consistent? If it doesn't it may be that there are power saving features enabled for your processor that are ramping up or easing off the juice depending on what's going on with your system at any given time. OTOH I only began experimenting with overclocking endeavors starting with the Wolfdale and Clarkdale lines, so I'm not as familiar with the features available in the Conroe family. They certainly have the reputation of being very overclockable though.

[nullPointer]

Sorry for bumping. As I look at it, this actually seems right, but it's your multiplier that's being listed as variable (6-9). Your clock speed is determined by multiplying your Bus Speed * your Mutliplier.

So while

266.67 * 6 = 1600.02

Once you bump up the multiplier to the max listed rating

266.67 * 9 = 2400.03

which would coincide with your expected speed I believe. On Clarkdale the variable multiplier is related to enabling turbo boost. Depending on your BIOS you can probably lock the multiplier in to a certain value (I suppose that would be 9 if your shooting for the 2.4GHz range), and rest peacefully in the assurance that your CPU will always be running at your expected speed (but with the caveat that you won't be saving power while in idle modes).

Edit:

OTOH, I'd be willing to bet that your multiplier actually does ramp up when your CPU is under load. Ultimately it's your call as to whether you'd like to lock it in to a certain speed or not.

[ClassicGMR]

Well I got everything up and running and loaded up Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec. Through all the menus it runs at 60 FPS. In game I was getting 33 FPS.

Need to try more games.

[ClassicGMR]

Just an update - Tekken 4 is running full speed all the way through but I can't get the controller to function right. I have a SmartJoy Playstation adapter hooked up to a PSOne(Analog) controller. I've configured it but the controller is only like 1/2 functional though Windows sees everything working.

Time to jump forums and see who's had luck with this.

[hansolo77]

I've never tweaked any of my clock speeds. But I do recall my BIOS has some built in automatic mods of overclocking, and "Turbo Boost" sounds familiar. As for the cpu speed ramping, it might be doing that. If I sit and watch the cpu-z screen, it will go up and down, but I've not seen it go above that 1600. Actually, I just loaded up Crazy Taxi (NAOMI) and played it while watching CPU-X and it did ramp up to the full 2400. So I'll have a look in my BIOS and see if I can manage to adjust the multiplier to stay at 9 or whatever. I never even noticed really that it was doing that. The only thing I've noticed was that if my computer is under a heavy load the fan would get louder.

[ClassicGMR]

I've never tweaked any of my clock speeds. But I do recall my BIOS has some built in automatic mods of overclocking, and "Turbo Boost" sounds familiar. As for the cpu speed ramping, it might be doing that. If I sit and watch the cpu-z screen, it will go up and down, but I've not seen it go above that 1600. Actually, I just loaded up Crazy Taxi (NAOMI) and played it while watching CPU-X and it did ramp up to the full 2400. So I'll have a look in my BIOS and see if I can manage to adjust the multiplier to stay at 9 or whatever. I never even noticed really that it was doing that. The only thing I've noticed was that if my computer is under a heavy load the fan would get louder.

I think I asked that same thing either here or on Atari Age but the thing to look for in the BIOS is a TURBO setting - mine says Intel Turbo Boost Technology. My BIOS doesn't allow for any other settings except ENABLED or DISABLED.

On my end I have everything working for PS2 emulation. Thanks for putting this on my mind again.

Good luck.

[hansolo77]

I have a screen in my BIOS called MB Intelligent Tweaker (M.I.T.) that has all the tools for overclocking. Not really knowing what I'm doing, I'm going to research a bit and see what I can find. I don't want to harm my system by OVER clocking per say. If I can just get to a point where the system is running at advertised speeds i'd be happy. Well, I shouldn't say I'd be happy because even at 2400 it's probably still not going to be fast enough for PS2 emulation.

Anybody got any old Socket 775 processor's laying around? I'd be interested in hearing what you're willing to lose them for. Here's a list of compatible processors with my motherboard:

http://www.gigabyte.us/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=2847

Unfortunately, I did a look on those quad cores via ebay and amazon. A USED processor with no heatsink/fan is going to run me a ridiculous amount (in the $350-$400 range). It's going to have to be a processor from that list too because I can't afford to shop around for a brand new mobo/cpu/ram set. And even if I could, I have a specific requirement for my media center pc to have 3 pci slots for tuners, 2 pci-e slots for digital tuners, the pci-e slot for the video card, and at least 6 sata connectors (1 os drive, 1 media drive, 1 game drive, 1 hot swap drive, 2 dvd/bluray drives (one is for xbox stuff)). So my requirements really limit my selection.

[nullPointer]

You'll definitely want to do your research (especially where motherboard manufacturers use various terminology for the same things), but I'm guessing it should be as easy as turning off turbo boost, and setting your multiplier to 9 in accordance with the calculation above (if it doesn't just default to that already). That should net you 2400Mhz full time clock speed.

[hansolo77]

Yeah I did just that. I read about 3 different tutorials and what not on my specific processor and another 2 on my specific mobo. I'm still using the stock cooler and I think that's going to limit me big time. Everybody said to use ORTHOS for load testing and a utility called Core Temp to monitor the temperature of the CPU cores during testing. Well, I loaded up my BIOS and discovered it was RAM that had a turbo setting. But I did find where it was set to use a x8 multiplier. I changed it to x9 and rebooted. Now the CPU is constantly running at 2400 (yay!). Unfortunately because of the new loads my fan is working overtime. When I run ORTHOS, it runs for about 1 minute then the internal speaker starts going off saying the CPU is overheating (it runs around 56c normally, and was peaking at 68c in a minute of load testing). So I think I'm not going to be able to overclock. In fact I'm going to take it back down to x8 to protect it from overheating.

Oh well, no biggie. At least I know what to keep my eyes out for as far as upgrades are concerned. And I even learned a bit about overclocking too.

[DazzleHP]

Yeah I did just that. I read about 3 different tutorials and what not on my specific processor and another 2 on my specific mobo. I'm still using the stock cooler and I think that's going to limit me big time. Everybody said to use ORTHOS for load testing and a utility called Core Temp to monitor the temperature of the CPU cores during testing. Well, I loaded up my BIOS and discovered it was RAM that had a turbo setting. But I did find where it was set to use a x8 multiplier. I changed it to x9 and rebooted. Now the CPU is constantly running at 2400 (yay!). Unfortunately because of the new loads my fan is working overtime. When I run ORTHOS, it runs for about 1 minute then the internal speaker starts going off saying the CPU is overheating (it runs around 56c normally, and was peaking at 68c in a minute of load testing). So I think I'm not going to be able to overclock. In fact I'm going to take it back down to x8 to protect it from overheating.

Oh well, no biggie. At least I know what to keep my eyes out for as far as upgrades are concerned. And I even learned a bit about overclocking too.

You hit the nail on the head there - i was a bit dubious to chime in, as my OC methods have been a bit trial and error, (i don't have many instances to try these things!) but the times i have had an opportunity it's always the heat that causes the problems, so i was going to say:- If you really want to push your CPU then investing in a couple of cheap 12cm fans will go a long way, especially paying attention to intake/outtake. Getting a good "flow". You need to keep the temp down and just a lil increase in CPU power can skyrockect the temp. In my experience anyway. I urge you to be brave though, and i look forward to your findings =)

[Tempest]

For used cheap (refurbished) parts, try Compuvest I have had good luck with them and they are reasonably price. Once you find something you like, search for the item on Amazon, and you may be able to but it from Compuvest with free shipping.

[RIP-Felix]

I'm using an AMD A10-5800K APU (3.8Ghz, 4.2Ghz turbo quad core w/Radeon HD 7660D) in a mini ITX case. I was playing kingdom hearts today on 1920 x 1080 resolution with all the settings looking like a PS3 HD upscale and it was running smoothly. This is the only game I've tested though, maybe it just runs better than others. Temps were getting up to 45-50C. This APU is reasonably priced at $129 and FM2 motherboards are not bad at all. I was able to put this machine together for less than $300 after repurposing other computer hardware.

The newer generations of processors have energy saving features that "throttle" or lower the multiplier automatically based on performance demands. That is what was happening before. To determine if your cpu would hit the 2.4Ghz under high load try Prime 95, it will torture test your cpu and make it hit as high as it will go for as long as you want it to. You will know right quick if you were underclocking.

I've done a fair amount of overclocking. I would not worry about damaging the E6600 (it's a beast, at least it was), it should be able to hit 3.7 fairly easily based on what I've read. You will likely be limited by temperature before you get close to that unless you have a very capable heatsink. I highly recommend getting a nice $30-$60 universal heatsink. It will serve you well in future overclocking adventures my friend! I saw you hit 68C on your last overclock, that's too high for that CPU (see below). I would look for a setting in bios to set the cpu back to "automatic". That should restore defaults.

THINGS TO KNOW:http://ark.intel.com/products/27250

CPU Voltage range: 0.8500V-1.5V (Don't exceed 1.5V, or you risk damaging CPU)

Max CPU Temp: 60.1 degrees Celcius (Don't let the CPU temperature exceed this). This is a manufacturer recommendation, it will be fine to exceed this for short periods of time, just stop the test if it does (you have hit your thermal limit).

OVERCLOCKING:

First thing before overclocking is to do a baseline torture test to see what your idle and load temps are! Write everything in an overclocking log book so you can track your progress and go back to your last stable overclock later.

1. Start with the multiplier. Increase one increment at a time, reboot and torture test, then increase the multiplier again...and so on.Do this until you reach a wall (instability like cores shutting down, BSOD, graphical artifacts, strange behavior, or a thermal limit).
2. Increase the cpu voltage to make it stable and continue increasing the multiplier again. Once you hit a wall again increase voltage, then the multiplier again. This continues until the temperature climbs to the cpu's limits, voltage climbs to the cpu's limits, or you can't resolve stability problems with voltage increases anymore.
3. You then back off to your highest stable overclock and test for a longer period of time and with a variety of benchmarking software.

This is the basic way to over clock and I would not recommend messing with any other fields than the multiplyer and cpu voltage until you are comfortable with the above and know what they do. Lastly read up on other tricks to tease out more from your cpu.

SOFTWARE

Prime 95 is great for torture testing. It will max out your cpu and be memory intensive. HW monitor is a simple way to monitor temps (core temp is good too). You should have the windows task manager open to the performance tab so you can see if any of your cores shut down during the test or you might check out All CPU monitor, a windows gadget, for this. It has core temp support and will display your core usage/temps next to each core, and you can set an alarm if it exceeds your set (60.1C in your situation). If anything makes you uncomfortable you can always stop the test immediately. Other benchmarking software like uniengine, cinebench, or 3Dmark vantage will help make sure your overclock is stable under diverse loads.

***EDIT***

I went back and tried a disc (Gran Turismo 3) and it was very choppy, slow and audio was bad. I messed around with the settings and it got better but not really playable. I would recommend that you rip the image and try playing the ISO, bin, img, and etc. It may just be that simple. I'm ripping my copy now and I'll edit back if it helped...Yes, it did help greatly. I still had to reduce some settings, like resolution to native PS2, but it work much better = Playable. Good luck Han, and may the games be with you!

[hansolo77]

Yeah what I discovered was that the original settings on the mobo had been tweaked before I got it. I originally had a mobo I bought at the store brand new, but after 3 years and a fire it suddenly stopped booting up. I posted about it in the social forum. I had specific limitations to the type of mobo I could replace it with, since I have an HTPC with tuner cards, and the already existing ram and cpu. So I couldn't find a new exact copy of my original and ended up buying a different brand, used, from eBay. It works great. It's just the guy who had it before must have had a slower cpu since all the settings in the BIOS were configured for that. I didn't even think of that when I hooked my stuff into it. I just installed everything and booted and it worked, so I just never bothered to mess with it again. After now realizing this during my attempt at overclocking, I decided to just set everything to their default "fail-safe" settings and then continued through to customize it. The BIOS is throttling the CPU to keep the speed down when not needed. I'm ok with that. When I did the burn in test, with Orthos, I suddenly realized how hot my CPU temp really was. That was another thing that I had to get used.. When I tried to install my old cpu into the new/used mobo, I broke one of the screws and actually damaged the mount on the heatsink, so I had to buy a new one. Again; I bought a used heatsink/fan but it was the OEM kind that comes with the CPU as if bought brand new. So it's definitely not designed for overclocking. In the future, if money starts flowing better, I'll probably check out getting a new heatsink first and then try the overclocking again. Perhaps by that time prices would have come down on the better/faster chips anyway and I may just go all out and upgrade to all new equipment. I remember years ago when I needed to upgrade it was no big deal; I'd just go out and buy it. Now I'm going week by week struggling just to pay my dad $60/week for rent.