I use a netbook with an Intel Atom as my primary computer and the more demanding emulators chug with the Speedstep technology. Basically what it does is vary the CPU's clock multiplier based on load. Under high load my CPU is 1.6 GHz, under low load it's 800 MHz.
XP with the power management setting "Always On" is supposed to keep the CPU at 1.6 GHz, it doesn't. Emulators which would otherwise run full speed under a 800 MHz CPU such as Nestopia and FCEU are fine, emulators such as Nintendulator which clearly need at least a GHz, aren't fine, but not from lack of processing power. You'd think such programs would throttle CPU usage really high, but in fact Nintendulator just stays around 55% (of 1.6 GHz) sporadically achieving 45-60 fps which is very annoying. I can overclock the CPU to 2 GHz without consequence, but this doesn't help, the CPU usage is approximately the same.
Unfortunately turning off Speedstep in the BIOS keeps the CPU at 800 MHz not 1.6 GHz (yeah, it'd seem they have it backwards...), so that's not the answer.
I believe what's going on is that Speedstep is breaking emulator time keeping, but I have no idea how to fix this (other than hope to find a hack to force the CPU to 1.6 GHz or use emulators which run under a constant 800 MHz.)
I wondered if anyone has any insight on the problem because this technology is probably here to stay and will affect more and more people as we switch to "green" systems.
XP with the power management setting "Always On" is supposed to keep the CPU at 1.6 GHz, it doesn't. Emulators which would otherwise run full speed under a 800 MHz CPU such as Nestopia and FCEU are fine, emulators such as Nintendulator which clearly need at least a GHz, aren't fine, but not from lack of processing power. You'd think such programs would throttle CPU usage really high, but in fact Nintendulator just stays around 55% (of 1.6 GHz) sporadically achieving 45-60 fps which is very annoying. I can overclock the CPU to 2 GHz without consequence, but this doesn't help, the CPU usage is approximately the same.
Unfortunately turning off Speedstep in the BIOS keeps the CPU at 800 MHz not 1.6 GHz (yeah, it'd seem they have it backwards...), so that's not the answer.
I believe what's going on is that Speedstep is breaking emulator time keeping, but I have no idea how to fix this (other than hope to find a hack to force the CPU to 1.6 GHz or use emulators which run under a constant 800 MHz.)
I wondered if anyone has any insight on the problem because this technology is probably here to stay and will affect more and more people as we switch to "green" systems.