Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum

Software Support => GroovyMAME => Topic started by: Joys2 on November 16, 2023, 06:18:52 pm

Title: Sound stuttering on games like Killer Instinct 1 & 2
Post by: Joys2 on November 16, 2023, 06:18:52 pm
Hi, I use a PC with Mame in my Candy which I have connected to my Candy with 15khz monitor via Ultimarc J-Pac.

PC: Xeon 3,7 GHz @ 4 GHz, 16 GB Ram, Samsung EVO SSD and an ATI 5450.

I use the current Attract Mode and GroovyMAME 0.260


So far so good, now for my problem.


All games for which I need a CHD (hard disk image) stutter for 1-2 seconds when the CHD is accessed.


I notice this, for example, with Killer Instinct 1 and 2 when the level starts or when doing cutscenes and it manifests itself in such a way that the sound stutters for 1-2 seconds at the beginning.


I've tried everything now, Vsync off, Bilenar Filter off etc. Nothing to do. I have set Mame as high process but that doesn't help either.

Are 4 GHZ to slow ?!


It feels like loading the required information causes the performance to stutter for those few seconds.

All games that don't need to access a CHD run smoother than smooth!!!

Anyone have any idea how I can get rid of this?
Title: Re: Sound stuttering on games like Killer Instinct 1 & 2
Post by: Zebidee on November 17, 2023, 12:34:22 am
Guess your machine is taking a moment to access the SSD for the CHD. In which case your mame.ini won't make much difference.

Have a look in your BIOS to see if there is anything you can optimise for SSD. You could also clone your SSD with SSD optimisation enabled, the data will be the same but better organised, might be slightly faster

It might help to have your CHDs on a separate drive. I keep my OS on a small 120GB SSD and gamesmedia/music/roms/CHDs on a separate larger 512GB or 1TB SSD. The second SSD doesn't have to be a Samsung EVO, you could go cheaper, because you'll only be reading data from it most of the time, so performance/reliability less important.

You could go for a NVMe instead of SATA for your SSD drive, if your mainboard supports it - NVMe is over 3 times faster than SATA III.

Title: Re: Sound stuttering on games like Killer Instinct 1 & 2
Post by: Joys2 on November 17, 2023, 06:38:48 am
Hi and thanks for your reply, I thought I could fix this in the settings.

I don't want to spend money on a new NVMe again so I guess I'll just have to live with it
Title: Re: Sound stuttering on games like Killer Instinct 1 & 2
Post by: bunchofscum on December 18, 2023, 03:34:07 pm
Hi and thanks for your reply, I thought I could fix this in the settings.

I don't want to spend money on a new NVMe again so I guess I'll just have to live with it

It has nothing to do with whether you have an SSD/platter drive/nvme. It's that during those intro cutscenes the driver currently hammers the CPU. It's a known issue. You could buy the fastest NVME drive in the world and it'll still do it.