Faster retropie

[nastybuttler322]

For those of you that like to tinker and try new ways of using the pi3;

Running retropie from USB 3.0 allows most of my N64 games to play very well. I have no 2.0 sticks to test. I am using sandisk USB 3.0 64GB

Apparently 3.0 speeds do boot faster than 2.0 according to some users testing the boot speeds from USB that commented this article: https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/pi-3-b ... rage-boot/

Whipeout64 would not even start from my microSD card, now it plays fine. Goldeneye is not playable, but can be sped up to a normal speed, which backfires by going way to fast when it needs less processing. That's the only one I had a problem with.

Also, the system heats up more using this method. Other users in the comments report the same without using emulators. It overheats when using shaders. I dropped emulation stations "vram" to 90mb, it didn't happen for me after that, but maybe it would have if I tested it longer. Just a moment ago I put heatsinks directly on the USB input, just in case.

I am currently attempting build a 64 bit Linux Distribution for the pi just to build an emulation front end like retropie for it, I have a feeling that 007 was acting that way because the memory manager for raspbian only deals with up to 32 bit processes. I'll post the IMG file on github if I like it when I'm eventually finished.

[welshy]

nastybuttler322
Just for Info; The USB's on the Pi are USB2, not 3, this could be causing your 'Bottleneck' as the read speed will be restricted from your Memory Device. Your SD Card 'Class', can also make a huge difference in performance dependent on the software being run. For instance Daphne running Dragons Lair is 'Perfect' on my Class 10, but I also, with exactly the same settings ran it on a Class 2 which worked, but was unplayable as the Video kept freezing/jumping (it's 'streaming' the Video from the SD Card). The USB I believe, was a Component/Cost decision made at time of design. But I have noticed some of the latest 'Single Board' Computers are now including USB3 compatibility, so wouldn't be surprised if this was addressed in the RPi's next iteration.
The best way to increase performance is to 'Clock Clock', but that's not 'Officially' available on the RPi3 from the Setting. It can still be done, but that would invalidate your warranty unlike the 'Official' O/C's Settings and would probably require extra Cooling either Passive (a Heat Sink) or Active (Fan).

[bensimmo]

The USB3 open is probably faster than the USB2 pen anyway even at USB2 speed just because they are newer.

It's USB2 since the main chip supports no faster (read the forum if you want to know who more).
You can clock up the SD card to be more suitable to the UHS class cards.

Since you are talking Retropie it's someway down the page after core overclocking and works nicely for.my SD cards.
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Se ... erclocking

[nastybuttler322]

nastybuttler322
Just for Info; The USB's on the Pi are USB2, not 3, this could be causing your 'Bottleneck' as the read speed will be restricted from your Memory Device. Your SD Card 'Class', can also make a huge difference in performance dependent on the software being run. For instance Daphne running Dragons Lair is 'Perfect' on my Class 10, but I also, with exactly the same settings ran it on a Class 2 which worked, but was unplayable as the Video kept freezing/jumping (it's 'streaming' the Video from the SD Card). The USB I believe, was a Component/Cost decision made at time of design. But I have noticed some of the latest 'Single Board' Computers are now including USB3 compatibility, so wouldn't be surprised if this was addressed in the RPi's next iteration.
The best way to increase performance is to 'Clock Clock', but that's not 'Officially' available on the RPi3 from the Setting. It can still be done, but that would invalidate your warranty unlike the 'Official' O/C's Settings and would probably require extra Cooling either Passive (a Heat Sink) or Active (Fan).

I would test the USB 2.0 to see if that is the case, but I really don't want to spend any money on doing a speed test. Its just GoldenEye.

[nastybuttler322]

The USB3 open is probably faster than the USB2 pen anyway even at USB2 speed just because they are newer.

It's USB2 since the main chip supports no faster (read the forum if you want to know who more).
You can clock up the SD card to be more suitable to the UHS class cards.

Since you are talking Retropie it's someway down the page after core overclocking and works nicely for.my SD cards.
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Se ... erclocking

I realized that I said I was making an OS. Sorry, I'm making a linux distribution for the pi. I edited my post to reflect that.

I don't really like microSD after a program did an endless DOWHILE loop that caused me to have to unplug it, and make one of them useless. Another one just corrupted from too many games being loaded to it, I figured it would stop letting me add stuff to it at a certain point, but I didn't really give it much thought.

I have a Samsung Class 10 microSD that has not had a problem, but I would hate to in the future. The USB Read/Write speeds are much master, and I have never had one go bad on me. My 64G Sandisk is about as short as the microSD. But yeah, I just think its cool that the N64 games are playable.

[bensimmo]

Give the speed up a go on the uSD cards (i do it on eco and evo+ cards here, it well within spec of the card).

But as you see the USB are faster, I have the short Sandisc and Samsung but I've not put them as bootable in the Pi yet.

I've not looked at 64bit yet so have no idea there, but have fun doing it and get it up somewhere for others to test if they want