My experience is mostly summed up by Mazura - you keep trying one thing at a time until you see improvements - but I have 2 things to add to that: Increasing performance in an emulator is complete trail and error an experiment that requires an unassailable control group (the one thing rule) and a whole lotta patience. It's the only way to be sure that everything you've done has increased performance rather then being a detriment and that whatever you've changed has actually taken effect. Loading time is the killer, because when I say one at a time, I mean (it!) close PCSX2, re-open it, and change ONE thing and then boot the game again and load a save.
For reference (ignoring my old HDD score of 5.7) my Windows Experience Index average is 6.9 and my processor name doesn't start with an i.
IIRC, it took me 10+ hours to get FFXII running acceptably. While it's unlikely that your GPU is the bottle neck, being that it's an emulator, absolutely everything has to go through the CPU).Ĭontinue repeating both of the above with different plugins until it works well enough that it's playable (unless you've an i7 processor, sometimes playable is as good as it's ever going to get). Repeat this with the video settings (the audio will stutter if the CPU gets bogged down.
Try every audio option ONE AT A TIME and note performance ( do not ignore the 'one at a time' rule).
If you're complaining about only getting 35+ fps. I'd tell you to look here, except that none of those answers go into just how much work it is to get an emulator running smoothly (on less than stellar hardware.