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I have a fairly decent computer, and I have been messing around with DS Emulation recently. I have found that if a game is running on the emulator, and if I have anything else running, the performance of the emulation drops like a rock (And the sound gets all crackly, too). I used to think this shouldn't have happened because my computer is WAY more powerful than a DS. But recently, I did a little research and I found out the DS is based around an ARM CPU? Could the fact that I'm emulating ARM on a x64 machine be the cause of why it is so slow when I have anything else running?

StocksAndStonks
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    A little light reading while you wait for the answers to pour in: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/08/accuracy-takes-power-one-mans-3ghz-quest-to-build-a-perfect-snes-emulator/ – snips-n-snails Jul 29 '20 at 16:29
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    Beside the fact,that any reasonable actual x86 is more than capable to emulate a 66 MHz ARM9, this question seams to ask about issues of modern software (the emulation) on modern hardware, not anything related to the original device or its software. Doesn't it? – Raffzahn Jul 29 '20 at 16:34
  • @snips-n-snails great link BTW. Worth a reading not just for SNES. – Raffzahn Jul 29 '20 at 16:37
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    Most interpreting based emulators require a CPU that's around 100 times faster for decent quality emulation without frame skipping. You can potentially do much better with JIT recompilation, but that's much harder to implement and in practice you still need a lot of CPU power to emulate the non-CPU parts of the device. It also makes accurate emulation harder, so most emulators for less demanding systems like the Nintendo DS don't use it. –  Jul 29 '20 at 17:41
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    Which emulator? – Bruce Abbott Jul 29 '20 at 23:36
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    You may want to provide actual numbers. "Drops like a rock" is not very precise. – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen Jul 30 '20 at 07:28
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    Every DS emulator or just one? Or is there only one? Every game running on it? Just one game? Even with no game?? – hippietrail Jul 30 '20 at 07:48
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    Looks like Nintendo only stopped selling these in 2014. Too recent to be retro. Question is too vague anyway. Emulating all of the hardware features of a platform in sync is often much more demanding than just emulating the system's CPU. I've voted to close as off-topic but it's not the only applicable close reason. – hippietrail Jul 30 '20 at 08:48
  • see https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/a/8302/6868 btw what OS is your emulator running on (and what for it was designed for example you know running older apps on Win10 is not a good for performance as win10 sucks )? what api it uses? For example on Windows developers tends to use DirectX but its useless for emulators because they cause nasty problems especially DSound not to mention non functional callbacks and HUUUGE latency ... there are much better and simpler options like WAVEOUT ... – Spektre Mar 27 '22 at 08:40
  • problem is not the CPU but the 3D custom chips that are probably emulated by full software not benefitting from modern GPU acceleration – Jean-François Fabre Mar 27 '22 at 09:15
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    @Jean-FrançoisFabre 3D chips aren't the real problem: even if not properly accurate, it can be done with HLE, or with wrappers. Emulating DSP and specialized circuits is a way bigger problem, and if you face encryption circuitry, then you'll face a real nightmare. It seems that you're mixing up raw power and specialized circuits... Having a 500 HP engine isn't the same when talking about supercars and talking about caterpillars. Even if both have the same "raw power". In fact, the dual CPU and GBA compatibility set a huge mess in this console. – Wisblade Mar 27 '22 at 21:08

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