Emulator

I wasn't sure whether to make a new issue or not, as this issue seems very similar to the Quantum of Solace pre-main menu issue, but since that hasn't been resolved, I've decided to make a new issue to let people know that this game also has this problem. It's annoying as I enjoyed this game a lot on my Wii before, and the Wii version seems to run without graphical bugs unlike PCSX2 or regular PC.

Game Name?

Scarface: The World is Yours

Game ID? (right click the game in the game list, properties, info tab)

RSCE7D

MD5 Hash? (right click the game in the game list, properties, info tab, MD5 Hash: Compute)

5ac5ccec9a9aadcadbb97b568396ccd0

What's the problem? Describe what went wrong.

Pre-main menu intros run incredibly slow, at least the "Licensed by Nintendo" and Wiimote screens do. The trailer and company logos seem to run fine. The issue also, more annoyingly, seems to be present for transitions between gameplay to cutscenes and vise versa. The game and cutscenes themselves run fine, but as soon as it fades to black in-between, the VPS slows down dramatically, the sound crackles, and it takes multiple seconds just to get back into gameplay, making it highly annoying to play for me. The FPS still claims it's at 30 or even 75FPS (my refresh rate), but the VPS will often drop to below 10%. Overriding emulated CPU clock and reducing it to the lowest possible setting (6%) bumps up the VPS dramatically, a similar workaround I read for Quantum of Solace, hence why I figured it was very similar. In that issue, apparently it's due to the intro running at an uncapped framerate, causing slowdowns. I have VSync enabled globally through NVidia Control Panel, so the framerate never goes above 75FPS, but it's still extremely slow unless I override emulated CPU clock speed, though that significantly slows down the gameplay.

What steps will reproduce the problem?

Boot up the game and the problem will be immediately noticeable. Also, play the opening assault on Tony's mansion and anytime a cutscene transition appears, the lower VPS, sound crackling and relatively long wait time is also noticeable. Same with the tutorial, probably, though I usually skipped it.

Is the issue present in the latest development version? For future reference, please also write down the version number of the latest development version.

5.0-8516.

Is the issue present in the latest stable version?

Yes, it is present in every version that I've personally tested, though I obviously haven't tested all of them. For this reason, I haven't provided a bisect as the issue seems present for everything as far as I can tell.

If the issue isn't present in the latest stable version, which is the first broken version?

Present in latest stable version as well as the newest development build I'm using.

If your issue is a graphical issue, please attach screenshots and record a three frame fifolog of the issue if possible. Screenshots showing what it is supposed to look like from either console or older builds of Dolphin will help too. For more information on how to use the fifoplayer, please check here: https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=FifoPlayer

The problem isn't graphical in nature, but rather performance. I will provide a fifolog if needed either way. I'm 99% sure I know the source of the problem, but I don't know any way around it as the CPU clock override doesn't have a good balance between performance and mitigating this issue. It's either the performance reaches the teens or even single digit framerate, or the VPS goes below 10%.

What are your PC specifications? (CPU, GPU, Operating System, more)

I use an ASUS G752JY laptop, with an Intel Core i7-4720HQ 2.6GHz, Nvidia GTX 980M, with the latest update of Windows 10. I wonder if this issue has anything to do with me using a laptop.

Is there anything else that can help developers narrow down the issue? (e.g. logs, screenshots,
configuration files, savefiles, savestates)

[Anything else here]