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ProDigit · 03-28-2022, 12:54 AM

It's 2022, and I'm running a 3 year old chipset, the Snapdragon 720G.
Do note, that the G, is similar in performance to the SD736 and SD820 in gaming performance.
So if your phone has that processing power, please do follow the BOLD REDlettering.
Most of the info below is outdated, and irrelevant/not noticeable to performance.
You may for instance disable an important image quality feature, that will affect your visual graphics on a modern phone, when you could very easily just set a different parameter that won't affect how your game looks on the screen, yet increases fps multifold. (like adjust rendering resolution only for higher fps).

(08-01-2013 09:31 PM)solarmystic Wrote: ...
1. Turn ON Frameskipping and set it to Auto, 1, 2 or 3 (Odd numbers (1,3,5) work best, Even numbers (2,4,6) may cause flickering in games. YMMV, major performance boost on mobile devices, depends on the game's internal framerate, 60 FPS games work best with odd numbers, 30 FPS games work best with even numbers, but the opposite holds true if using Non Buffered Rendering mode.)

Set frameskip to off
Modern phones can easily run PSP games, even at higher qualities.

2. Set Rendering Mode to Non Buffered Rendering (May break games that need Buffered Rendering. A lot of games don't require it to work. Minor speed boost), OR alternatively,

Buffering made a minor difference. Setting it to no buffering gave the same results as setting it to Upto 1. Setting it to 2, decreased the performance by a few frames at 60fps. Best is to set it to no buffering, or buffering upto 1

3. Ensure that Rendering Mode is set to just Buffered Rendering and NOT Read Framebuffers to Memory (CPU) OR Read Framebufers to Memory (GPU) (the latter two are speed killing options that should only be used with games that need them to work properly, e.g. Danganronpa)

Use buffered rendering, and set to OPenGL On my Samsung Galaxy A72, and some other Android devices, OpenGL has roughly a 10% better performance than Vulcan in the games I tested. Disabling this will remove effects like reflective cars, and sunrays on the road

4. Make sure any form of Texture Scaling (speed killer and causes hitches on lower end machines when on) is OFF. Anisotropic Texture filtering, however, is fine and nearly free on any modern PC.

Texture scaling only makes sense at Rendering resolution 1xPSP to 2x PSP. Still, keep texture scaling disabled, and instead enable Performance Rendering resolution to 4xPSP for most 1080p screens, and 5xPSP for 1440p screens. I think this is more like a hardware rendering and texture scaling is software rendering.

5. Ensure that Hardware Transform (massive speed boost) and Vertex Cache are ON. (They should be on by default, there are exceptions to this tip, some games work better with it off, your mileage may vary.)
Vertex Cache didn't do anything in terms of performance to me, and I leave it disabled. It also doesn't improve the image at all.
Hardware transform didn't do anything in terms of performance, but still it's better to leave it on.
Unless your CPU has a relatively slow GPU, and a multi (more than quad) core CPU.

6. *NEW* Enable Low quality spline/bezier curves. This option will significantly reduce the quality of rendered splines and bezier curves, and the subsequent performance gains will only be noticeable in games that use them. Examples include LocoRoco, Gods Eater Burst (the skyline) and Final Fantasy IV (spell effects).

Set to high Modern Android phones (with 6 or more CPU cores) have sufficient processing power to keep it enabled. Especially modern Snapdragon CPUs are doing a very good job at it.

7. Play at only 1x or 2x rendering resolution.

On a modern android phone with 4 cores and 4GB of RAM set to 3x or 4x rendering.
On a modern android phone with 6+ CPU cores, and 6GB of RAM or more, set to 4x rendering on a 1080p screen, and 5x rendering on a 1440p screen.
Set to 8x on a 4k screen. Most mid range phones ~2022 will only do between 5x and 6x rendering on OpenGL.

8. Use the "Change CPU Clock" option in the System Settings menu, and set it to something lower (default:-222MHz), like 111MHz or even 60-80 MHz. People with lower end Android devices have reported some success in gaining more speed with that function. Warning: Lowering the CPU Clock too much will cause unpredictable behaviour within games like SPS (Spiky Polygon Syndrome), jerkiness and flickering. Experiment at your own risk. Also, there is a trade off between increased Speed, as you reduce the frequency, but lower internal FPS. Find a balance you can be comfortable with.
Leave to default (0)

9. Turn OFF all other background applications while playing games on PPSSPP. (Add exceptions to your virus/malware scanners for this program if you have to)

Close any apps in alt-tab (on android the 3 bars, and swipe away all apps).
Most background apps don't interfere with gaming or do less than 1fps on 60fps.

10. Update your drivers. (this may not always be a good idea since newer AMD drivers have conflicts with the program as reported in the forum)

The best solution is to download the newest version of PPSSPP, since most people have no access to Android driver updates. You can however, update any security update and software updates on your phone in 'settings'>>'software update', or 'settings'>>'about phone'>>'security updates' or other.

11. Also ensure that the emulator is running in JIT (Dynarec) mode, which has been moved to Developer Tools in 0.9.5. (major, major performance boost, should be ON by default)

12. Turn ON Fast Memory. (minor performance boost on x86, major performance boost on Android, not always recommended since it is quite unstable and can cause crashes. If your games start crashing, turn FastMem OFF.)

Leave OFF. Mid-range phones are fast enough to leave this off.
However, turning this on, boosts fps by 0.5fps at 60fps (at 7xpsp rendering resolution).
You can much easier lower the rendering resolution to 6x, 5x or 4x if you must, and leave fast memory off.

13. You cannot disable Atrac3+ Audio anymore since 0.9.5, but you can still disable Audio completely for a minor performance boost.

Not really necessary for modern phones.
There are other things you can tweak. Any phone with more than 4CPU cores, will most likely not be affected by disabling this feat.

14. Turn OFF Vsync. (Will cause tearing in the image, but gives a performance boost) -Windows only, since Android devices have Vsync always on-

There is a setting that 'renders duplicate frames to 60Hz', which you can enable. This setting only makes sense if you're running render resolution to high settings (like 7xPSP), and the system averages out at 57 to 60fps. Lower the render resolution by 1x (to 6xPSP, or 5xPSP), and this feature will be unused, and might as well be disabled.

15. *NEW* Turn OFF Enable Debug Logging. (this option is located under Developer Tools in the System Menu, very minor to major performance boost in games that have excessive error log spam. e.g. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD (+35%) and the rest of the Monster Hunter Series (+10%). Developer support is not guaranteed with this option off however, since logfiles cannot be produced unless logging is enabled.)

Not sure if the android version has this option.

16. Turn ON the Force 60 FPS or less option. (option is located in page 3 of Graphics Settings. This really gives a major performance boost to certain games with GE Timing issues. Examples include the God of War games which perform horribly with this option turned off. Some games hate this option however, so turn it back off when you're done with the God of War games.)

See above, only enable on games that don't hit the 60FPS. If God of war hits 60FPS on a modern, high end phone, there's no need to enable this, as this is a form of 'frameskipping'.
If you have a 1080p screen and have rendering resolution set to higher than 4xPSP, reduce it to 4xPSP.
There will be no visual penalty, and decreases unnecessary rendering (at resolutions the screen can't display anyway).

17. Turn ON Multithreaded(MT). That's right folks, with this highly experimental function enabled, PPSSPP will finally use more than one core of your CPU. Performance gains will vary from game to game (minor to greatly increased Speed), and since this is still being tested, not every game will be happy with it for now. If a game isn't happy with it, just make a note and disable MT for it for now.

Seems better to be ON with current version of PPSSPP, and most games I tested.
Especially good for systems with more than 4CPU cores.

18. *NEW* Turn OFF Postprocessing Shaders (formerly known as FXAA). (only a minor performance increase on Windows, moderate increase on Android.)

Leave off, since most postprocessing shaders either add noise, take up resources, or significantly reduce the quality of the image.
I do like the 'bloom' effect, and 'Inverse Colors'.
What I like about the inverse colors on Ridge racer, is that the sun and sun reflections still remain light, and shade still remains shade.
But the colors makes driving the landscapes more interesting!

19. *NEW* Turn ON Texture Coord Speedhack. (located under Graphics --> Hack Settings, moderate speedup and highly recommended if Software Skinning is enabled (synergistic boost), may cause graphical glitches in games, disable it if you find any that makes games unplayable)

Not available in the newest versions?

20. *NEW* Turn ON Disable Alpha Test. (located under Graphics --> Hack Settings, only for PowerVR devices, option is hidden for other devices, will cause graphical glitches in games, disable it if you find any that makes games unplayable)

Not available in the newest versions?

21. *NEW* Turn ON Software Skinning. (located under Graphics --> Performance, this feature offers rather mixed results; it provides an incredible performance boost to certain games, but can also reduce performance in others.)

Didn't do much on some of my games, but leave enabled for other games I haven't yet tested out.

22. *NEW* Turn ON Lazy Texture Caching. (located under Graphics --> Performance, this feature provides a consistent performance boost to nearly every single game, with almost no downside, except in a few cases, e.g. A delay in displaying/refreshing text in certain games and shifting textures. Games affected include Danganronpa and Growlanser so disable it in those games.)

Turn off. Doesn't do anything to performance on modern phones.

23. *NEW* Turn ON Retain Changed Textures.(located under Graphics --> Performance, provides almost little to no performance benefits in most cases. Enable it only if you're absolutely desperate for every FPS you can get.)

Leave off. Doesn't do anything on modern mid-class phones.

24. *NEW* Turn OFF Simulate Block Transfer. (an unfinished feature located under Graphics --> Rendering Mode, disable it unless you have games that require it, e.g. Ys Seven for proper minimap functionality.)

Leave off for 0.5fps gain at 60fps. Recommended to leave on.

25. *NEW* Turn ON Disable Slower Effects. (this feature provides a significant performance boost in every game, but at the cost of major graphical glitches and inaccurate graphical emulation. This is not to be used unless you are absolutely desperate for extra speed and couldn't care less about the picture on the screen. It is considered a last ditch option.)

Leave off. The performance gains aren't noticeable.

26. *NEW* (Android ONLY) Change the Display Resolution (HW scaler) setting to 1x PSP. (located under Graphics, this feature enables PPSSPP to utilize your Android device's own hardware scaler to scale the output to a lower resolution instead of doing it itself, which provides a significant performance boost for every game at the cost of an obviously blurry looking and pixelated output. Highly recommended for users desperate for additional performance.)

This should be the main source of your performance gains!
Budget phones (in 2022) should set this to 2x or 3x.
Mid-class phones set this to between 3x and 5x.
Flagship 2022 phones should set this to 4x (1080p), 5x or 6x (1440p), or higher for higher resolution screens