Super ZSNES performance on x86

[Sorion]

Due to the increasing questions related to Super ZSNES's performance, I decided to quickly test the app on two different budget laptops to see how the app would perform, here are the specifications:

laptop 1:
thinkpad T480s (release date ~2017)
- Intel core i5 8250u.
-16GB of DDR4 RAM running at 2666Mhz in dual channel
-Intel UHD 620 Graphics.
- SSD NVME storage running windows 10.

Laptop 2:
Thinkpad T440p (release date ~2013)
- Intel core I7 4712QM.
-8GB of DDR3 Ram running at 1600MHZ in dual channel.
- intel HD 4600 Graphics.
-SSD Storage running Linux Mint 22.3.

Both laptops managed to start the app, but performance was pretty hit or miss, the first laptop kinda managed to run Super mario World but it was mandatory to disable the special textures and other features of the emulator, checking the task manager revealed that the processor wasn't actually doing too much work, it was the GPU that was running close to 100% utilization, despite this, the game managed to run at almost 60FPS.
The second laptop being much older didn't manage to hit 60FPS so it was not viable to run the emulator on that system, but again, by checking the performance metrics, the CPU on the second laptop wasn't doing too much work either, hovering at around 40% utilization so the main bottleneck for Super Zsnes is the GPU, that makes sense considering that this emulator renders it's graphics using the GPU.
Another relevant bit of information I noticed is inside the folders on the windows version of the app, one of them is literally named "D3D12" so this app is likely expecting a gpu with directX12 support in order to run, so any gpu without that API probably won't start the app. On Linux, the Super ZSNES is likely running on OpenGL instead of Vulkan, since Laptop 2's igpu doesn't support the latter, so Super ZSNES seems to be more forgiving on Linux when it comes to API support.

So In conclusion, you need a decent GPU in order to run this emulator, probably some Vega6/Iris XE graphics should be fast enough to run this emulator with the effects enabled but I can't say that for sure considering I don't own laptops with those integrated graphics. on the side of desktop computers, any computer with an HD 7750/ GTX 750 or faster, should run the emulator quite well. Some older GPUs without directx12 support might work on Linux but that requires more testing from the community.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

Thank you for this.

As someone who is torn between trying this one out of nostalgia and being unsure whether it'd be worth it, this is extremely useful information!

I probably won't be able to get it running with the speed I would want it to, then.

 

[-------]

I don't understand why a Super Nintendo emulator needs a powerful PC. That makes absolutely no sense.

 

[Sorion]

Thank you for this.

As someone who is torn between trying this one out of nostalgia and being unsure whether it'd be worth it, this is extremely useful information!

I probably won't be able to get it running with the speed I would want it to, then.

do you know your hardware specs? maybe I can help you with that, the desktop gpus I mentioned are actually 10+ years old so you probably only need a decent laptop from 6 years ago

 

[Ikagura]

I don't understand why a Super Nintendo emulator needs a powerful PC. That makes absolutely no sense.

Because emulation isn't just the raw power of the console it's emulating on PC.

 

[Sorion]

I don't understand why a Super Nintendo emulator needs a powerful PC. That makes absolutely no sense.

The emulator was made with some experimental features in mind, including GPU rendering which can be used in the future to pretty much make HD remasters of super nintendo games, since it's much easier to overlay and modify the graphics with that rendering technique. The developer is creating a tile editing tool for the emulator so the community can redraw their own sprites manually, it might actually be possible to include real 3D objects inside mode 7 games, which it's pretty promising actually.
When it comes to the minimum requirements aspect of the emulator, yes, it requires better hardware compared with traditional SNES emulator, but I wouldn't call them "High". A 2013 desktop computer with dedicated graphics or a decent 2020 laptop with integrated graphics should run the emulator at good speed.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

do you know your hardware specs? maybe I can help you with that, the desktop gpus I mentioned are actually 10+ years old so you probably only need a decent laptop from 6 years ago

Thanks a ton, but I don't wanna waste your time or skills — mine is a budget PC with integrated graphics that struggles to run GTA: Vice City... And was a hand-me-down on top of it ^^U!

 

[-------]

The emulator was made with some experimental features in mind, including GPU rendering which can be used in the future to pretty much make HD remasters of super nintendo games, since it's much easier to overlay and modify the graphics with that rendering technique. The developer is creating a tile editing tool for the emulator so the community can redraw their own sprites manually, it might actually be possible to include real 3D objects inside mode 7 games, which it's pretty promising actually.
When it comes to the minimum requirements aspect of the emulator, yes, it requires better hardware compared with traditional SNES emulator, but I wouldn't call them "High". A 2013 desktop computer with dedicated graphics or a decent 2020 laptop with integrated graphics should run the emulator at good speed.

Have you tried the Android version as well?

 

[Sumea]

Both laptops managed to start the app, but performance was pretty hit or miss, the first laptop kinda managed to run Super mario World but it was mandatory to disable the special textures and other features of the emulator, checking the task manager revealed that the processor wasn't actually doing too much work, it was the GPU that was running close to 100% utilization, despite this, the game managed to run at almost 60FPS.

Yeah. This seems what should happen given what paradigms Super Zsnes is changing to be something different from rest of the current SNES emulators: It is made to utilize the GPU more than 2D systems historically do. zsKnight attempted to code all SNES graphics handling as shaders for the GPU where it will offload the graphics handling to the GPU and let CPU ignore that part of the emulation, where historically it was 99% CPU. But the current version is not yet optimized so that the improvements can be felt and seen on lower end hardware. One example would be midrange Android phones and tablets where the GPU can handle more and let CPU handle less. But, as I understand from current closed versions, this is to come, and current version has rough and dirty implementation of the GPU shader based SNES graphics rendering.

 

[Sorion]

Have you tried the Android version as well?

I haven't tested it