Framerate stuttering

[barrelbrawler]

Greetings.
I finally got around to play Mother 1+2 (J) with Tomato's english patch. The game works flawlessly in mGBA 0.4.0, however, there is tiny stutter every second when I move. It can look really jarring. It is happening on other games as well, such as Super Mario Advance. It also appears on VBA 1.8, VBA-M 1.8, latest VBA-M 2.0 beta and higan097. I have not yet got around to trying No$ or iDeaS. I was wondering if this is some kind of issue with my particular machine or some general GBA emulation or OpenGL issue? In Nestopia, playing the NES version of Mother, this issue is not present, but Tomato's translation isn't present for the NES version either.

My specifications are as follows:
i3-2330M Sandy Bridge @ 2.2Ghz
Intel HD Graphics 3000
8GB RAM @ 665.1Mhz
Windows 8.1 64-bit
It is a notebook computer.

Unfortunately, I do not currently have access to a second computer to test with.

Here is two reddit threads I managed to search online which I assume describe the same issue:
https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comme...ed/crbu10f
https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comme...te_issues/

It would appear from the explanation provided on that first link, that perhaps this issue is something that is intrinsic to GBA emulation and there is nothing that can be done for now? If that is the case, I can certainly live with it.

What I already have tried: look for updated driver for the manufacturer website (I had the newest), mess with the emulators' audio/video settings, disconnected second display (I have had programs in the past that did not like multiple displays for some reason), no dice. If anyone has more suggestions, I am all ears.

[barrelbrawler]

Greetings,
I'm bumping this old thread to bring new information.

I now have a different laptop with following specifications:
Intel i7-4720HQ Haswell 4-core @ 2.6Ghz
Nvidia GTX 950M + Intel HD Graphics 4600 (Optimus)
12GB RAM @ 800Mhz
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

When I use the Intel HD Graphics 4600, the stutter is exactly the same as it was on the HD Graphics 3000 (maybe slightly better, but still jarring to watch). However, when I force mGBA to use the Nvidia GPU, the stutter is COMPLETELY gone. It is butter smooth 60fps and very enjoyable to look at.

So this has nothing to do with GBA emulation and everything to do with Intel integrated graphics cards being just bad for reasons unknown to me. Some game developers have had problems with Intel iGPU's e.g. Terraria devs. So I guess if you happen to have a laptop with one of these Intel HD series cards and have this stutter, you are s.o.l basically. :/

[endrift]

I have an Ivy Bridge IGP in my desktop; I can try switching to that and seeing what it does, but I somehow think this might be related to your sync settings. Do you have sync to video enabled? Try using only sync to audio if you do.

[MotM]

I think the FPS stutter has nothing to do with GPU rendering. For me, in order to get better FPS, lowering the audio buffer seems to do the trick.

mGBA 0.5.0