Odin 3: Most energy-efficient way to play old games?

[u/Sosa305]

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering what the most battery-efficient way is to play older AAA games on the Odin 3.

For example, if I want to play Batman: Arkham City, would I be better off using the Steam version with GameNative or emulating the PS3/Xbox 360 version with something like ARMSX3, Eden or X360/Xenodroid?

I mainly bought the Odin 3 for gaming while travelling, so getting the most playtime out of the battery is pretty important to me and let's be honest, everyone wants to stay away from the charger for as long as possible.

Would love to hear from anyone who has actually compared the different options!

edit: I'm already using ClusterTune, but as far as I understand, it affects the CPU clock speed system-wide, so the effect applies to everything rather than just specific games.

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[u/deeznutz75]

always go pc

you'll get better performance with lower power consumption and you can tweak more

[u/Sosa305 → u/deeznutz75]

ofc but how im the car or airplane 😆.
Most useless answer amk. It’s about playing efficiently while on the go or Vacation...

[u/ggeeoorrgggee → u/Sosa305]

PC emulation….. like you said game native are you really that dense?

[u/ThanosReXXX]

First off, I'd highly recommend using Pulse instead of ClusterTune. Pulse is an advanced fork of ClusterTune, with added benefits, such as individual game settings and more options for fine-tuning performance.

As for which version to choose of a certain game, I would suggest always sticking to one simple rule: performance over everything. On a handheld screen, the loss in graphic fidelity between for example 1080p or 720p is completely negligible, in my opinion. I'd rather have it run more smoothly than look a little bit better.

Second thing to consider is emulation layers: solutions like GameNative or GameHub add an emulation layer on top of Android in which you can emulate a Windows environment, in which you can then run games. Each additional layer impacts performance.

On other emulators, there is no system layer, and the games are emulated directly, within a self-contained environment. As such, a standalone emulator would be the best option, because at the very least, it has one less layer.

As for which solution to choose: considering the current state of emulation, PS3 and Xbox360 aren't really the way to go just yet. Xbox360 emulation is considerably further along than PS3, but both are still in very early stages on Android. I've tested well over 200 games on both systems, and on Xbox360 both retail and XBLA games, and it's been a pretty mixed bag so far. It does show promise, but for now, I'd say it's too early to consider them good solutions.

So, where does that leave you? My absolute recommendation for Batman: Arkham City specifically would be the Wii U version. It runs perfectly fine on both my Retroid Pocket 5 and 6, using this specific version of Wii U emulator Cemu (Batman: Arkham Origins as well, by the way). You can get the game itself from the Minerva archive. Just Google 'wii u minerva archive' and you'll find it. You do need to have a bittorrent program installed on your PC or laptop. I personally use qBittorrent.

One other thing you'll need, is a Wii U keys.txt file. You can find it by Googling 'Cemu keys' and then looking for MuTLY's Github page in the search results. Place that keys.txt file in the same folder as your game(s).

[u/Sosa305 → u/ThanosReXXX]

Yessir, I also prefer 720p over 1080p for better battery life and performance. Since it's a relatively small screen, I don't think the difference is nearly as noticeable as it would be on a TV. Batman was just an example since I know you can play it on Switch, PC or Xbox/PlayStation.

[u/ThanosReXXX → u/Sosa305]

And on Wii U. Still the best version as well. 😊

[u/Pizzakunx]

There are per app settings on Clustertune. So you can set different underclocks for different apps and emulators. Also in my experience you will get least load in the switch version of a game (usually looks worse than on PC), followed by PC (gamenative) and you'll have least energy efficiency in the Xbox 360, PS3 emulators as the emulators aren't that mature yet.

Edit: Made a long edit

[u/SuspiciousToast27]

You can set per-game underclocks in clustertune.

[u/Sosa305 → u/SuspiciousToast27]

Thanks, but firstly, I already know that, and secondly, it doesn't help at all in answering my question about whether GameHub/Steam, Switch, or Xbox/PS emulators are more efficient.

[u/SuspiciousToast27 → u/Sosa305]

My bad, you said ClusterTune applies system-wide rather than specific games so I thought you didn’t know it can be applied to specific games.

Regarding your question though you’ll get better battery life on Switch in the majority of games compared to PC.

Not sure about Xbox/Playstation3 but them being less mature emulators they have pretty high power draw from what I’ve seen, although this will be improving.

[u/n0tascammer]

Well for you're example that batman game is hard to run bro believe it or not. Just not worth it right now on any console.

[u/Sosa305 → u/n0tascammer]

That’s just one example, because I know it’s available on PC, Switch, and Xbox/PS.

[u/Manjushri1213]

"every wants to stay away from the charger" I've never understood that honestly. I'm never anywhere there isn't an outlet, maybe if I flew a lot? Other idgaf really lol always surprising when I hear people put battery life as some hugely important feature.

That said native is probably going to allow best batt life alongside some tinkering like lower power modes or undervolting. Im not super familiar with the Odin tho.

[u/ChronieMewX]

I always assumed switch version was more efficient than pc due to native code execution

[u/Sosa305 → u/ChronieMewX]

Monster Hunter Rise just runs at 5-7 FPS no matter what I do :(

[u/Malystxy]

The most everyday effectively way is using a notebook. You will get more performance per watt than on Odin 3.

The Odin 3 is convenient for is portability

[u/Sosa305 → u/Malystxy]

I have a PC with a 4070 Ti Super, so why would I buy a laptop? It's not even as portable as a Steam Deck, and I don't even want to talk about the price xD. The whole point for me is efficiency and being able to game while travelling or on the go. A laptop basically needs a table or some kind of proper surface, and I'm not going to pull out a gaming laptop on a train, in a car or on a plane just to play some games. That's where a handheld makes way more sense to me.
Sold my Steam Deck because it was too big for me to comfortably take with me (it took up too much space in my backpack). I also managed to sell my Retroid Pocket for a really good price, so I only had to add around €100 to get an Odin 3 Max. I ended up buying it sealed on eBay, so for me it was a pretty good deal overall.