Root HDMI Out To TV making Bionic sluggish when running an emulator

[Sewer Dweller]

Here's a breakdown of what's going on with this phone.

1.) It's Rooted
2.) The only apps installed on it are basically just emulators
3.) When I use a micro hdmi cable to duplicate the Bionic screen, while running an emulator (any emulator), the phone runs sluggish.
4.) I use SixAxis with a PS3 Controller in order to play these emulated games.
5.) If I unplugg the hdmi cable from the tv, or phone, I can resume to play the emulated games normally.
6.) It has a stock ROM

My question is as follows...

Is there a reason as to why the phone becomes sluggish when I plug the micro hdmi cable? This only seems to happen while running an emulator.
Do I need a better/new/faster phone? Do I need to upgrade it?

Someone please advise.

 

[johnlgalt]

duplicate the screen - is it pixelated, as if seems it is using the same resolution on the output device that it uses on the BIONIC, or is it a very nice polished image, as if it is upscaling? If it is upscaling, there is your answer right there - you're pushing the capabilities of the CPU and GPU to keep up with the image you're viewing,

 

[Sewer Dweller]

It's a nice polished picture. Is there a way to fix this? work around? I still need to update my phone but I've been putting it off for a while now.

 

[Sewer Dweller]

I've been searching around for an answer but all I can find are demonstration videos that show you that you can run emulators and hook up your phone to a TV. I want to do exactly that, and I sort of can, just not flawlessly like I wish I could. Would a quad-core phone work better off? The Bionic seems so yesterday now that I've taken a look at a couple of the quad-core phones.