Not at all, the speed of the emulated machine is relative to your CPU speed. What kind of machine do you have? For many games, setting "core=dynamic" and "cycles=auto" gives you optimal performance.

I have a amd athlon 64 3200+
1 gig ddr ram
ati 256 mb x 1950 pro
creative 24 bit sound card
100gig sata hard drive
650 psu
I am currently running win xp home edition sp2
my question is does cycles represent cpu speed within the emulation,I have run other emulators before but dosbox seems to be the most enjoyable.
also thanks for the reply.

the speed of the emulated machine is relative to your CPU speed

The "cycles" setting is not absolute, which means you have to find the optimal cycle setting for your machine (and the game) by yourself.

First, try the game with "core=dynamic" and "cycles=auto" settings in dosbox.conf. If that doesn't work well, try a low fixed value (like 5000 or 10000) in dosbox.conf, and play around with the increase/decrease cycles keys while playing the game (see the readme).

It would also be helpful to know what you mean by "the game stutters". Graphics? Scrolling? Sound? Music?

it's the graphics that are stuttering and the scrolling,when i put my cycles up to 5000 or 10000,the game goes fast,real fast as if everyone is running.

I've tested the game, and i'm still not sure if i understand what you mean with "stuttering". This game has no smooth scrolling, like for example an Amiga action title. My machine is a lot slower than yours (P4/2.6Ghz), and i'd say that DOSBox runs the game quite well. I don't know how the game performed on a legacy machine, though.

Btw, while searching for DS2 updates,i stumbled across various threads where users were complaining about a number of game bugs. It seems the game can't be fininshed unless you install a patch, and even the patched version is not bugfree. I didn't really play the game, so i have no real opinion on that topic, just thought it might be worth mentioning.

thanks addict i really appreciate your help,i have been checking other forums and they say this games a mess,i understand that dosbox is alot of trial and error.
i think that alot of it has to do with the game,i have the cycles down to 4000,and there is some improvement,xcom runs so perfect at 30000 cycles,and if i am not mistaken xcom is older,or at least i think it is.
as far as stuttering the cursor moves slowly,the scaling is jumpy,as well as general movement in game i don't have problems with sound or intro like most people do,and if it helps everything is crystal clear graphics wise.