Trouble getting the mnist example to converge

I have not been able to get the mnist example to converge. Even after days of training (8-CPU system, no GPU) following the standard mnist example in the kit with no change (run as: python main.py --dataset mnist --is_train True), the d_loss/g_loss values just bounced around 1.3/0.7 with little sign of getting any better. I have not observed any error messages so far.

Is it expected that the mnist example will require a lot more computing power than I have in order to make it converge? If there are some hidden problems then what should I look for?