Are my laptop specs good enough for Dolphin?

[DolphinNewbie]

Hi, I'm a long time console gamer that has recently moved to emulation for the convenience, I'm trying to run Dolphin on my laptop and am having some trouble doing so. I'm currently testing it with Resident Evil for the GameCube (but I've also tested with Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands for the Wii) and the emulation seems to run extremely slow despite my constant changing of settings and the like. I'm not looking in any way to play the game in full 60fps and super high resolutions, I just want a playable experience for most of my games, that runs solidly and doesn't take me out of the experience. In Resident Evil I've managed to keep a solid 25fps but it dips lower than 18fps at times, with PoP it turned out to be a far less enjoyable endeavor as the game sometimes becomes unplayable.

I'm using the 5.0 version of dolphin master.

Here are my specs:
Intel® HD Graphics 620

Processor: Intel Core i5 7200U CPU
8GB RAM

And any other information you might want. I'm new to emulation and know Laptops aren't the best thing out there but I just want to know if it's possible. Thanks!

[sirdaniel]

I have the same cpu.
In short: use only 2x scaling, use vulkan, install the newest drivers intel gpu drivers, make sure you have dual channel RAM (if not u can buy second ram stick)

[DolphinNewbie]

(08-18-2019, 05:38 PM)sirdaniel Wrote: I have the same cpu.
In short: use only 2x scaling, use vulkan, install the newest drivers intel gpu drivers, make sure you have dual channel RAM (if not u can buy second ram stick)

How do I enable Dual Channel? I'm already installing the newer gpu drives but I have no idea how to do the last thing, I've checked with CPU-z and it says it's Single, does it make too much of a difference? Am I capable of knowing if it already has two ram sticks? Sorry for making so many questions, it's really been bothering me  

[sirdaniel]

Hello. Yor specs say you have only iGPU (intel HD 630). This is the reason to enable dual channel. You will increase speed by maybe 20% to even 40% depends on workload.

Ram stick is physical thing. You would have to open back lid of laptop and examine. 90% manufacturers allow open lid and gaining access to RAM or HDD. Im almost sure You have one 8GB. So easiest way to enable dual channel is to buy another 8GB of the same scpecs, or buy 2x4GB and sell remaining 8GB. Inserting second stick into slot makes dual atomatically in 99,9% cases. Both sticks have to be same specs and GB quantity. This upgrade involves money so choose yourself.
Dual channel would make less difference to single if you had dedicated card eg Nvidia.

[DolphinNewbie]

(08-19-2019, 03:10 PM)sirdaniel Wrote: Hello. Yor specs say you have only iGPU (intel HD 630). This is the reason to enable dual channel. You will increase speed by maybe 20% to even 40% depends on workload.

Ram stick is physical thing. You would have to open back lid of laptop and examine. 90% manufacturers allow open lid and gaining access to RAM or HDD. Im almost sure You have one 8GB. So easiest way to enable dual channel is to buy another 8GB of the same scpecs, or buy 2x4GB and sell remaining 8GB. Inserting second stick into slot makes dual atomatically in 99,9% cases. Both sticks have to be same specs and GB quantity. This upgrade involves money so choose yourself.
Dual channel would make less difference to single if you had dedicated card eg Nvidia.

Hey, I managed to get the Ishiiruka build working on my PC and it runs the game perfectly and has an option to disable timestreching which is really good, but it's full of problems, it's not letting me increase resolution beyond a very small cubic screen surrounded by thick black borders and the WiiMote doesn't seem to work properly too. Any help with that?

[JosJuice]

(08-19-2019, 09:28 PM)DolphinNewbie Wrote: Hey, I managed to get the Ishiiruka build working on my PC and it runs the game perfectly and has an option to disable timestreching which is really good, but it's full of problems, it's not letting me increase resolution beyond a very small cubic screen surrounded by thick black borders and the WiiMote doesn't seem to work properly too. Any help with that?

If you want help with Ishiiruka-specific problems, you need to go to the Ishiiruka thread: https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-unofficial-ishiiruka-dolphin-custom-version

[DolphinNewbie]

(08-19-2019, 09:53 PM)JosJuice Wrote: If you want help with Ishiiruka-specific problems, you need to go to the Ishiiruka thread: https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-unofficial-ishiiruka-dolphin-custom-version

Ok! Thanks, I managed to solve the issue with the resolution (not the WiiMote though, I'll see what I can do), I'm now trying to get the Dual Channel that was recommended to me.