Best Dolphin Graphic Card At An Affordable Price

04-30-2009, 09:13 AM #1

So I figured out that my my graphic card is an Intel card(blah laptop!) so that means that no matter what I do, Dolphin won't work right? My question is, and it's a sort of newb one, which of the cards that Dolphin supports will be cheap so that I can get it installed into my laptop. Actually is that even possible? I mean I've been wanting to do it for a while now especially since I'm worried Sims 3 won't work on my computer! So yeah since I'm just a lowly college student who's hoping to have some money by the end of the summer to spend on an XBox360, which graphic card that is of good quality and more importantly, be one of the GeForce/Radeon's that would work for Dolphin should I get?

**DacoTaco** · 04-30-2009, 09:15 AM #2

any gpu that has pixel shaders 2.0 should do (and to avoid problems, supports openGL 2.1)

FloW3184 · (This post was last modified: 04-30-2009, 09:20 AM by FloW3184.)

a radeon 3450 for 25Euro would be enough

04-30-2009, 09:26 AM #4

Ooo cool thank you both. I'm in actual in America(though studying in England for a semester) but that doesn't really matter much. I'm gonna wait until I get home too buy a graphics card because I'll probably need to get them to install for me(more money I know but I have no clue how to do it!). I found a Galaxy - NVIDIA GeForce 7200 GS 256MB DDR2 PCI Express Graphics Card for $43 dollars on Best Buy online. It has what you said Daco, so does that make it good? I can't find the Radeon at any of the stores that would be by me, though there is a small computer place by me too which I'll check out but rihgt now the GeForce 7200 seems like a great deal right?

Does it what it comes with:

Powered by the GeForce 7200 GS graphics processing unit (GPU)
With a texture fill rate of 0.9 billion per second for high-quality graphics power.
256MB DDR2 memory
With 6.4GB/sec. of memory bandwidth to provide the memory needed for visual realism.
PCI Express interface
Along with a core clock speed of 450MHz and dual 400MHz RAMDACs for high-speed processing.
1920 x 1200 maximum digital resolution
For ultrarealistic gaming experiences. Supports dual QXGA displays with 2048 x 1536 resolution at 85Hz.
Compatible with HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats
To ensure high-definition compatibility.
NVIDIA unified architecture with a CineFX 4.0 engine
For extreme processing and enhanced efficiency.
NVIDIA Intellisample 4.0 technology
Enables a high level of effects to be simulated and rendered on the GPU.
DirectX 9 and OpenGL 2.0-compatible GPU and powerful unified architecture
For enhanced gameplay.
NVIDIA Forceware
Provides enhanced performance and speed, stunning visual quality and unified driver architecture (UDA) to ensure forward and backward compatibility with hardware and software.
Shader Model 3.0 support
Ensures compatibility with current and future gaming titles.
Single-link DVI-I connector
For high-definition support.
NVIDIA TurboCache technology
Shares the capacity and bandwidth of dedicated video memory and dynamically available system memory for high-speed performance.
NVIDIA PureVideo technology
Delivers smooth video, accurate color and precise image scaling.

FloW3184 · (This post was last modified: 04-30-2009, 09:38 AM by FloW3184.)

better use a DDR3/GDDR3 memory-card.
(GDDR3 is even better than DDR3)

DDR2 may be too slow.

Glurion · (This post was last modified: 04-30-2009, 10:03 AM by Glurion.)

My old graphics card ran dolphin fine, and that was an Inno3D NVIDIA Geforce 8500 512mb cost me around Â£30.

Unknownforce · 05-01-2009, 02:45 AM #7

You guys all missed the fact that he's got a laptop. None of those recommended will work in a regular laptop, the laptop would have to support upgrading, not too many do, and those that do are the really expensive ones, like $1500+

So you're probably out of luck on upgrading the video card in the laptop. But I would check the manual of the laptop and see if it's one of the features or not.

mikedep333 · 05-01-2009, 09:51 AM #8

Exactly what unknownforce said.

Over on the requirements thread:
http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/thread-4-page-1.html
There are some references to the capabilities of the newer Intel GMA 3000 and 4500 series. If you have an older intel GMA 900 or GMA 950, forget about running dolphin though.

Intel certainly could add (proper) OpenGL 2.1 support in a newer driver. OpenGL 2.1 is a framework for extensions. Extensions need to be implemented on the hardware (although I think a driver could offload them to the CPU.) I wouldn't be surprised if the required extensions are not supported by the intel GMA hardware.

Also, on Linux there is an intel driver with different capabilities, but it probably isn't worth anyone's time to try to test it out unless they already have linux on their laptop and they are decently familiar with it.

05-02-2009, 11:03 AM #9

I didn't know that about laptops. Suckage for sure. I'm a college student so a cpu is of course out of the question. Weird with so many college students have laptops(I don't know ANYONE with a cpu in school) you'd think they'd try and provide college friendly laptops with better graphic cards since we are their demographic Sad

So my laptop is hopeless in running good games and never will I guess. Though there ways to upgrade drivers right? So maybe one day it will. I have an INtel 965 series Sad

. I just hope the Sims 3 works!

Unknownforce · 05-02-2009, 12:15 PM **#10**

(05-02-2009, 11:03 AM)TK2121 Wrote: I didn't know that about laptops. Suckage for sure. I'm a college student so a cpu is of course out of the question. Weird with so many college students have laptops(I don't know ANYONE with a cpu in school) you'd think they'd try and provide college friendly laptops with better graphic cards since we are their demographic

So my laptop is hopeless in running good games and never will I guess. Though there ways to upgrade drivers right? So maybe one day it will. I have an INtel 965 series . I just hope the Sims 3 works!

Until D3D works right, you're probably out of luck.