Buying a new laptop

moosehunter · 05-07-2010, 05:28 AM #1

I'm trying to decide on a new laptop and wanted to know how well the configuration I'm looking at would run Dolphin.
Intel Core i5-520M @ 2.40GHZ
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570, 512 MB

I'm assuming that because Dolphin doesn't use that much GPU power that the video card would be fine, right?
But how well would the Processor work? Would it be able to run many games at full speed? Brawl is the one I'm wondering the most about.

**NaturalViolence** · (This post was last modified: 05-07-2010, 07:17 AM by NaturalViolence.)

Looks pretty good, what's the screen resolution? Assuming the screen resolution isn't to high that gpu will be sufficient for anything dolphin will throw at it.

Oh, and also how much ram and is the os it comes with 32 bit or 64 bit?

moosehunter · 05-07-2010, 08:24 AM #3

The resolution is 1920x1080, but it's not like you have to play at that resolution.
It's got 4GB of ram. And I'm going to be installing Windows XP Pro x64 and Windows 7 x64.

**NaturalViolence** · 05-07-2010, 02:13 PM #4

Just out of curiosity, why on earth would you install win xp x64!?!?

In that case everything looks good. The gpu will not be able to handle certain games at that resolution without a framerate drop in some spots, but most games should run well even at that resolution (which is insanely high for a laptop).

**darkshadw** · 05-07-2010, 09:39 PM #5

@ NaturalViolence maybe he want to stick with XP.

**Ocean** · 05-07-2010, 11:23 PM #6

A lot of performance nuts actually prefer Windows xp for gaming purposes. It definitely beats Windows Vista in all benchmarks but there doesn't seem to be a valid reason to use it over windows 7.

Here is a zdnet test where they ran a high end system and a laptop on both windows 7 and xp. It does seem windows 7 will be about 10-30% faster in most real world applications (the difference is compounded if using a mobile system compared to desktop)
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/benchmarks-windows-7-rtm-versus-vista-xp/22006?pg=4&tag=mantle_skin;content

For a new laptop, there could be significant advantages to installing 64 bit windows 7, because it's nothing like it's bloated, slow younger brother Vista. Driver incompatibility is a historical relic too since nearly all software/hw manufacturers make drivers for 64-bit now.

**NaturalViolence** · (This post was last modified: 05-08-2010, 05:12 PM by NaturalViolence.)

Just saying I told you so now. Get ready for a world of pain using win xp x64 when you realize nobody supports it. Just because a developer makes x64 software does not mean that they make software for win xp x64. It failed for a reason, developers simple don't care enough to make their stuff work with it. Not to mention dolphin runs faster on win 7, this is proven (although it's actually due to an issue in dolphin that the devs never resolved).

Using xp is fine, dolphin will run slower but for an overall system it's fine. But using x64 win xp is like using x64 linux. You can expect some things to simple not work, like hulu's video player for example.

MLConian · 05-09-2010, 01:36 AM #8

(05-07-2010, 05:28 AM)moosehunter Wrote: I'm trying to decide on a new laptop and wanted to know how well the configuration I'm looking at would run Dolphin.
Intel Core i5-520M @ 2.40GHZ
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570, 512 MB

I'm assuming that because Dolphin doesn't use that much GPU power that the video card would be fine, right?
But how well would the Processor work? Would it be able to run many games at full speed? Brawl is the one I'm wondering the most about.

That's a lot like my system:
Intel Core i5-430M @2.26 GHz, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5740 512 mb, 4 GB RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.
I run most of my games at 720p, so far only games that are known to have issues have framedrops (F-Zero GX, SMS). You should be fine running most Cube games at 1080p with a setup like that.
By the way, I'd install XP 32 bit if I were you. Like some people already said here, XP x64 failed somehow. Besides, you've only got 4 GB of RAM, so XP won't benefit from it: XP x86 will recognize up to 4 GB anyway!

moosehunter · 05-09-2010, 12:50 PM #9

Well, there was a sudden change in plans and I got a Gateway DX4831 desktop:
Intel i5 650 @ 3.2GHz
8GB Ram
Nvidia GeForce GT 220, 1GB

The graphic card's not the best, and the BIOS is a piece of ****, but it was only $700.

Would disabling hyperthreading give Dolphin a performance boost? Currently, Task Manager shows two threads being used at 100% and the other two barely being used at all.

And I would be installing Windows xp x64 for reasons unrelated to Dolphin.

MLConian · 05-09-2010, 09:36 PM **#10**

(05-09-2010, 12:50 PM)moosehunter Wrote: Well, there was a sudden change in plans and I got a Gateway DX4831 desktop:
Intel i5 650 @ 3.2GHz
8GB Ram
Nvidia GeForce GT 220, 1GB

The graphic card's not the best, and the BIOS is a piece of ****, but it was only $700.

Would disabling hyperthreading give Dolphin a performance boost? Currently, Task Manager shows two threads being used at 100% and the other two barely being used at all.

And I would be installing Windows xp x64 for reasons unrelated to Dolphin.

With 8 GB of RAM it actually pays to have XP x64 on your system.
As far as I know, hyperthreading has no influence on Dolphins performance. Besides, Dolphin can only use 2 cores (maybe 3 in the future, but that'd be an extra core dedicated to LLE).