can my laptop run dolphin

[nintendo13wii]

I want to play games on dolphin, but i got a pretty old laptop. I am able to run mGBA emulator perfectly. Please tell if it can run dolphin. If not then suggest a laptop within 550 us dollars. Thanks and have a nice day

[Shonumi]

Wow, that CPU takes me back. When I first heard about Dolphin (around 2010), I had a laptop with that same CPU and dabbled with it. I'm pretty sure your GPU, although quite old as well, could handle playing some games at native resolution (i.e. no HD gameplay) but that CPU is going to be a major bottleneck. The architecture is just too old and too slow to enjoyably play Dolphin. Not to mention the T6600 runs pretty hot (I'm pretty sure I melted mine running old builds of Dolphin).

Anyway, you haven't said which games you're specifically interested in playing. This is important to know, as some games require powerful hardware to run at full speed in Dolphin. A lot of games, however, will run just fine on any laptop you buy these days. Both laptop hardware and Dolphin have improved to the point where even my run of the mill $300 laptop (i3-7100U with an Intel HD 620 iGPU) can run plenty of games, as long as I don't aim for HD gameplay (which stresses my iGPU too much and bottlenecks the system).

In any case, you'll want something with a high base clock. Ignore "turbo boost" speeds as those are always going to be a gamble depending on how cool the inside of your laptop is. The base clock speeds are the minimum guaranteed speeds you'll get, so the higher the better. Anything Intel from the past few generations will suffice. Anything from AMD's Ryzen will suffice as well. AMD's offerings hold the advantage of better iGPUs. At $550 USD, I'm not sure how likely you'll find dedicated mobile GPUs in a laptop, so probably aim for a good iGPU if you're looking to play at higher resolutions.

This one has a high base clock, and it's a recent Ryzen CPU. 6 cores and good iGPU. On sale from $700 for $500

https://www.newegg.com/iron-gray-lenovo-v14-are-82dq000pus-mainstream/p/2WC-000J-00DS6?&quicklink=true

It seems like a good deal to me, but I'd advise you to keep looking in case something else catches your eye. Just keep in mind the advice about what kind of mobile CPUs and GPUs are suitable for Dolphin.

[nintendo13wii]

(07-25-2020, 03:58 PM)Shonumi Wrote: Wow, that CPU takes me back. When I first heard about Dolphin (around 2010), I had a laptop with that same CPU and dabbled with it. I'm pretty sure your GPU, although quite old as well, could handle playing some games at native resolution (i.e. no HD gameplay) but that CPU is going to be a major bottleneck. The architecture is just too old and too slow to enjoyably play Dolphin. Not to mention the T6600 runs pretty hot (I'm pretty sure I melted mine running old builds of Dolphin).

Anyway, you haven't said which games you're specifically interested in playing. This is important to know, as some games require powerful hardware to run at full speed in Dolphin. A lot of games, however, will run just fine on any laptop you buy these days. Both laptop hardware and Dolphin have improved to the point where even my run of the mill $300 laptop (i3-7100U with an Intel HD 620 iGPU) can run plenty of games, as long as I don't aim for HD gameplay (which stresses my iGPU too much and bottlenecks the system).

In any case, you'll want something with a high base clock. Ignore "turbo boost" speeds as those are always going to be a gamble depending on how cool the inside of your laptop is. The base clock speeds are the minimum guaranteed speeds you'll get, so the higher the better. Anything Intel from the past few generations will suffice. Anything from AMD's Ryzen will suffice as well. AMD's offerings hold the advantage of better iGPUs. At $550 USD, I'm not sure how likely you'll find dedicated mobile GPUs in a laptop, so probably aim for a good iGPU if you're looking to play at higher resolutions.

This one has a high base clock, and it's a recent Ryzen CPU. 6 cores and good iGPU. On sale from $700 for $500

https://www.newegg.com/iron-gray-lenovo-v14-are-82dq000pus-mainstream/p/2WC-000J-00DS6?&quicklink=true

It seems like a good deal to me, but I'd advise you to keep looking in case something else catches your eye. Just keep in mind the advice about what kind of mobile CPUs and GPUs are suitable for Dolphin.

Thanks a lot my friend for taking your time and sending me such a big message!

All I want to run are these 4 games:-
1. Wii Sports
2. Wii Sports Resort
3. Wii Fit Plus
4. The legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Now my question to you is:-
1. Will my laptop run these games okay.. I mean I don't need HD
2. If not then what's the best laptop for just these four games.. a cheap and efficient laptop ... maximum 600 us dollars ( I had to raise some more money)

[nintendo13wii]

(07-26-2020, 01:19 AM)nintendo13wii Wrote: Thanks a lot my friend for taking your time and sending me such a big message!

All I want to run are these 4 games:-
1. Wii Sports
2. Wii Sports Resort
3. Wii Fit Plus
4. The legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Now my question to you is:-
1. Will my laptop run these games okay.. I mean I don't need HD
2. If not then what's the best laptop for just these four games.. a cheap and efficient laptop ... maximum 600 us dollars ( I had to raise some more money)

Hey @Shonumi u/Shonumi 
I am waiting for your answers please

Btw how to tag a user in a post?

[Shonumi]

Quote:All I want to run are these 4 games:-
1. Wii Sports
2. Wii Sports Resort
3. Wii Fit Plus
4. The legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Those 4 games aren't particularly demanding in the latest versions of Dolphin. However, as I said earlier, your CPU is too slow to run them at fullspeed (or even decent speeds). It doesn't matter if you play at the original resolution or in HD, since the CPU will bottleneck your GPU.

Anyway, the first laptop I suggested is still a very good choice. If you're looking for other options try these:

This one has the same CPU/iGPU as the Lenovo laptop I first suggested. Has an SSD instead of an HDD and has a different resolution (1366x768 instead of 1920x1080):
https://www.newegg.com/acer-aspire-5-a515-44-r4m5/p/N82E16834316900

This one has an older Intel CPU, but the base clock speed is pretty high for a mobile CPU. The iGPU is weaker than the Acer and Lenovo laptops I recommended, but if you're not concerned with HD gameplay, it shouldn't be an issue. This one has a 1TB HDD if you need all that storage space:
https://www.newegg.com/p/1TS-000A-03NJ7

[nintendo13wii]

(07-26-2020, 03:50 PM)Shonumi Wrote: Those 4 games aren't particularly demanding in the latest versions of Dolphin. However, as I said earlier, your CPU is too slow to run them at fullspeed (or even decent speeds). It doesn't matter if you play at the original resolution or in HD, since the CPU will bottleneck your GPU.

Anyway, the first laptop I suggested is still a very good choice. If you're looking for other options try these:

This one has the same CPU/iGPU as the Lenovo laptop I first suggested. Has an SSD instead of an HDD and has a different resolution (1366x768 instead of 1920x1080):
https://www.newegg.com/acer-aspire-5-a515-44-r4m5/p/N82E16834316900

This one has an older Intel CPU, but the base clock speed is pretty high for a mobile CPU. The iGPU is weaker than the Acer and Lenovo laptops I recommended, but if you're not concerned with HD gameplay, it shouldn't be an issue. This one has a 1TB HDD if you need all that storage space:
https://www.newegg.com/p/1TS-000A-03NJ7

A big thanks mate for guiding me. Have a nice day!