Can the ASUS X200MA run dolphin well?

[Nintendo Maniac 64]

Keep in mind that all 4 laptops have 1x4GB of single channel DDR4 which is going to limit your GPU performance. Normally you could alleviate this by adding a second stick of 4GB DDR4 yourself (~$40 USD), but there's no guarantee that any of the laptops even have 2 RAM slots let alone have them wired up in a dual-channel configuration.

(05-09-2018, 10:47 AM)DBurns Wrote: Aspire E - E5-523-93FV
https://us-store.acer.com/offers/special-deals/aspire-e-laptop-e5-523-93fv

Definitely not this one - if you want to run Dolphin well on AMD CPUs, then anything older than Ryzen is a no-go.

[DBurns]

Yeah, I thought about the RAM but anything with more than 4gb proved too expensive... Also, thank you, I'll remove the Aspire E.

Now I just have these three left then.

Aspire R 14 R5-471T-34L1
https://us-store.acer.com/offers/special-deals/aspire-r-14-laptop-r5-471t-34l1

Aspire 3 - A315-41-R0GH
https://us-store.acer.com/laptops/classic/aspire-3-laptop-a315-41-r0gh

Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575-33BM
https://www.amazon.com/Acer-E5-575-33BM-15-6-Inch-Notebook-Generation/dp/B01K1IO3QW

[TKSilver]

The A315 should cause you to have to compromise on games and settings slightly less the the other 2. Though there will be compromises on what games can be played on any of them. But the A315 has the better CPU\GPU combo. Assuming you can actually get one since ryzen laptops are a pain to find in stock.

[Nintendo Maniac 64]

In terms of raw performance, the Ryzen should be the best (faster GPU + higher CPU clock, especially turbo)

In terms of nice-to-haves, the R14 would be the best (SSD + 1080p screen)

The Acer on Amazon then is somewhere between the two in terms of both performance and nice-to-haves (bit faster CPU than the R14 and 1080p screen, but no SSD).


Mechanical hard drives can usually be replaced by an SSD by the user, though replacing the display with a 1080p screen usually requires complete disassembly.

(05-09-2018, 11:03 AM)DBurns Wrote: anything with more than 4gb proved too expensive

That shouldn't be an issue if you yourself can add a second stick of 4GB DDR4 since you said you couldn't spend more than $450 and the most expensive of those laptops is $400, leaving you $50 for that second stick of RAM.

Again though, this is assuming that the laptop even has a second RAM slot and supports dual-channel and all of that.

[DBurns]

(05-09-2018, 11:10 AM)TKSilver Wrote: The A315 should cause you to have to compromise on games and settings slightly less the the other 2.  Though there will be compromises on what games can be played on any of them.  But the A315 has the better CPU\GPU combo.  Assuming you can actually get one since ryzen laptops are a pain to find in stock.

Alright, that sounds good to me. One last thing though; I just found this one on Amazon with 6gb of RAM Should I go with the A315 or this one? 

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-i3-8130U-Memory-E5-576-392H/dp/B079TGL2BZ/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

[Nintendo Maniac 64]

(05-09-2018, 11:14 AM)DBurns Wrote: Alright, that sounds good to me. One last thing though; I just found this one on Amazon with 6gb of RAM Should I go with the A315 or this one? 

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-i3-8130U-Memory-E5-576-392H/dp/B079TGL2BZ/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

The 6GB of RAM would mean it has 2 RAM slots, but also means it's a mis-matched set and therefore dual-channel is still not guaranteed.

...though I didn't even know they made 2GB sticks of DDR4, so for all we know the other laptops may actually be 2x2GB instead.


Anyway, the CPU would probably actually be better than the Ryzen if the clocks can stay up, though you can also force this via the likes of Intel Xtreme Tuning Utility or ThrottleStop (which also supports undervolting thereby additionally helping turbo stay active).

But of course, the GPU is almost certainly going to be worse...unless it can use dual-channel memory and the Ryzen is forced to use single-channel, in which case they may actually perform similarly.

[DBurns]

(05-09-2018, 11:26 AM)Nintendo Maniac 64 Wrote: The 6GB of RAM would mean it has 2 RAM slots, but also means it's a mis-matched set and therefore dual-channel is still not guaranteed.

...though I didn't even know they made 2GB sticks of DDR4, so for all we know the other laptops may actually be 2x2GB instead.


Anyway, the CPU would probably actually be better than the Ryzen if the clocks can stay up, though you can also force this via the likes of Intel Xtreme Tuning Utility or ThrottleStop (which also supports undervolting thereby additionally helping turbo stay active).

But of course, the GPU is almost certainly going to be worse...unless it can use dual-channel memory and the Ryzen is forced to use single-channel, in which case they may actually perform similarly.

I'm really sorry, but I didn't understand half of that lol... I mean you seem to know your stuff, so which one do you personally think would be best out of those 2? Or are they about the same?

[admin89]

Quote:How is 4GB's of ram barely enough for Dolphin?

Because Windows (64bit) has already used up to 3GB of Ram at idle . This is taken from a clean install of windows (I did a few week ago)
On my tablet which also have a Celeron CPU , 4GB of Ram and 64bit version of Windows 10, running any demanding application on it will use up all Ram and it will automatically switch to virtual Ram (pagefiles) on your HDD/SSD/E-MMC which are much slower than Ram . You should check for "committed memory" instead of Ram usage

Useless you're using 32bit version of windows , I doubt 4GB of Ram is enough for anything . The bare minimum requirement for gaming is 8GB , everyone is saying that , not just me

[Nintendo Maniac 64]

(05-09-2018, 11:33 AM)admin89 Wrote: Because Windows (64bit) has already used up to 3GB of Ram at idle

Dear lord man, my HP DM1 laptop with Win7 64bit only uses 1GB of RAM at idle.

[admin89]

I was fine with 4GB Ram in between 2010~2013 , not kidding . Too bad I no longer use older OS so I don't know
The only thing I know is : 4GB is not enough for today standard