(11-02-2015, 01:26 AM)DrHouse64 Wrote: His plan is clear : he needs a new laptop for school and personal use for a $400-$500 budget, and he wants to know what $400-$500 configuration should be fine with Dolphin.
Well, you can't expect much with this budget. I guess a good i3-4XXXM/i3-5XXXM should be okey, but you will have slowdowns in many games/areas I'm afraid. If you want slightly better CPU performance and a good GPU boost, you can also wait for Skylake i3-6XXXM CPUs.
The misconception that laptops are not good for emulating Dolphin (or PC gaming for that matter) have changed over the last couple of years. Dolphin has gotten to a point where laptops are now able to handle it perfectly fine and the requirements -> optimization ratio will keep getting lower as long as devs keep tackling any regressions. I've had an i5-4200M + GT720M discrete GPU for over 3 years now that costed $700 at that time and I haven't had any problems emulating demanding games whatsover (Metroid Prime series, SMG 1 & 2) Laptops are perfectly capable of emulating Dolphin at this stage that does not necessarily need to be up to date hardware (Skylake, etc.) The concept that users need to know is that it all depends on the version of Dolphin your using and the game being emulated (demanding or not) So my suggestion to OP is that you look for CPUs that are non 'U' series as mentioned already, and describe which games you plan on emulating. You don't need to shell out $1200+ on a laptop just for Dolphin you just have to know what to look for to get your best bang for the buck and know "how" to use it. Just my 2 cents.
[color=#666666]MSI [/color][color=#ff9933]CX[/color][color=#666666]60[/color]
[color=#999999]i5-4200M @ 3.5Ghz [/color][color=#ff9933]turboboost[/color]
[color=#666666]N[/color][color=#999999]vidia GT720[/color][color=#ff9933]M[/color]
[color=#999999][color=#666666]1[/color] [/color][color=#ff9966]TB[/color] [color=#999999]HDD[/color]
[color=#666666]Windows[/color] [color=#ff9933]8.1[/color]
[color=#999999][color=#666666]Wii [/color]Pro Controller [/color][color=#ff9933]+[/color] [color=#999999]Mayflash adapter, Wii Mote [/color][color=#ff9933]x2[/color]
[color=#999999]i5-4200M @ 3.5Ghz [/color][color=#ff9933]turboboost[/color]
[color=#666666]N[/color][color=#999999]vidia GT720[/color][color=#ff9933]M[/color]
[color=#999999][color=#666666]1[/color] [/color][color=#ff9966]TB[/color] [color=#999999]HDD[/color]
[color=#666666]Windows[/color] [color=#ff9933]8.1[/color]
[color=#999999][color=#666666]Wii [/color]Pro Controller [/color][color=#ff9933]+[/color] [color=#999999]Mayflash adapter, Wii Mote [/color][color=#ff9933]x2[/color]