Curious if what I have is good for Dolphin

[Foffy]

Hey there, first post. Now, I'm sure I have a pretty solid rig to run a lot of games out there, but I noticed that I have some issues trying to play some games in Dolphin. Pandora's Tower loses frames when using the B button with the zooming feature on screen, The Last Story runs criminally slow in areas, but particularly, the Galaxy games, titles that I know have been able to run at solid speeds for some, run incredibly slow for me. I think my GPU is miles beyond what's needed to play Dolphin, and RAM is not an issue, so my issue is either my CPU or settings. My CPU is a AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 3.20 GHz, and I figure that because the emulator is dual core and not quad core, it's being bottlenecked by my CPU, which is not overclocked. I'm not sure if this is indeed the case, but it's the only assumption I have.

Hopefully you guys can help me figure out what the issue is, or if there's a way to force Dolphin to use four cores instead of two. I hope there's something I can do without upgrading the CPU, as I've burned a chunk of money into the GPU (Which is a GTX 580) as is, but that was dominantly for PC games (I previously had a GeForce 8800 GT).

[rpglord]

Last story is the most demanding game currently on dolphin.
For smg I would suggest you overclock your cpu.
Also enable vbeam and disable idle skipping

[Foffy]

I've never overclocked, so I'm unsure on how to do that, and I worry I may just blow the thing apart. Also, I have a minor question when it comes to options, so maybe you can help me here.

   

In the picture I attached, I followed sort of what you said, but I'm left a little perplexed: when it comes to clicking things, there are three options, a blank box, a check box, and a filled-in box. I'm wondering but what does it mean if the box is fully in and not just checked? Does that also mean it's on?

EDIT: I noticed following your suggestions in disabling idle skipping actually caused Super Mario Galaxy to slowdown even further, and it started giving the game a jittery effect. I think, and I believe what you said earlier was a bit key here, that the CPU is the issue here. Will overclocking fix my general issue, or am I better off upgrading my CPU?

[rpglord]

No,you got it right. Box needs to be checked,when its fully in it just means dolphin will use default options. Since there is no option for vbeam anywhere alse,it means it will be off.
Are you using HLE sound or LLE ? Disabling idle will slow it down a little,but LLE should sound better ( no skipping )
If you are using HLE just enable vbeam and leave idle on also.
Of course you are better off upgrading cpu if you can afford it. Cheapest option is mainboard with h61 chipset and i5 2400 cpu.
If you cant afford upgrade,overclock your cpu. Find a guide on google on how to do it

[Foffy]

Okay, I overclocked my CPU to about 3.8 GHz, which gave me a mild boost. It's still not enough for 100% in terms of framerate, so I suppose I am indeed better off getting a newer, beefier CPU. On the offchance here, do you know of a good CPU (and potentially motherboard set) that would be able to play all of the games on Dolphin at their regular speeds, sans compatibility issues?. I assume the framerate issues I've noticed in The Last Story, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Sonic Colors, both Galaxy titles, and Pandora's Tower imply that perhaps I need a beefier CPU for those games. Surely if any of those games have compatibility issues, that's one thing, but a number of those titles are played at full speed on videos I see on Youtube, TLS included.

The CPU doesn't have to be cheap, but it does have to work for my needs here.

[Shonumi]

On the offchance here, do you know of a good CPU (and potentially motherboard set) that would be able to play all of the games on Dolphin at their regular speeds, sans compatibility issues?

i5-2500K/i5-3750K + a mobo that supports overclocking e.g. the Z68 will run most games at fullspeed with LLE audio. Nothing AMD offers right now can do this, so you'll have to go Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge and OC that. It's the only way.

[Foffy]

On the offchance here, do you know of a good CPU (and potentially motherboard set) that would be able to play all of the games on Dolphin at their regular speeds, sans compatibility issues?

i5-2500K/i5-3750K + a mobo that supports overclocking e.g. the Z68 will run most games at fullspeed with LLE audio. Nothing AMD offers right now can do this, so you'll have to go Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge and OC that. It's the only way.

Thanks. This may be a little embarrassing to ask, but can you help me find exactly what I need? I don't want to blow my money on stuff I can't even use. I'm not good when it comes to buying parts. I've only bought RAM and a GPU before. ;A;

[Shonumi]

Something like TSA's Cheap High Performance Build will do just fine (and has the benefit of being relatively low-cost). Obviously, since you have a GTX 580, there's no need to buy a new GPU, and your RAM is fine.

[Foffy]

Hmm. If I get the recommended CPU, motherboard, and CPU cooler from that thread, I should surely be able to run every game that works on Dolphin with no issues, then? I'm curious because while it may be cheap, I worry if it's going to hamper me in any other way. It should at least be some improvement over what I have now, at least..?

[LordVador]

@Shonumi gave you the answer :

i5-2500K/i5-3750K + a mobo that supports overclocking e.g. the Z68 will run most games at fullspeed with LLE audio. Nothing AMD offers right now can do this, so you'll have to go Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge and OC that. It's the only way.