Do I need Skylake and Windows 10?

[rich2k4]

I was ready to build a small mini ITX pc dedicated strictly to emulation. It would be connected to my tv and running hyperspin. I was planning on building it with the 4690k and gtx 960 2gb, with Windows 7 installed.

Now intel has released sky lake. From what I read, it doesn't seem to be that much better, and requires DDR4 memory which is more expensive.

I don't really want to spend too much money on this machine, all I want it to do is to be able to comfortably handle most gamecube/wii games at 3x/4x internal res.

Also would there be any benefit in me going with Windows 10? I'm kind of put off by all of the privacy issues going on with it at the moment, but I also don't want to be running an old OS, when Dolphin might stop supporting Win 7 in the future. Does Dolphin plan on using some capability that Win 10 provides that win 7 doesn't?

[Anti-Ultimate]

(08-07-2015, 08:50 PM)rich2k4 Wrote: Now intel has released sky lake. From what I read, it doesn't seem to be that much better, and requires DDR4 memory which is more expensive.

This is correct. But if you're building now I'd still get Skylake since it's newer and costs the same anyways.

Quote:I don't really want to spend too much money on this machine, all I want it to do is to be able to comfortably handle most gamecube/wii games at 3x/4x internal res.

Don't need Skylake to do that

Quote:Also would there be any benefit in me going with Windows 10? I'm kind of put off by all of the privacy issues going on with it at the moment, but I also don't want to be running an old OS, when Dolphin might stop supporting Win 7 in the future. Does Dolphin plan on using some capability that Win 10 provides that win 7 doesn't?

Devs might start using DX12 features but I honestly doubt that. You shouldn't need to worry about Windows 7 being dropped, because that's probably never going to happen

[lybxlpsv]

(08-07-2015, 08:50 PM)rich2k4 Wrote: skylake requires DDR4 memory.

ddr4?
afaik theres ddr3 z170 motherboard around, and theres also ddr3 vs ddr4 skylake benchmarks on anandtech.

[JosJuice]

(08-07-2015, 08:54 PM)Anti-Ultimate Wrote: Devs might start using DX12 features but I honestly doubt that.

If they do, that doesn't mean that things won't work without DX12. Even if DX11 support is dropped (which I don't think is going to happen anytime soon), OpenGL will still be around.

(08-07-2015, 08:54 PM)Anti-Ultimate Wrote: You shouldn't need to worry about Windows 7 being dropped, because that's probably never going to happen

Well, it's going to happen sometime. If Dolphin still is being maintained in 2050, I don't think anyone is going to care about support for an operating system that's 40 years old

But you're right, it's nothing to worry about. Windows 7 usage is huge among the Dolphin userbase.

[Helios]

I don't see the big deal about dx12 for dolphin. Our graphics backends are pretty good to the point that in most cases, graphics is not why dolphin is slow. It's waiting on the CPU to do stuff. That said, and with the knowledge that many users are having issues with Dolphin on W10, I'd avoid it for now.

[NaturalViolence]

For an emu box win 10 is better than win 7 because of the UI, but is not required. Skylake is better than haswell but not required. Skylake does not require DDR4, I don't know where you heard that.