Does resolution effect speed?

[dra6onfire]

I haven't been able to find much info on this in the forums despite graphics being a heavy center of conversation so here goes my simple question:

Will running Dolphin at 640x480 resolution give me any significant increase in speed over 1080p? It seems like it should but I am considering getting a monitor that can display in 1080p and before I invest in that I would like to know if when I get it I will be disappointed in the results speedwise.

Thanks in advance for the input.

[sixor]

with your gpu yes, with a good gpu it does not matter

[dra6onfire]

lol ouch. I guess I was asking for that posting my specs.

[NaturalViolence]

If you turn off efb scaled copy it will not have an impact. If you have efb scaled copy on then sixor is correct.

[dra6onfire]

so between the two nvidia 8600 gt overclocked cards in sli and an ati hd 5570 which would give me better performance?

[tuanming]

Multi-GPUs are not supported, this isn't a pc game! A single 5770 or gtx 460 would rape your 8600 gt in SLI. I don't get why people would spend money on 2 low-end cards instead of one decent card that cost just about the same...

[NaturalViolence]

Actually dolphin does support multi-gpu, just not very well. And even if it didn't you could always use alternating frame mode to force it through the driver control panel.

Quote:I don't get why people would spend money on 2 low-end cards instead of one decent card that cost just about the same...

Because he already has the two weak cards and he has a limited budget? I'm guessing he bought them back in early 2007 when their really wasn't any good midrange cards from nvidia yet (8800GT hadn't come out yet). SLI with midrange cards has historically been a better option for performance per dollar than buying high end cards for pc games. Even now two GTX 460s in SLI can beat a GTX 580 for $100 less for example.

To answer his question. Yes, a 5570 would be an improvement. Not a phenomenal improvement though. I would go with tuanming's advice and save up for a better card.

[tuanming]

@NaturalViolence

Well, it's not officially supported, right? Also, you don't see any SLI or Xfire support on recent revisions, therefore, what i said was correct.

2 460s is very understandable, but 2 8600 gt, don't even bother with it.

[NaturalViolence]

Quote:Well, it's not officially supported, right?

You have to turn it on in the driver control panel just like with most games but it does work. They committed a patch to the svn for it awhile back (800 revisions ago or something like that?). Trust me it does work.

Quote:2 460s is very understandable

For dolphin yes, but for pc gaming though it's a great choice. One of the best performance/dollar ratios for high performance systems period.

Quote:but 2 8600 gt, don't even bother with it.

In early 2007 that was the absolute best choice for midrange hands down. You had an 8600gt ($125), 8600 GTS ($175) which was a little bit faster (33% on average), and the next card up was the 8800GTS ($400) which blew them both out of the water but was too expensive for most people. For $250 you could SLI two 8600gt and get nearly perfect scaling in all games, it was a great midrange option that beat a single 8600GTS by 45% on average until the 8800GT came along and offered a viable single card midrange option. So don't hate on him just because it's outdated, it was probably not a bad decision when he made it. SLI is sometimes a very good option, just not good for dolphin that's all. I loved my dual 8800GT setup until I got my GTX 260.

[dra6onfire]

thanks for all the input. yea i know that the sli setup is old and i did get them a few years ago instead of moving up to the next level card. the only reason i asked about the sli cards and the ati card is because those are the only ones i have right now. ill have to look into buying a new card at some point