Dolphin Best in Windows, Mac, or Linux?

[425]

I have a MacBook, and I wish to use Dolphin on it to run (mostly) GameCube games.

Specs:
Intel Core2Duo 2.4GHz
2GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB
Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

Now, Dolphin hasn't run at its best on this computer. Playing Super Smash Bros. Melee with all other programs shut off, as in, only Dolphin is open, still only gets me around 20-30 FPS.

I've looked around online and seen that Dolphin runs better on Windows. Now, that's all well and good, but I don't plan on shelling out $100+ just to use Dolphin any time soon.

So, how well does Dolphin generally work in Linux compared to Windows and Mac? I could easily get Ubuntu and install it as a dual boot operating system, but I only want to bother with that if it will result in increased performance. If not, then I will just stick with Mac and maybe consider biting the bullet and buying Windows.

[NaturalViolence]

Buy windows. Get yourself a student discount if you can.

[DarzgL]

Do the developers have technical explanations for the speed differences between Windows and Linux/MacOS ? Maybe drivers optimization or something ?

[HawaiianPunch]

It's mostly related to DirectX performing faster than OpenGL. As for why, my only guess is more work has been done on DirectX because Dolphin is mainly a Windows program.

[neobrain]

(08-16-2011, 09:38 AM)HawaiianPunch Wrote: It's mostly related to DirectX performing faster than OpenGL. As for why, my only guess is more work has been done on DirectX because Dolphin is mainly a Windows program.

No.


It happens to be easier to write fast emulation code with Direct3D, especially since at least one of the main gfx devs is only familiar with D3D (that'd be me). Since most of us are short of time and the OpenGL backend works well enough, there's no real motivation to further optimize it.
It probably boils down to the fact that Direct3D mostly has only one way to do one thing, while OpenGL has numerous different ways of doing something (and only one way to do it right, but then again the "right" way might be slower due to crappy drivers). Additionally, things are pretty well-documented in Direct3D, while OpenGL ... meh.

[HawaiianPunch]

(08-16-2011, 10:20 AM)neobrain Wrote: Since most of us are short of time and the OpenGL backend works well enough, there's no real motivation to further optimize it.

The problem is people complain about poor emulation speed on Macs and wonder why it doesn't work as well. Unfortunately, they won't like to see this answer. It's fine with me though, as I'm primarily a Windows user.

[willianholtz]

(08-16-2011, 12:03 PM)HawaiianPunch Wrote:

(08-16-2011, 10:20 AM)neobrain Wrote: Since most of us are short of time and the OpenGL backend works well enough, there's no real motivation to further optimize it.

The problem is people complain about poor emulation speed on Macs and wonder why it doesn't work as well. Unfortunately, they won't like to see this answer. It's fine with me though, as I'm primarily a Windows user.

Indeed, both mac and linux I merely User.