Dolphin PC buying guide

[luigi25]

Hi.
I would like to run Dolphin but with mi PC this is an imposible mission.
I barely can play mario kart at 15-20 fps.
My PC:
-Intel Pentium D 920. 2.8 GHz
-2GB RAM
-Graphic card intel g945.
-Windows 7
I want to upgrade my computer without spending much money.
What I have to change to run games faster?
Thanks

[CacoFFF]

(12-30-2009, 12:04 AM)luigi25 Wrote: Hi.
I would like to run Dolphin but with mi PC this is an imposible mission.
I barely can play mario kart at 15-20 fps.
My PC:
-Intel Pentium D 920. 2.8 GHz
-2GB RAM
-Graphic card intel g945.
-Windows 7
I want to upgrade my computer without spending much money.
What I have to change to run games faster?
Thanks

Get a video card. Maybe a new cpu after that?
What's your budget?

[luigi25]

(12-30-2009, 01:15 AM)CacoFFF Wrote:

(12-30-2009, 12:04 AM)luigi25 Wrote: Hi.
I would like to run Dolphin but with mi PC this is an imposible mission.
I barely can play mario kart at 15-20 fps.
My PC:
-Intel Pentium D 920. 2.8 GHz
-2GB RAM
-Graphic card intel g945.
-Windows 7
I want to upgrade my computer without spending much money.
What I have to change to run games faster?
Thanks

Get a video card. Maybe a new cpu after that?
What's your budget?

I want to spend the less money I can because the PC is already too old and soon I´m going to buy a new one.
I only want a cheap graphic card, enough to run games like Mario Wii or Mario Kart, at good speed( 30-40fps).

[hkl8324]

Where is is better for dolphin (and pcsx2?)
i3 530 or Athlon II x3 440?

[abfab126]

Dual core vs triple core , it s your choice , other than that , Dolphin , still uses 2 cores ^^

[muakaka]

I'm thinking of upgrading my specs, and might as well do it so that I can run Tales of Graces(among other games) smoothly, but I'm not too sure what should I replace.
A little help here? No real budgets.

My specs are as such:
System Model: G31M-ES2L
Processor: Intel® Core™2 Quad CPU Q8400 @ 2.66GHz (4 CPUs)
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Graphic card : NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT

Currently, I CAN run ToG(using the 4716M build by spellforce), but the game starts to slow down once I have 3 party members in battle, and slows down to 30-40 fps after I got my 4th.

(I sure hope I can at least salvage my processor and motherboard....)
Thanks for any help provided.

[CacoFFF]

(01-11-2010, 06:43 AM)muakaka Wrote: I'm thinking of upgrading my specs, and might as well do it so that I can run Tales of Graces(among other games) smoothly, but I'm not too sure what should I replace.
A little help here? No real budgets.

My specs are as such:
System Model: G31M-ES2L
Processor: Intel® Core™2 Quad CPU Q8400 @ 2.66GHz (4 CPUs)
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Graphic card : NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT

Currently, I CAN run ToG(using the 4716M build by spellforce), but the game starts to slow down once I have 3 party members in battle, and slows down to 30-40 fps after I got my 4th.

(I sure hope I can at least salvage my processor and motherboard....)
Thanks for any help provided.

You should salvage the CPU and Motherboard, now what resolution are you playing on?
If you get such slowdowns even with native resolution, then getting a new video card is of no use.

[muakaka]

(01-11-2010, 10:01 AM)CacoFFF Wrote:

(01-11-2010, 06:43 AM)muakaka Wrote: I'm thinking of upgrading my specs, and might as well do it so that I can run Tales of Graces(among other games) smoothly, but I'm not too sure what should I replace.
A little help here? No real budgets.

My specs are as such:
System Model: G31M-ES2L
Processor: Intel® Core™2 Quad CPU Q8400 @ 2.66GHz (4 CPUs)
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Graphic card : NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT

Currently, I CAN run ToG(using the 4716M build by spellforce), but the game starts to slow down once I have 3 party members in battle, and slows down to 30-40 fps after I got my 4th.

(I sure hope I can at least salvage my processor and motherboard....)
Thanks for any help provided.

You should salvage the CPU and Motherboard, now what resolution are you playing on?
If you get such slowdowns even with native resolution, then getting a new video card is of no use.

I've tried playing it in 640x480 and 1440x900(which I think is my native resolution) resolutions, but the FPS is roughly the same.

[RupeeClock]

I'm looking at two choices here.

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
Intel Core 2 Quad Q400

Looking at benchmarks, the Q400 far outperforms the E8500, but Dolphin only utilises dual cores.

Same price, what do I choose?

[CacoFFF]

(01-11-2010, 03:39 PM)muakaka Wrote:

(01-11-2010, 10:01 AM)CacoFFF Wrote:

(01-11-2010, 06:43 AM)muakaka Wrote: I'm thinking of upgrading my specs, and might as well do it so that I can run Tales of Graces(among other games) smoothly, but I'm not too sure what should I replace.
A little help here? No real budgets.

My specs are as such:
System Model: G31M-ES2L
Processor: Intel® Core™2 Quad CPU Q8400 @ 2.66GHz (4 CPUs)
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Graphic card : NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT

Currently, I CAN run ToG(using the 4716M build by spellforce), but the game starts to slow down once I have 3 party members in battle, and slows down to 30-40 fps after I got my 4th.

(I sure hope I can at least salvage my processor and motherboard....)
Thanks for any help provided.

You should salvage the CPU and Motherboard, now what resolution are you playing on?
If you get such slowdowns even with native resolution, then getting a new video card is of no use.

I've tried playing it in 640x480 and 1440x900(which I think is my native resolution) resolutions, but the FPS is roughly the same.

It would be stupid, in my opinion, to replace a Core 2 Quad with MOBO and memories for a i7, spending around 400$.

Your best choice is to increase your CPU frequencies.
If you're willing to spend some money, do in on a high end cooling system, from 60$ to 100$ you may keep your cpu at freqs >3.4ghz even cooler than at 2.66 on stock cooling.
As long as you don't touch voltage settings your cpu life will not be affected.

---

(01-11-2010, 11:12 PM)RupeeClock Wrote: I'm looking at two choices here.

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
Intel Core 2 Quad Q400

Looking at benchmarks, the Q400 far outperforms the E8500, but Dolphin only utilises dual cores.

Same price, what do I choose?

2 Cores, at that price, in my opinion, is robbery.
If you really want to keep your rig for a good amount of time (2 years min) and make it useful even for future software and games (most recent games do use more that 2 cores), get the quad core one.
As said in the previous post, if you get tired of the slowness, get a good cooling system and you're going.