Dolphin PC buying guide

[inyue]

I heard that the i7 processor have a higher clock to clock speed compared with the "old" Core 2 Duo.

How much is this difference?

I was wondering to buy a new laptop with the i7 720QM 1.6GHz.

Which can work at 2.4GHz via Turbo Boost on dual core mode.

I can able to run Dolphin fluently?

[boogerlad]

5-30% ipc improvement.

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(02-03-2010, 12:28 PM)sendblink23 Wrote: My computer is just a budget I only spent $605

Ebay:
Motherboard MSI 770-C45 + 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz + AMD Phenom ii X4 965 (3.40Ghz stock) = $475
ATI HD 4650 1gb DDR2 = $50
Zalman CNPS9700 = $20

Local Store:
550w PSU = $15
Case (some big one i found at a local store) = $30
1 x 120mm + 5 x 80mm Fans = $15

Total = $605

Now I just ordered a Corsair H50 = $80 from Ebay for better cooling

Dolphin avg in all games is between 35 to 60 fps depending on areas in a game, most stay stabled at 60fps. Soon I'll get way better graphics card, but at least my cheap $50 card works fine on the Wii emulator & many other games at max settings (Gears of War, Assassin's Creed, Halo 2, NFS Shift, NFS Most Wanted, Modern Warfare 2, GTA IV & many more).

please don't tell me that you went with those crap psus. Watching them blow up is not fun.

[Starscream]

I think some of you are somewhat crazy for going all out on these PC's for Dolphin. If you guys would be patient and wait for Dolphin to evolve some more, we will all be able to play just about any game on a simple 2.0GHz Dual-core setup somewhere in the not too distant future.

[akskiller]

I was thinking of upgrading my CPU. Currently I have an AMD X2 Athlon 6000+ with ASUS M2N-E motherboard. IS it possible for me to upgrade to the AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition with my motherboard? Also is the AMD Phenom II supported by dolphin, will I see a difference?

[Roger525]

(02-13-2010, 10:03 AM)akskiller Wrote: I was thinking of upgrading my CPU. Currently I have an AMD X2 Athlon 6000+ with ASUS M2N-E motherboard. IS it possible for me to upgrade to the AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition with my motherboard? Also is the AMD Phenom II supported by dolphin, will I see a difference?

Whether your motherboard supports the Phenom II depends on the socket. If your motherboard has the proper socket for that CPU, it'll work. Do a quick google search for your motherboard specs and then for the Phenom II socket and you'll know.

For as far as compatibility is concerned, any processor will work. Dual cores are fully supported, e.g. Dolphin will actually use both cores to their fullest potential. Quadcores are also supported, but Dolphin will still only have 2 threads, so it will use only 2 out of 4 cores simultaneously. I'm not sure what kind of performance increase you'll see, for that I'd try to find a review of both CPUs and compare benchmarks to get an idea of your performance increase.
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Now that I'm here writing this post, I might as well post some of my own findings. I just bought a new 'budget' PC from Dell, just for entertainment and office stuff, not for games since I don't really have time to play them anyway. I'm just fiddling around with Dolphin for fun First, the specs:

Dell Inspiron 580
CPU: Intel Core i3 530 @ 2.93GHz
RAM: 4GB DDR3
Video: Radeon HD 5450 1GB GDDR3
HD: 1TB @ 7200RPM

other specs aren't really relevant, look them up yourself if you wish

Performance (settings: 720p resolution, no AA, no AF):
New Super Mario Bros. Wii: runs perfectly. Some slowdowns in some levels for no apparent reason though, but overall runs perfectly.
Zelda Wind Waker: See above.
Zelda Twilight Princess: Getting about 14FPS in Hyrule Field, 20FPS in the desert. For that reason alone I consider it not playable on my system.
Super Paper Mario: Runs like a charm.
I'll be testing Mario Kart Wii later

--Edit--
Just ran Mario Kart briefly: Runs better than expected @ about 45-60FPS ingame. Definitely playable, no slowdowns so far.

[evil_boi]

How important is a good GPU?

Right now I have a Phenom II X4 B50 at 3.1GHZ (a Phenom II X2 550 BE 3.1GHZ dual core unlocked to quad) and an ATI HD 4200 integrated graphics

Wii Smash Bros Brawl runs at an OK 35FPS
Wii Mario Kart runs slowly at 28FPS with noticable lag

Task Manager when running mario kart:
(lock threads to core) uses only 2 cores at 100%
(without lock threads to core) uses all 4 cores randomly at around 60-70% usage per core

it seems (from lock threads to core) that overclocking would definitely boost the speed. I'm planning to get maybe a 4670(or its successor 5670)

[Roger525]

A good CPU is EVERYTHING. Rendering the graphics isn't too big a problem for most GPUs, even your HD4200 should be able to cope with that. It's the CPU where all the action happens: converting Gamecube/Wii instruction sets to usable X86/X64 architecture instructions. Then again, I guess games like Mario Kart and Zelda Twilight Princess will also require a decent video card for graphics rendering...

I'm a little surprised you don't get better performance with that CPU, actually. I get 45/55FPS in Mario Kart with my Core i3 530 Dual Core @ 2.93GHz and an ATI HD 5450 (which is essentially an IGP on steroids).

[evil_boi]

(02-15-2010, 09:30 AM)Roger525 Wrote: A good CPU is EVERYTHING. Rendering the graphics isn't too big a problem for most GPUs, even your HD4200 should be able to cope with that. It's the CPU where all the action happens: converting Gamecube/Wii instruction sets to usable X86/X64 architecture instructions. Then again, I guess games like Mario Kart and Zelda Twilight Princess will also require a decent video card for graphics rendering...

I'm a little surprised you don't get better performance with that CPU, actually. I get 45/55FPS in Mario Kart with my Core i3 530 Dual Core @ 2.93GHz and an ATI HD 5450 (which is essentially an IGP on steroids).

What settings do you use? I think I used the default settings (Enable dual core, Enable idle skipping, HLE, JIT, OpenGL at 1280x720 windowed, everything else lowest or disabled)

When running Mario Kart, the graphics look a little blurred(probably need 2x/4x AA). FPS says 35(?), but the countup clock(mm: ss:ms) definitely runs slower than realtime. Think i need to upgrade DirectX drivers since it doesn't show as a plugin. Will report back when I try again

I guess I'll try overclocking, seeing that Dolphin uses only 2 cores.

Looks like from benchmarks, i3 530 beats Phenom II X2 550BE, but only slightly better with Phenom II X4 955(similar to my unlocked B50). Raw core power for 2 cores, i3 530 definitely beats the chip I have, but I paid only $90 for mine vs $120+ for yours.
Let me see if I can tweak some settings

EDIT: I would say the performance is similar to the one in this video below, but at a lower framerate for me. Most likely a graphics issue(need to upgrade from this IGP), since the CPUs are similar enough
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XYWdKw12g

[Roger525]

(02-15-2010, 02:34 PM)evil_boi Wrote: What settings do you use? I think I used the default settings (Enable dual core, Enable idle skipping, HLE, JIT, OpenGL at 1280x720 windowed, everything else lowest or disabled)

Stop right there. You're using the OpenGL plugin? That one is significantly slower than the Direct3D plugin... Try that. Remeber to have the DirectX 9 runtime installed if you're running Win 7, or the Direct3D plugin won't show in the dolphin settings.

[Paladia]

From my experience any i7 computer runs dolphin fine. The 920-series is very cheap and can be overclocked to increase the speed by another 40% with your basic stock cooling.