Dolphin PC buying guide

[DanielWestman]

Hi all,
I'm planning to build a HTPC that I also want to run Dolphin on. What kind of setup will it take to be able to play for example Zelda: TP with high graphic settings, 1080p, and at a good speed?

How far will this setup get me?
CPU: i3 550 3.2ghz (overclocking is an option)
GPU: Radeon EAH5570 Silent 1gb
RAM: 4gb
Windows 7 64bit

I was first about to go with a quad-core i5 760 2.8ghz but as Dolphin only uses two cores the 3.2ghz dual-core will be faster than the 2.8ghz quad-core, right? As I understand it 3ghz is a minimum to be able to emulate games at good speed.

For the GPU, I was initially going for a GeForce GTX460 1gb, but if I can still get good graphics with a cheaper and less power-consuming card I don't want to throw my money away for "nothing". What do you think about the card I listed in the setup above? I've also looked at a HD5770, but those are almost the same price as the GTX460 so I might as well go with the GTX in that case.

Running roms from an external storage?
I'm thinking about using an SSD as a system disk and store movies, roms, etc. on a NAS. Has anyone tried having the roms on an external drive and running them through your wireless network? I'm unsure about how that will affect the performance.

[Miki5]

Hi to all.. I'm new on this site and I have to say all the best for dolphin emulator ..

I have a question..
I go to buy a new pc,are this component good for dolphin..
Max resolution of 22" monitor is 1680x1050..

Foxconn P55A PCIe/SATA/GLan/8.1/DDR3

Intel Core i3 540 3.06GHz 4Mb

Apacer DDR3 2Gb 1333MHz

XFX HD5670 1Gb DDR5 PCIe

Later I will take 2GB ram more.. How many FPS I will have and can I playing nice wii game??
Thank you

[metalnumb]

@Miki5:

Your Question simply can't has a 100% accurate answer as every game is different.....

-- Mainly, Dolphin uses CPU Intensively (Doubly so nowadays o_O) , so you'd better buy a powerful modern cpu cooler and overclock if u're gonna buy the i3 , it'd be good enough but only O'd if u want smooth gameplay, i'd recommend i5 or i7 if u can afford one of them...

-- And about the 5670HD, its descent for dolphin , but dont expect resolution more than 1280x720 for smooth gameplay with maybe x4 AA and other enhancements.

-- About the ram, it doesnt increase your fps as long as u have enough ram (2gb, on windows seven),extra ram wouldnt made a difference...

[Miki5]

are they diffrent between i3@3,8 and i5@3,8..
thanks for answer

[kirbypuff]

Quote:And about the 5670HD, its descent for dolphin , but dont expect resolution more than 1280x720 for smooth gameplay.

???

That card is capable of running Dolphin smoothly @ 1440p (!) (fractional EFB scale, no SSAA).

[Miki5]

@kirbypuff
It's sounds nice..I hope you're right..

[kirbypuff]

(11-16-2010, 12:45 AM)Miki5 Wrote: @kirbypuff
It's sounds nice..I hope you're right..

That card is a monster (for emulation).

Just for fun, I tested Dolphin with a lower end el cheapo HD 5570. Running the latest Dolphin SVN build @ 1920x1200 (that's 1200p) with fractional EFB scaling, pixel lighting enabled, VSync enabled, just no SSAA.

It runs 98% of the stuff I tried (smooth as butter) without dropping a single frame. The low budget ATI HD 5xxx cards are amazing

As for the other 2%, those were limited by the CPU anyway (e.g. ZTP's Hyrule Field is a bitch to emulate at full speed, even with the speedup hack)

Just make sure you disable Windows 7 Aero compositing before running Dolphin to get better performance and lower input lag. Use the Direct3D9 plugin for optimal performance and don't forget to update your graphics drivers to the latest bleeding-edge version.

[fb39ca4]

@DanielWestman: I don't think running ROMs directly over the network is a good idea, as dolphin uses the disk a lot, but if you have enough ram, you could load ROMs into a ramdisk, and then use them.

[lamachejo]

Hi,
between AMD Athlon II 450 X3 Triple Core 3.2Ghz AM3 Box or AMD Phenom II 555 X2 Dual Core 3.2GHz Black Edition AM3 Box , which one would you choose?

If I get the phenom II, performance wise in dolphin, would it be better to unlock all 4 cores or just 2 cores ? Since dolphin only uses 2, I guess unlocking the 4 cores would only make dolphin sluggish?

[Arpit]

@lamachejo

Unlocking 4 cores is good for multi-threaded apps, but it is only slightly good for dolphin, as the dolphin can utilize the two cores more effectively and the remaining two cores will handle system processes.

But Unlocking is kinda gambling. You know, maybe the cores didn't unlock. Athlon x3 has more chances to get unlocked than Phenom, but it lacks L3 Cache. I would recommend to search for a particular batch which insures that you have potential quad core. Because generally disabled cores are dead cores. So, it is kind of risk but its your call.

Wait for another members to answer. Then you may decide what to do for your buck...