Dolphin PC buying guide

**NaturalViolence** · (This post was last modified: 01-27-2011, 12:06 PM by NaturalViolence.)

Quote:But, I can use it for SSAA 9X in RE4Wii,(using 1024x768) and 2X Scale EFB and Pixel Lighting without losing FPS???
Yes or No???

I don't know how stressful that particular game is on the gpu. It would have to be a very gpu lightweight game. For most games you would not be able to do that without slowdowns. I can tell you a 5770 is somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 times as fast as a 9400gt if memory serves. Do you really need 9xSSAA and pixel lighting?

RaptorZX3 · (This post was last modified: 01-27-2011, 02:10 PM by RaptorZX3.)

i wouldn't use any anti-aliasing, nor V-sync, nor too-high Anisotropic Filtering (mine is at 4x right now), Because in my opinion, V-sync is the framerate killer, and even more in emulation. And since it's not perfect, you want the most performance out of it, so don't use options such as them.

In any other PC-developed games, i don't use Anti-Aliasing because i don't want my framerate to suddenly drop because of X (like way too many polys showing, or too much happening on the same screen, or any other event that can happen during a gameplay). Of course, if you have the highest-end PC, just do it and put all details to the max!

If your Core i3 and GT240 run great almost all games, then i'm happy for you, the GT240 is very inexpensive, as well as the Core i3.

**NaturalViolence** · (This post was last modified: 01-28-2011, 09:00 AM by NaturalViolence.)

Quote:i wouldn't use any anti-aliasing, nor V-sync, nor too-high Anisotropic Filtering (mine is at 4x right now), Because in my opinion, V-sync is the framerate killer, and even more in emulation. And since it's not perfect, you want the most performance out of it, so don't use options such as them.

In the modern era of excessive texture fill rates AF basically has no performance hit whatsoever no matter how bad your video card is, it's a free texture filtering upgrade. In dolphin v-sync should not give you a performance hit unless your gpu is extremely underpowered for the efb scale that you are using. As for AA, depends on the video card and the type of AA.

hyperspeed · 01-28-2011, 09:52 AM **#534**

(01-27-2011, 12:05 PM)NaturalViolence Wrote: I don't know how stressful that particular game is on the gpu. It would have to be a very gpu lightweight game. For most games you would not be able to do that without slowdowns. I can tell you a 5770 is somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 times as fast as a 9400gt if memory serves. Do you really need 9xSSAA and pixel lighting?

Yes RE4 seems to be the only game that needs SSAA 9X, about Pixel Lighting, I tested today, even my 9400GT can activate it without losing FPS. Tongue

@NaturalViolence,Thank you very much. Wink

FantaXP7 · 02-09-2011, 01:08 PM **#535**

So I threw my core i5 into my htpc with 8 gb of memory and viola! awesome performance.

I can run games now at 1080p pretty well. I think there maybe be a little performance loss as I get slightly better results at 1440*768. I have an ati 5670 and the cpu isn't at 100%. Is the video card not good enough?

Also, one more question. Is there yet a solution to auto connect the wiimotes? [/align]

**NaturalViolence** · 02-09-2011, 01:19 PM **#536**

Quote:Also, one more question. Is there yet a solution to auto connect the wiimotes?

Auto-connect yes. Auto-pair no. Use an older revision like 6505.

Quote:I can run games now at 1080p pretty well. I think there maybe be a little performance loss as I get slightly better results at 1440*768. I have an ati 5670 and the cpu isn't at 100%. Is the video card not good enough?

What settings are you using (and which graphics plugin)?

RaptorZX3 · (This post was last modified: 02-10-2011, 12:22 AM by RaptorZX3.)

Even if peoples tell you that anti-aliasing and 16x anisotropic is very little influence on performance, i tend to not listen to them. Dolphin is what it is, an emulator, it's not perfect and you never know when your framerate will drop for X reason. And as of now, the Anti-aliasing setting still say "This make the rendered picture less blocky but also heavily decreases performance".

Better safe than sorry, and remember, if you set it for better performance, that mean you're ironing out all the "little decrease on performance" settings so you have to find the perfect balance so all games should work great without any framerate drop, OR don't take any chance and set it on the speed side, without much loss of graphics quality.

02-10-2011, 02:13 AM **#538**

Hello everyone,
I am in the market for a laptop as a desktop is not an option for me anymore due to space, but i have a decent budget to spend and was looking at the ASUS G73JW-3DE Gaming Laptop. I apologize in advance if this machine has been covered, but would someone be able to tell me if the specs below would be ideal for getting the maximum compatibility at the best speed for Dolphin? Should I upgrade any particular part? If so, which one? Finally, if there is a consensus on a particular laptop being the best, let me know that as well.

Thank you in advance and I look forward to hearing the responses.

Specifications

Processor & Cache Memory: Intel® Core™ i7 Mobile Quad Processor 740QM to 940XM

Operating System: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium

Chipset: Mobile Intel® HM55 Express +ICH10

Main Memory: 8GB DDR3/1066MHz System Memory - 4 Memory Slots
*Due to the 32-bit operating system's limitation, only 3GB will show up with a 4GB memory. The 64-bit operating system will not have this issue.

Display: 17.3" FHD (1920x1080) Ultra Bright LED MATTE 120Hz 3D Ready Screen + 3D Vision Glasses

Video Graphics & Memory: nVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 460M 1.5GB DDR5 Video Memory - DX11

Hard Drive: 2 x 500GB 7200rpm (1TB Total)

Clusta · (This post was last modified: 02-10-2011, 03:07 AM by Clusta.)

The question is how much is it going to cost. I'm pretty sure you're not going to get 1080p in 3D at 60 fps on any laptop. The performance is probably going to be worse if you're considering 3d in dolphin. The gpu is nice, but you should focus on which laptop processor you're going to get. It would be best to wait until more people actually get their hands on the laptop and benchmark it before making a purchase you might regret.

I can only go by reviews, and most say they can get stable 30fps with 3D + 720p with pc games at mediums settings. I have no clue how that would factor into dolphin. As it has been said many times before, dolphin is very cpu dependent, so the best cpu and modern gfx card you can get would be best.

02-10-2011, 03:06 AM **#540**

(02-10-2011, 02:49 AM)Clusta Wrote: The question is how much is it going to cost. I'm pretty sure you're not going to get 1080p in 3D at 60 fps on any laptop. The performance is probably going to be worse if you're considering 3d in dolphin. The gpu is nice, but you should focus on which laptop processor you're going to get. It would be best to wait until more people actually get their hands on the laptop and benchmark it before making a purchase you might regret.

Thanks for the advice. i may not have that much time, but I agree to stay away from the 3D. I am now looking at the non 3D version of the same laptop. I am likely to only be able to afford the i7 Mobile Quad Processor 740QM as the others are probably not enough bang for the buck. I would that processor should be adequate, but I understand that there are inherit limitations when comparing a laptop vs a desktop.