Good specs, still slow??

[zeropointtap]

Hello all. I have Windows 7 64 bit with an Intel i5 2400K running at 3.1 GHz, Nvidia GTX750 Ti running about 50% faster, 12 GB DDR3. All my games are on a SSD with Dolphin on my Windows HDD. I'm pretty sure I'm going to overclock it to around 4 GHz soon, just need to get that done. running Dolphin 4.0-2722

I've run a whole slew of settings based on recommendations on here and youtube videos, so I have no concrete settings that work better than others.

Wii Twilight Princess (USA, NTSC) just won't consistently run at a playable frame rate. This is the only game I've really tried in ernest, but it's the only one I'm really interested in re-playing right now. I keep getting choppy playback during graphics intensive scenes and lots of sound clipping.

It seems that if I fix one thing, then other features suffer. Any help please??

[admin89]

Your CPU isn't fast enough for Zelda TP - Hyrule Field
And btw , there is no "i5 2400k" . Your CPU is i5 2400 which is locked multiplier CPU . In other word , you can't overclock it like i5 2500k

[zeropointtap]

Oh no, you're right. I could of sworn that I had an overclockable chipset...

So everything else seems good? Looks like I need to get in the market for new CPU, luckily they have them pretty cheap locally.


So what about an i5-3570k? It is supported by my motherboard (Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3) and overclocking is still doable. This way it's a much simpler upgrade than a new mobo too. Thoughts??

[admin89]

i3 4130 @ 3.4GHz (stock) = i5 3570k @ 4.4GHz . So it's pretty pointless to buy that i5
See old Dolphin Benchmark
Pentium 20th Anniversary G3258 @ 4.7GHz is almost as fast as the fastest chip for Dolphin : i7 4790k @ 4.7GHz . G3258 is just a bit slower than that i7 but it's faster than i5 4670k and i7 4770k if you overclock it
See latest Dolphin Benchmark
If you live near Microcenter store , you can pick latest G3258 + MSI Z97 for $100 ($90 after debate)
http://www.microcenter.com/site/brands/g3258bundle.aspx
If you don't then just pick Asrock Z97 Anniversary . It's a decent board , it can push G3258 @ 4.8GHz though I don't recommend to push that far

[KHg8m3r]

You could, but clock-for-clock, Haswell is 30% or more faster in Dolphin.

So you can either jump ship now at the end of Haswell, or wait a little longer for Broadwell, which should give better thermals to provide better overclocking than even the Haswell Refresh.

[zeropointtap]

well i'd like to keep any upgrades to a more "plug and play" type of ordeal, which is why the 3570 appeals to me.

[KHg8m3r]

I know, and that would be an ideal situation, but the i5-3570K is 2 years old at this point. In terms of Dolphin, it's weaker than a Haswell i3. It's really not a good investment for something to carry you over for the next few years for Dolphin.

[zeropointtap]

so then, what's the ideal CPU and motherboard?

[admin89]

Getting Z97 mobo is more furure-proof than just sticking with a dead mobo

[KHg8m3r]

Because Z97 will support Broadwell.
And you can get the i5-4690K if you want solid performance across the board, or if you just want something fast for Dolphin until Broadwell comes out, the G3258 overclocked to 4.7Ghz will be on par with the i5-4690K/i7-4790K at 4.7 Ghz for Dolphin.