high end amd cpu vs intel

buffyvpsfan · (This post was last modified: 12-05-2014, 10:16 PM by buffyvpsfan.)

trying to build a cheap but powerful steam machine that can stream all my games from my desktop but also play the best emulator out there, dolphin!! i've heard that theres a huge gap between intel haswell and current amd cpus?? just how much of a gap is there or should i just stick with an i5 and overclock it and call it a day. advise needed??

one requirement: it needs to run twilight princess very well

mimimi · 12-05-2014, 11:08 PM #2

Take a look at this table:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AunYlOAfGABxdFQ0UzJyTFAxbzZhYWtGcGwySlRFa1E#gid=1

This table tells you how fast a cpu model is for Dolphin's cpu thread. For the rest, it's a good estimation to take general cpu benchmark results, and look only at single core performance there. Dolphin uses only 2 threads, and your computer might add 1 other thread for the gpu driver. So any core number above 3 is 100% useless for Dolphin. A 4.1 Ghz quadcore will run Dolphin faster than a 4.0 Ghz octacore(if it's the same architecture!).

All in all, you don't want an amd cpu for Dolphin, because amd's single core performance is bad. And amd goes for lots of cpu cores, which are not used in Dolphin.

A haswell i5, with a high clock rate, is a safe bet for Dolphin.

**mbc07** · 12-06-2014, 01:23 AM #3

(12-05-2014, 11:08 PM)mimimi Wrote: All in all, you don't want an amd cpu for Dolphin, because amd's single core performance is bad.

You won't want an AMD CPU not only for Dolphin, but for any emulator of somewhat recent consoles (PCSX2, DeSmuME, etc)...

buffyvpsfan · (This post was last modified: 12-06-2014, 04:58 AM by buffyvpsfan.)

I currently have a i7 2600k, with more games recommending beefier cpus should i upgrade to this or wait on intels side? my cpu on that chart is pretty low at the 4.0ghz which i have currently am 26 on that chart. motherboards and cpus are super cheap at microcenter. could get the i5-4690k and a motherboard for close to $280 without ram. is it about time i upgrade?

yl-smash · 12-06-2014, 05:52 AM #5

Well your profile says you're using Dolphin 4.02. You'll see a huge performance increase by upgrading to the latest developer versions. I would try that before anything else.