Is a i7 a good cpu for dolphin

[kazaazak12]

Im starting to save up some money for the i7 (ill have enough in 2-3 weeks)
Is it a good cpu for dolphin?

[sNk]

i think its the best at the moment.

[kazaazak12]

(12-02-2010, 01:30 AM)sNk Wrote: i think its the best at the moment.

Awesome thanks bro

[hungry man]

If you're going to be buying in a month you may want to wait just a litttttle bit longer because Sandy Bridge will be coming out probably late December... and they'll push prices down quite a lot.

[my_rig_is_dust]

and it really depends on what i7 you get. some of the lower end ones can be a little slower than dolphin needs.

[kazaazak12]

(12-02-2010, 11:30 AM)my_rig_is_dust Wrote: and it really depends on what i7 you get. some of the lower end ones can be a little slower than dolphin needs.

Alright im a bit tired sp if this comes off stupid my bad
Im getting a intel i7 i think its like almost $300

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(12-02-2010, 08:49 AM)hungry man Wrote: If you're going to be buying in a month you may want to wait just a litttttle bit longer because Sandy Bridge will be coming out probably late December... and they'll push prices down quite a lot.

Im in Australia meaning nothing will push down the prices lol
But even if something did it wouldn't effect me because im just on the outskirts of Melbourne so yeah
And because we have like 2 good hardware shops here there prices are high as fuck just cuz they have supply and demand

[slaQ]

Can't you order online? The difference between buying in local stores or buying online is quite big even over here in the Netherlands.

[NaturalViolence]

Quote:and it really depends on what i7 you get. some of the lower end ones can be a little slower than dolphin needs.

Not true at all. All i3/i5/i7 desktop cpus have nearly identical performance with dolphin. Think about it:

500 series: 2 cores, HT, no turbo, 20 GB/s memory bandwidth
600 series: 2 cores, HT, turbo, 20 GB/s memory bandwidth
700 series: 4 cores, no HT, turbo, 20 GB/s memory bandwidth
800 series: 4 cores, HT, turbo, 20 GB/s memory bandwidth
900 series: 4 cores, HT, turbo, 24 GB/s memory bandwidth

The differences between them are:

Number of cores (all have at least 2 and more than 2 makes little difference since this application is dual threaded)

Hyperthreading (makes no difference)

Turbo boost (makes a small difference due to a slightly higher clock rate, but since everybody overclocks these days even that advantage is gone if you OC)

Memory bandwidth (this is the only difference that will make a significant difference, but only if efb to ram is used, even then the difference will only be a 10-20% improvement and that's only if the game is bottlenecked by memory read/write speed, few games are bottlenecked by that with efb to ram and nothing is bottlenecked by that with efb to texture)

Also the 4 core models have 9 MB of cache instead of 4.5MB. So the amount of cache per core is the same. However anything past 4MB seems to make little to no difference with dolphin.

Also the dual core models are much more OCable than the 4 core models, especially if HT is turned off. It is possible for an i3 540 running at 4.5GHz to actually beat an i7 920 running at 4GHz in dolphin while the i3 will consume far less power, produce less heat, and require a much smaller voltage increase to achieve a stable overclock, even at that higher core clock rate.

[kazaazak12]

(12-02-2010, 03:18 PM)slaQ Wrote: Can't you order online? The difference between buying in local stores or buying online is quite big even over here in the Netherlands.

Atm i have made way to many credit card purchases so were still paying the cards off

[slaQ]

(12-02-2010, 04:09 PM)kazaazak12 Wrote:

(12-02-2010, 03:18 PM)slaQ Wrote: Can't you order online? The difference between buying in local stores or buying online is quite big even over here in the Netherlands.

Atm i have made way to many credit card purchases so were still paying the cards off

lol (well not lol) xD