Is RAM more important or CPU for dolphin ?

[mercury888]

Hi Guys,

firstly my apologies if i am breaking the rules asking this. But i was just wondering if the dolphin emulator would run better on a system with a better CPU, lets say an i3 over a celeron with lower RAM - 2GB.

Or will it run better on a slower CPU like a celeron but with a higher RAM - 4GB?

So basically what is more important? RAM or CPU?

Thanks guys in advanced.

Merc

[DrHouse64]

CPU is way more important, but you also need a decent amount of RAM.
Celeron's performance are terrible and don't fit Dolphin requirements. i3 do a good job, especially last ones with a good clock speed.
4 Go of RAM is fine, 2 Go is really small but it should work if Dolphin is the only app running and if you have a discrete video card that have its own memory.

[Benze]

If you plan to use Windows 10, you should not go below 4 GB, otherwise even a web browser can run out of ram easily, which basically renders your pc useless. My PC uses ~2 GB of RAM with only firefox and a few basic background processes open. In Germany, a single stick of 4GB DDR4 RAM is also cheaper than a 2 GB stick. It would not make any sense to go lower. If I would build a new PC right now, I would take 16 GB RAM. 8 GB are still fine and 4 is absolute bare minimum if you totally need the 15 € elsewhere.

[mercury888]

will 2gb be ok for linux?

[Kurausukun]

2GB probably won't be okay for anything, and I'm not just talking about Dolphin. You can't just pick up some netbook and expect it to run high-end applications.

[Helios]

2 GB will run okay on Linux if you use a desktop environment that barely needs any resources, like LXDE or something. But LXDE is annoying to use for most users. Get yourself 4 GB minimum if you're going to use Linux. 8 GB minimum if you're going to use Windows.

Please get yourself a good CPU. Dolphin will not run on any sort of Celeron at framerates worth anything.

[mercury888]

yes looking at the i3 3217u

What about the Armbian Linux Distribution ?

The retro engine sigma has only 512mb of ram and seems to run it fine?

I believe it is running an Orange Pi Lite.

[Ivybridge11]

(12-21-2016, 01:27 AM)mercury888 Wrote: yes looking at the i3 3217u

What about the Armbian Linux Distribution ?

The retro engine sigma has only 512mb of ram and seems to run it fine?

I believe it is running an Orange Pi Lite.

You see, that's a distro for ARM processors, like the ones used in phones. Not x86_64 processors like that i3, so it wouldn't work.
Also, that's an ultra low voltage cpu, which are usually pretty bad for Dolphin. Look for one without a 'u' in it, or if you must, at least a 4xxx or above generation.

[mimimi]

You can't compare the memory requirements of windows with the ones from other OSes. Windows 7 and up basically need 2 GB by themselves, and if you want to run *anything* you need to add extra RAM for it. With Windows XP it was different and it worked very well with 2 GB, but it can't run Dolphin. Other OSes, especially special purpose linux distribitions, can run well with much less memory.

[Dwedit]

You'll want a CPU that can turbo boost to 3 GHz.