Looking to run SMG in 4k

[Cmtorp]

Hey guys.
Just recently got into Dolphin emulator. My 5yr old laptop can run Super Mario Galaxy at 720p 60fps. But I have a 4k monitor and quite frankly just want to come as close as I can to maxing out my experience with SMG 1 and 2. Not looking to break the bank but its time for a new rig anyways.
Was hoping you guys could help me with my purchase. The goal is to be able to play a stable 4k 60fps SMG, AA would be nice too but again trying to do this spending as little money as possible.
Thanks!

[TKSilver]

Look for a CPU at or above Haswell (intel 4th gen) levels of performance (single threaded is the most important) running at 3.5GHz, something from this (https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html) list above 2000 is a good rough estimate.

For the GPU I want to say something around a nvidia gtx 1060 level of performance, but I am not sure since I don't really enhance games all that often. So someone who knows better can correct if more or less GPU performance is needed.

If you are looking to save money I would avoid laptops since to get a simular level of performance you will spend hundreds more for the form factor.

[Helios]

a 750ti is enough to play Dolphin in 4k for the most part. I don't know if thats changed but pushing Dolphin in 4k really isn't hard.

[TKSilver]

Ok good to know. So that should be somewhere around a gtx 1030 to gtx 1050 if the OP want's something they can buy new, or can't find a used card they like?

[Helios]

Are you looking only to run Dolphin? I would get an AMD RX (4/5)60. It's the cheapest you'll get that is a modern GPU and can push Dolphin at 4k.

Do you want to play other games? AMD RX 570. It costs as much as a 1050ti except it is significantly faster. It will play any modern PC game at 1080p.

tbqh I don't see the point of recommending any Nvidia GPU unless you're looking at high end, where AMD kinda sucks. AMD kills it at low to mid range.

[TKSilver]

I was just trying to help the OP, and since I have not used an AMD GPU in a while (sometime around the 3000 series) I was not sure exactly about the performance conversion to them so I recommended the new(ish) cards that I knew were about a 750ti in performance. Personally I use Nvidia (in my emulation rig) since some of the emulators I run are either solely OpenGL or don't have as mature DirectX\Vulkan renderers yet.
But thank you for offering the useful knowledge on new AMD GPUs that I didn't have that could handle dolphin at 4k. If the OP wants to build for as little as possible a 4k Dolphin machine then the RX 460 sounds great.