Making a Tablet, Need Advice: My Spring/Summer Project

[Shonumi]

I think it depends a lot on what kind of cooling that laptop has. Here's my experience. I've got a Gateway T-6345U, dual core (2.16GHz) with Intel integrated graphics (GMA X3100). This machine, weak as it is, runs hot by default; The fan's on and off during extended use, especially when CPU use is greater than 30% on each core. It's like 54~58C. Using Dolphin gets it to 61~64C, though I haven't checked playtimes longer than 30 minutes. It'll sit on my lap, and it doesn't bother me in the least. The fan pushes a lot of air out, and the vent on the side is pretty big. I guess Gateway knew how hot this thing would get, so they designed around it.

The only negative things about running Dolphin on it are that the battery drains in less than an hour, and most games can't reach 30 FPS :p. Aside from those problems, I haven't seen the heat affect it so much. Really, it should all come down to how the laptop gets rid of all that trapped heat. Mine blows, literally. Air's always coming out.

[TheHurrison]

Great! Thanks for the info. I'm assuming that if you're using it, dolphin is playable with that laptop. I'll probably be adding some additional cooling for the thing then, since I don't want to wind up wasting my money by killing the computer.

[admin89]

i3 2310m/2330m are better than i3 380m
Integrated graphics of i3 380m (Intel HD) is not enough for dolphin even with lowest settings :no AA , internal res : 1x ,AF : 1x
The Intel HD 3000 of i3 2310m/2330m are ok with lowest settings . Plus Sandy Bridge run cooler
Or you could wait to get the ivy bridge , its GPU would be on par with Nvidia GT 610M (it's just my guess )

[TheHurrison]

Thanks, admin89. Glad I wasn't able to get it. At the very least, I'm sure the release of ivy bridge would bring the prices down on the current sandy bridge laptops. I've got a couple other laptops I'm looking at right now. One of which is a first gen i5 with an hd4570 gpu. Only problem is a supposed poor battery life. Anyway, if it works out I'll let you know. Otherwise, I'll just post back when I find one and am finally able to begin my project.

[NaturalViolence]

Quote:Thanks, admin89. Glad I wasn't able to get it. At the very least, I'm sure the release of ivy bridge would bring the prices down on the current sandy bridge laptops.

I'm afraid it doesn't usually work that way. Intel doesn't usually lower their prices much, if at all, usually they just replace all of the chips in the lineup with new chips at the same price.

Unfortunately I can confirm first hand that admin89 is right, I have a desktop with an i5 661 using the i5 series integrated gpu and the gpu is just not good enough for dolphin even at the lowest settings. You need either an intel HD 3000 series IGP or higher like admin89 said or a discrete GPU with dedicated video ram and at least 12GB/s of video ram bandwidth.

Using the kind of parts that you would need to run dolphin on a tablet would be highly impractical. The power consumption, cost, and heat would be through the roof for a tablet. I really do suggest you give up on using dolphin on your tablet project, even if you get specs that are good enough to run the lighter games there are a lot of games that will still give you problems without top of the line desktop hardware. If you want my advice just build it and forget about dolphin.