My PC

[CaptainSpaz]

I've had my laptop for almost a year now and it was a brand new model when I bought it.

Toshiba Qosmio X70-a
OS: Windows 8.1 x64
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-4700MQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.60 GHz) with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology
Hard Disk: 256GB SSD Disk Cache with 500GB HDD
Memory: 16GB DDR3L at 1600mhz
Graphics: 3GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 770M w/NVIDIA® Optimus™ Technology

I am wondering if these specs are adequate for running the following games in a reasonable (25-30fps) speed reliably, as well as running at either 2x, 2.5x, or 3x native resolution.
*Xenoblade Chronicles
*The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
*The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Thanks!

[DJBarry004]

You shouldn´t have much problems running those (as long as your PC doesn´t overheat). Get the latest dev build since it´s normally faster. Also, if you are having problems with Zelda TP, you could try some patches that were made to solve them (see Hyrule Field slowdown observation thread).

You´ll do fine up to 2.5X.

Good luck!

[CaptainSpaz]

(06-13-2014, 06:18 AM)DJBarry004 Wrote: You shouldn´t have much problems running those (as long as your PC doesn´t overheat). Get the latest dev build since it´s normally faster. Also, if you are having problems with Zelda TP, you could try some patches that were made to solve them (see Hyrule Field slowdown observation thread).

You´ll do fine up to 2.5X.

Good luck!

Thanks!

I did indeed have problems with TP when attempting to play on the latest Dev release yesterday. It slowed down in Twilight Realm, and in the rescue Colin mission. I noted OpenGL worked a tad better, but do these patches you mentioned address all slowdowns?

CPU overheating doesn't seem to be an issue. Even running at 2x, my CPU never passed 50%.

[AnyOldName3]

Dolphin can't use more than two cores for the two main threads, so 50% CPU use is full load on both the cores it's actually using. It would be completely possible for a laptop to overheat with two cores at full load.

[KHg8m3r]

I have the same specs, you'll be able to hit 3~4x IR, depending on the game

[CaptainSpaz]

(06-13-2014, 01:29 PM)KHg8m3r Wrote: I have the same specs, you'll be able to hit 3~4x IR, depending on the game

That's good to hear. I probably won't play TP just yet, given all I've heard here is it is very demanding and there are still speed issues with it. But I am hoping to play all the way through Xenoblade Chronicles without any major hitches.

Thanks for the tip on the overheating, I'll have to be sure to have Core Temp running. I'm sure this has already been asked here, but is there any possibility of Dolphin supporting multi-core use?

[Shonumi]

You shouldn't have any trouble with Xenoblade Chronicles (other than the fact that you'll get stuck into the game for hours... and hours...) This game actually isn't all that demanding CPU wise, but it seems to like being demanding on the GPU a bit in places. Again, your GPU will be up to the task.

As for additional multi-threading opportunities in Dolphin, while there are a handful of areas that may be looked into in the future, I would not expect any significant breakthroughs any time soon (or at all?). Emulation of the GC/Wii hardware is a very linear task (calculations must be done serially, in order for the most part) with only a few places where processing can be done in parallel. The FAQ explains this in depth: https://dolphin-emu.org/docs/faq/#couldnt-dolphin-use-more-my-cpu-cores-go-faster

[CaptainSpaz]

(06-14-2014, 01:01 PM)Shonumi Wrote: You shouldn't have any trouble with Xenoblade Chronicles (other than the fact that you'll get stuck into the game for hours... and hours...) This game actually isn't all that demanding CPU wise, but it seems to like being demanding on the GPU a bit in places. Again, your GPU will be up to the task.

Yeah, I know...when I first played it on the Wii two years ago, I got about 150 hours of gameplay. That's why I wanted to be absolutely sure my PC was up to the task.

I'll probably be emulating it in a few weeks, so that should also give the developers a little more time to fix the emulator up a bit more. I've been seeing some great improvements in the last 9 months since you guys stopped supporting outdated standards.

Thanks all for letting me know how well my PC can support Dolphin!

[CaptainSpaz]

One last thing.

I just realized that with this PC, unlike my previous one, I can actually somewhat easily access the CPU. As such, I am planning on upgrading next year to the last and fastest of the 4th Gen i7's. I'm just wondering if the extra 500-800mhz, or the extra 2-4 MB cache, would make any significant difference in Twilight Princess or any of the other aforementioned games I am interested in.

I've already tested Xenoblade with my current specs and am able to get up to 3x native res. I also always use the latest revs.

Thanks!

[KHg8m3r]

Well, the Haswell Refresh CPUs that were just released (i5-4690K and i7-4790k) should give great results, but I haven't seen anyone with it yet do any actual testing since they're too new.

But since I think you're referring to your laptop, you must ask yourself if you're hitting any speed issues with the games you're playing. Test them out on your current CPU, and if you think that it's worth it, then yes, spend about $200 or so to get the i7-4900MQ (that's the fastest one that I know of off the top of my head)

edit: its actually the i7-4910MQ, and is closer to $570 new still. With that money, you could build a 5th gen i3 based desktop that would be way stronger than the i7-4900MQ