New GPU = performance benefit..?

[miseryguts]

Hopefully this isn't too stupid a question, I'm shortly about to buy a GTX 680 & was just wondering how much of a performance improvement (or not) this would give me..
I can currently run most of the things I've tried at 3x internal res & full (or close to) speed but was hoping that some of the things that currently crawl along for me, Metroid Prime etc wold be improved with this new card.

Current system is ATI 5870, i7 920 3.8Ghz, 6GB Ram 1920x1200

Thanks.

[StupidStories]

(04-19-2012, 07:34 AM)miseryguts Wrote: Hopefully this isn't too stupid a question, I'm shortly about to buy a GTX 680 & was just wondering how much of a performance improvement (or not) this would give me..
I can currently run most of the things I've tried at 3x internal res & full (or close to) speed but was hoping that some of the things that currently crawl along for me, Metroid Prime etc wold be improved with this new card.

Current system is ATI 5870, i7 920 3.8Ghz, 6GB Ram 1920x1200

Thanks.

With 3x IR?
None!

[miseryguts]

[/quote]

With 3x IR?
None!
[/quote]

Fair enough.

[Shonumi]

Have a look at the Minimum GPU Specs thread NaturalViolence made. It'll help you understand how well a GPU will do in Dolphin. Note that in Dolphin, the GPU is responsible for things like IR, AA, and AF. The rest of the performance, for a lot of games, comes from the CPU. I think the ATI 5870 should be enough for 4x IR (according to the thread I mentioned). I assume the GTX 680 should be able to do that too, though I'm no expert on GPUs. It won't help you run games faster, but it may allow you to up Dolphin's graphical enhancements. If you're good on the 5870, I don't think it's worth upgrading in regards to Dolphin emulation.

[miseryguts]

(04-19-2012, 08:09 AM)Shonumi Wrote: If you're good on the 5870, I don't think it's worth upgrading in regards to Dolphin emulation.

Thanks for the reply,
I'm not upgrading the GPU specifically for Dolphin, I was just wondering if there were any potential performance gains to be had with the 680 & after reading the thread you linked & listening to a few others it appears not.. so if I'm understanding things correctly the performance 'cap' (if that's the right way of putting it) is as much to do with the limitations of Dolphin or how it works, as it is what you have inside your system..? (obviously above a certain CPU/GPU level) feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about that.

[Shonumi]

(04-19-2012, 08:40 AM)miseryguts Wrote: Thanks for the reply,
I'm not upgrading the GPU specifically for Dolphin, I was just wondering if there were any potential performance gains to be had with the 680 & after reading the thread you linked & listening to a few others it appears not.. so if I'm understanding things correctly the performance 'cap' (if that's the right way of putting it) is as much to do with the limitations of Dolphin or how it works, as it is what you have inside your system..? (obviously above a certain CPU/GPU level) feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about that.

Well if you're getting the 680 for things other than Dolphin, I really can't say if it's worth your money

I wouldn't call it a "cap" per se, it's more that once the GPU satisfies the demands needed in GC/Wii emulation (IR, AA, AF, other things too??) then there's not much it can contribute to Dolphin's performance. I'm not sure OpenCL for texture decoding helps on a lot of systems though. Once your GPU is good enough (e.g. no longer the bottleneck), it really can't do anything more for Dolphin emulation. At least that's how I've understood it all this time.

For further clarification, I think you should read neobrain's blog to get an idea of how Dolphin goes about emulating the GC/Wii GPU and how it works out on your own GPU. It's a good read imo, though I don't know why he doesn't post more stuff on his blog. Neobrain, if you read this, make more! Anyway, here's the link.

[NaturalViolence]

Unless you're trying to do something completely crazy like 4x IR + 9xSSAA, no.

Shonumi is right on the money as usual.

[AnyOldName3]

You don't even need a GTX680 to do 4x IR and 9x SSAA, as I can do that on my HD6950. It will go up to 4x and 16x, though, which mine can't. Basically, it isn't a necessary upgrade, and if you do it it will only make things look prettier without a performance boost.

[NaturalViolence]

You can do 4x IR + 9xSSAA on a 6950? I'm willing to bet most games will perform very poorly with those settings. A 7970 MIGHT be able to handle that in any game but even with that I'm doubtful.

[AnyOldName3]

Hang on, I've double checked, and it was with 4x AA. On just a couple of games I can do 9x, though.