New to all this...how will I fare?

[jmp6p]

Completely new to the idea of emulators, but I love Nintendo and would love to play Wii, 64, and NES.

I have a home-built system with the following:
Asus P8Z68-V LX mobo
i5 2500K
No GPU
Corsair Vengeance 8GB

This is hooked to a 1080p TV.

Would really like to be able to play NES games, Mario Kart, GoldenEye, and Perfect Dark for 64, and Mario Kart and sports games for Wii.

Will I be okay or will the lack of GPU kill me? I don't really have the budget to be upgrading much right now.

Also, I have no overclocking experience whatsoever, so wouldn't mind avoiding that, but also don't mind learning (before you ask, got the "K" because of a good MicroCenter bundle deal).

Thank you very much for the help and insight!

Best regards.

EDIT: 2500K, NOT 2550K (stupid...)

[DefenderX]

If you overclock your CPU to 4.4GHz, nearly all games will run most of the time @ fullspeed.

But... the i5-2550k have no iGPU, right? You should really buy a GPU, e.g. the GTX 550 Ti to play your games at FullHD.

[werewolfyman]

Completely new to the idea of emulators, but I love Nintendo and would love to play Wii, 64, and NES.

I have a home-built system with the following:
Asus P8Z68-V LX mobo
i5 2550K
No GPU
Corsair Vengeance 8GB

This is hooked to a 1080p TV.

Would really like to be able to play NES games, Mario Kart, GoldenEye, and Perfect Dark for 64, and Mario Kart and sports games for Wii.

Will I be okay or will the lack of GPU kill me? I don't really have the budget to be upgrading much right now.

Also, I have no overclocking experience whatsoever, so wouldn't mind avoiding that, but also don't mind learning (before you ask, got the "K" because of a good MicroCenter bundle deal).

Thank you very much for the help and insight!

Best regards.

Don't you mean 2500k?
Because that can play most games at 1x native.
The I5 2550k has no GPU at all.

[Axxer]

You need a dedicated GPU for Dolphin to get good speeds.

A list of GPUs and their capabilities can be found here --> http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/showthread.php?tid=18414

I get that you don't have much money, but there really is no other option.

That CPU should be fine for most games at stock clocks, but for more intense games (Super Mario Galaxy 1/2 and The Last Story) you will need to overclock to use the good audio and complete the game.

[jmp6p]

If you overclock your CPU to 4.4GHz, nearly all games will run most of the time @ fullspeed.

But... the i5-2550k have no iGPU, right? You should really buy a GPU, e.g. the GTX 550 Ti to play your games at FullHD.

Apologies!! NOT 2550K, 2500K.

I have a 2500K!

---

Also, have a stock heatsink/cooler. Don't know that if that will affect answers...

[DefenderX]

Well, okay. The Intel HD Graphics 3000 is only able to handle 1x IR, not HD. If you want to play games in FullHD, get a dedicated GPU.
If you want to overclock to 4.4GHz, you should get a decent cpu cooler.

[jmp6p]

Well, okay. The Intel HD Graphics 3000 is only able to handle 1x IR, not HD. If you want to play games in FullHD, get a dedicated GPU.
If you want to overclock to 4.4GHz, you should get a decent cpu cooler.

OK. Thank you very much for the information!

A couple of follow-up questions if you don't mind.

1. Will I need to overclock? Or is that just more a convenience? Not sure the pros and cons there?

2. If I was okay playing around for a while without trying to get to FullHD, would there be any negative ramifications of not having a GPU? Not sure I know the term 1x IR (obviously brand new to this and haven't read everything yet!).

Thank you again for all the help!

[Starscream]

A couple of follow-up questions if you don't mind.
1. Will I need to overclock? Or is that just more a convenience? Not sure the pros and cons there?

You will need to overclock for some games to run fast enough with some settings. You need to have a proper CPU cooler for this, though.

2. If I was okay playing around for a while without trying to get to FullHD, would there be any negative ramifications of not having a GPU? Not sure I know the term 1x IR (obviously brand new to this and haven't read everything yet!).

Internal Resolution (IR). 1x doesn't look as good as higher numbered IR's. With your integrated graphics it just means you'll have to use the lowest IR (basically meaning that the game will look like crap) because your integrated graphics is not strong enough to handle higher settings without losing game speed.

[delroth]

Basically, 1xIR is the same resolution the Wii renders at. You'd get no visual improvements over a Wii with that resolution.

[Starscream]

delroth: The forum is telling me that it's your birthday, so Happy Birthday.