Perfect Rig for Dolphin

[Kirotashi]

Hello everyone, I'm addicted to Dolphin. My computer, however, hates it. So, I'm getting a new one.

I would like for the rig to run Wii and GC flawlessly. Zero lag. Any suggestions? I'm not that great with building & upgrading so if there's already one out there on the market that could do the job that would be a major plus.

P.S. I have no budget, so no worries there!
P.P.S. I want to go above and beyond with this.
Thanks. ^_^

[Starscream]

There is no rig that can run everything flawlessly. The answer is the same as it was for the last 500 PC threads, get an i5 2500k, overclock it a few hundred MHz and use a decent video card with 100GB bandwidth or more.

[Kirotashi]

There is no rig that can run everything flawlessly. The answer is the same as it was for the last 500 PC threads, get an i5 2500k, overclock it a few hundred MHz and use a decent video card with 100GB bandwidth or more.

I'm sorry if my noobish threads clutter the board - I completely understand, I was a webmaster for 7 years. Small talk aside, what's the best video card out there these days?

If you have any suggestions as to what type of computer I should purchase, as well, that would be fantastic.

Thanks again, and sorry for being a noob. I just lack the patience to lurk moar.

[Starscream]

Either build a PC or buy something with an i5/i7-2500k. Then for the best video card out there at the moment, buy an HD6990, or for something not so expensive, you can look at the HD5870, HD6790 or HD6850.

[dannzen]

any card above ati 5770 or gtx 260 is more than enough for dolphin in 1080p
if you want to know the fastest gpu... go and read some benchmarks iam not your slut

just get the i5 2500k || i7 2600k and overclock them to 4ghz
99% of all calculations are done in the cpu for dolphin
the gpu only renders the screen

[Starscream]

any card above ati 5770 or gtx 260 is more than enough for dolphin in 1080p

That's not true. The HD6450 is garbage, as is the HD6570.

[dannzen]

any card with "performance" above ati 5770 or gtx 260...
...
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2011-...,2659.html

[dEnigma]

If you want the "best" graphic card, you should buy yourself an ASUS Mars II, or even better two of them. But that will cost you about 3000$ at the moment.^^

But jokes aside, I totally agree with dannzen.

@Starscream: But the HD6450 and HD6570 aren't "above" the gtx 260 when talking about performance, are they?

[NaturalViolence]

Buying a multi-GPU card for dolphin is a REALLY bad idea. Dolphin and crossfire don't play nice.

@Starscream: But the HD6450 and HD6570 aren't "above" the gtx 260 when talking about performance, are they?

Not even close. I think SS had a tiny brain aneurysm and didn't realize that the phrase "any card above" is interpreted as "any card faster than".

Dannzen is right, in fact you can go much lower. An 8800GT/3870 is fast enough to handle any game at 1080p 3x IR while a 8800GS/3850 is fast enough to handle most games at 1080p 3x IR (as long as it's the PCI-e version). Dolphin's GPU requirements are actually pretty low compared to modern PC games as long as you stay away from SSAA, 4x IR, and pixel lighting.

99% of all calculations are done in the cpu for dolphin
the gpu only renders the screen

That's not true at all. In fact the number of OP/s (operations per second) done by the GPU will be higher for most systems running dolphin. It's just that the GPU can easily handle its workload while the cpu has a much harder time due to lower throughput and that fact that the software isn't heavily multithreaded.

I know what you meant to say though, just be careful with your wording.

Basically my advice to the OP is the same as everyone else, build/buy a PC with:
-i5 2500K if you want to build it yourself/overclock, otherwise an i5 2500 is fine
-A decent power supply (550 watts minimum, 650 watts or higher if you can afford it) from a good brand
-P67 or Z68 motherboard + a decent aftermarket cooling if you're building it yourself and you want to overclock
-if you're building it yourself get a good fulltower case if you can afford it
-make sure it has a decent video card, anything GTS 450/HD6670 or higher will do just fine for 1080p

I would strongly advise you build it yourself for a long list of reasons which I don't have time to get into now, but even if you buy one make sure it has everything that I just listed.

[Starscream]

any card above ati 5770

Okay, lets straighten this out right now. He's talking about the numbering system at this point (until he clarified after the fact). "Any card" above the HD57xx is not good enough for Dolphin, as I stated with the two cards that were garbage. Sometimes the higher the card number does not necessarily mean better performance. The original poster needed to know this when he buys a video card so he does not just blindly look at numbers and assume he's getting a good card because it starts with a high number. Some HD5xxx card are garbage, some are good, the same goes for HD6xxx cards.