Q9550 at 2.8 GHZ - How will it run?

[Oemenia]

My desktop specs are


Intel Q9550 at 2.8 GHZ
6gb DDR2 RAM
AMD RX550

Obviously the CPU is an issue but how much?

[TKSilver]

Well using https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-unofficial-new-dolphin-5-0-cpu-benchmark-results-automatically-updated--45007

Your CPU has been tested by 1 person at least and had a 11m44s time which puts it in line with the FX8350/FX6300 and the Core m3-6y30 (a mobile chipset for tablet form factors).

So basically maybe some very low end GameCube games might give you playable (not full speed) frame rates but it will not be an ideal experience.

Build advice (from your PCSX2 post)
Unfortunately the 775 platform is really not going to give you many good upgrade options for your CPU (for Dolphin) so saving your motherboard (and most likely your DDR2 ram) is probably not going to happen. A used Core i5/i7 from Haswell and up at as close to 4GHz is a good starting point. Or the Kaby Lake line of Pentium (G4560) would also be a great new choice. The pentium or a nice used i5/i7 would probably pair nicely with your RX550 as well expanding the amount of newer pc titles that would run with improved settings.

Feel free to ask if you want any specific build advice.

[Helios]

Are you building a PC to do other stuff or do you only care about emulation?

If you only care about emulation, the Q9550 is trash and you should look into seeing if you can afford a pentium system with the G4560.

If you want to do other stuff, the Q9550 is trash and you should look into seeing if you can afford a Ryzen 5 system. Reasons here is because historically AMD doesn't change sockets as often. Also intel doesn't have anything that can compete with AMD in price / perf at the moment.

If you want to do other stuff *and* you can't afford a Ryzen 5 system, the G4560 is fine for PC games too.

[Oemenia]

Good to see you again TK! I got the CPU for £35 but duty was added and it ended up costing me £50. Then I realised that the MOBO was dying and got myself one for £65 (though this was a year later). So I thought rather than let all that money go to waste why not get a GPU and do some gaming, though admittedly mostly PS2 and GC/Wii emulation. I was considering the G4560 but as you said Intel are nowadays constantly changing sockets, however now we have Ryzen and that might not be a bad idea.

I know the CPU is trash but hasn't the requirement significantly gone down over the last few years?

[Helios]

(09-30-2017, 01:14 PM)Oemenia Wrote: I know the CPU is trash but hasn't the requirement significantly gone down over the last few years?

Not significantly, and you have a chip from almost 10 years ago.

[KHg8m3r]

Intel's Coffee Lake system is almost upon us, so if you can wait you can either get one of those (all CPUs seeing a core increase, but also a new motherboard socket), or you you can get a Haswell/Skylake/Kaby Lake CPU as some distributors may run sales to clean out stock