sandy bridge quad i7 mobile + hd3000 good enough to run any games?

11-30-2012, 04:24 AM #1

I picked up a Toshiba laptop (A665-S6100x) a little while back that had a broken screen and converted it into a HTPC (DIY case = 90's Onkyo stereo receiver).

It's got a Core i7-2630QM - 2.0ghz quad core, turbo to 2.9ghz, with 6mb cache and 6GB RAM. No GPU besides the HD3000. The motherboard is HM65-based.
I upgraded it to a Crucial m4 128gb SSD for system and the original 640GB for storage/media and use a USB sound card for optical out (my TV can't pass through surround from HDMI to receiver).

Without a dedicated gpu, am I screwed? I've played around with some different settings and have gotten some mixed results. I don't really care too much about generating graphics at much higher resolutions than the Wii console would (obviously that would be nice), but I would like it to appear in full screen on my Samsung TV. When I set it to 640x480 I would get letter-boxing. Oh yeah, I'm on Windows 8 x64.

Any suggestions for recommended settings? Or should I give up?

List of games I'm mostly interested in running if that matters. Thanks!

wii sports
mario galaxy
twilight princess
donkey kong country returns
mario kart
new super mario bros
sonic colors
goldeneye

edit: font size got screwed up

**LordVador** · (This post was last modified: 11-30-2012, 04:30 AM by LordVador.)

Your CPU is too weak for Super Mario Galaxy. Same thing for Zelda TP.

Btw you should've written with even bigger letters Tongue

EDIT: Nevermind. You fixed this

11-30-2012, 04:46 AM #3

(11-30-2012, 04:29 AM)LordVador Wrote: Your CPU is too weak for Super Mario Galaxy. Same thing for Zelda TP.

Btw you should've written with even bigger letters

EDIT: Nevermind. You fixed this

Thanks...any suggestions for general settings to use for the other games?

My desktop has a Core i5-2500k (currently not OC'ed) and a Geforce GTS-250 512mb. Would that have any better luck running SMG or Zelda?

**LordVador** · (This post was last modified: 11-30-2012, 04:52 AM by LordVador.)

(11-30-2012, 04:46 AM)sklarskyj Wrote: My desktop has a Core i5-2500k (currently not OC'ed) and a Geforce GTS-250 512mb. Would that have any better luck running SMG or Zelda?

Definitely. This CPU is excellent for Dolphin. Most games will work fine. But you'll have to overclock for the most demanding games such as SMG 1/2, Zelda TP/SS...

Use these settings http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-settings-for-best-speed-unofficial

**NaturalViolence** · 11-30-2012, 02:17 PM #5

His cpu is fine it's the IGP that's giving him issues.

**LordVador** · 11-30-2012, 10:05 PM #6

His CPU is fine but not for the most demanding games (and it's a laptop)

**NaturalViolence** · (This post was last modified: 12-01-2012, 01:22 AM by NaturalViolence.)

It's fine for the games that he listed.

**admin89** · (This post was last modified: 12-01-2012, 01:51 AM by admin89.)

Quote:It's fine for the games that he listed.

SMG run on Intel HD 3000 ? lol , even 1x IR won't help him
Edit : Nevermind , you're talking about CPU perfomance
Though i could guess these games : mario galaxy , twilight princess , donkey kong country returns... never run full speed even if he had a dedicated GPU