Slow GPU, upgrade for more speed?

[Granville]

I've been pretty satisfied with Dolphin so far in normal 480p, only a few Wii games have speed issues even at standard def. The graphics card i currently have is a Radeon 4350 (around 512MB IIRC). I was thinking of upgrading to a bit of a better GPU, but i was wondering if it would have any impact in my performance in Dolphin, not even including the ability to run in higher resolution. Here are my specs-

Dell Inspiron 546 MT (desktop)
Athlon II X2 250 @3ghz
2GB DDR2 memory
ATI Radeon 4350
Windows 7 x64

I figure my biggest bottleneck here is my GPU as it's old and terrible. I'm not sure how much speed i would gain by upgrading though. At standard resolutions, i've been able to run Mario Galaxy at speeds anywhere from 60-100% depending on the situation. Would upgrading the GPU improve this speed at all, even at normal resolution?

Obviously Dells suck and i can't overclock. And i can't afford a new PSU at the moment. I think the stock PSU in this Dell is 300watt. According to a friend of mine who builds PC's for a living, i should be able to upgrade my GPU to a Radeon 5670 without any issues and without replacing the PSU (dell PSU's suck i know). It's apparently quite a low wattage card. My goal is not to play every latest game in the highest resolution possible, but to improve performance overall even at lower resolutions. Would this help me at all?

Card i'm considering- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...-_-Product

Also, as another note, would upgrading to 4GB memory help me at all in running Dolphin? I doubt much, but just curious.

I'd appreciate any other upgrading advice too. I don't intend to replace my power supply just now though. What i get will have to fit inside my PC without changing anything else. So please no "ATI sucks, get Nvidia and upgrade PSU", or "Dell sucks, get a new PC", or any other such comments. I picked the 5670 due to a friend's specific advice that i should be able to fit it in without any power supply issues, and that it would give me a great speed boost in normal games. He's not familiar with how it will help emulators though, which is why i asked here. Thanks in advance for the help!

[CacoFFF]

With that gpu (4350) you'd only run on 640x480, gradually losing performance on higher resolutions...

Say, to play up to:
1024x768 > Radeon 4550, 3650
1280x1024 > Radeon 3830, 4650, 5550
1600x1200 > 3890, 4770, 4850, 5650
higher or with filters > 4870, 5770 or better

If you can't get PSU, you better get a 5xxx or 4770 one, those have lower power consumption.

[ALEXSAYS]

The CPU is much more important. But the Radeon HD 4770 or more is good for dolphin.

See The Direrence of Need For Speed Nitro.

Fast CPU (Core i7) - iNexXxuS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKNTOlqh6wY

Slow CPU (Core 2 Duo) - Alexsays (Me)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axrco96GbUQ

[Ocean]

So please no "ATI sucks, get Nvidia and upgrade PSU", or "Dell sucks, get a new PC", or any other such comments. I picked the 5670 due to a friend's specific advice that i should be able to fit it in without any power supply issues, and that it would give me a great speed boost in normal games.

Yes if you upgrade to ATi radeon 5670 you'll get a speed boost, and actually nvidia cards have more known issues/problems with dolphin than ati. Your only problem would be the processor; It will be bottlenecking the card and thus not giving it's full potential (screen can stutter because gpu is rendering graphics too fast for cpu to keep up)

[naoan]

I don't think 250 is THAT bad but eh I'm not that familiar either with L3-cacheless Phenom... >.>

[Granville]

I wasn't interested in upgrading the CPU though. It's something i just can't do with my Dell. Can't just switch out the CPU for a better one. I think Dell puts restrictions to keep you from doing that. Not an upgrade i'd want to do anyways, it's more than i can spend ATM. I'm actually getting good speeds considering it all. I doubt i can upgrade my CPU. I might build a new PC someday, but i'm stuck with this for now. I'm happy with it currently, just want some better graphical performance in emulators and PC games. The reason i asked about the GPU is that whenever i jack the resolution up any, even slightly, i get more and more lag. I assumed i would at least get a little bit better speeds from upgrading.

I tried lowering the resolution to lower than 640x480 in the options and actually got a little bit of a speed boost. Lowered it to like 256x256 just to see, which is far lower than normal Wii/GC games output. So considering I got a speed boost out of just lowering the resolution, i guess i WOULD get a speed boost out of upgrading the GPU.

I'm interested in improving my speed in standard definition first and foremost. If i get the Radeon 5670, i wouldn't really expect to be able to play much higher than 720p or whatever. I'd be getting a newer GPU to help with a lot of games. Because right now, my GPU is a horrible bottleneck. I hear the 4350 is barely any better than integrated according to some people.

I know full well that Dolphin is CPU intensive. I just want to know about some minor upgrades that can help me. Specifically about GPU and possibly memory. Sounds like my current bottleneck is the GPU. I have all sorts of issues playing PC games i surpass the recommended CPU specs even at normal resolution. I assume those issues would be mostly gone if i upgrade the PSU to something like the 5670.

[naoan]

Yep you would get a good increase by upgrading the GPU, I wouldn't worry too much about the CPU if that is your situation.