Upgrade advice

[phirestalker]

Here is my computer info:
Mac Pro running OS X 10.10.1
2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
16 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB
Dolphin 4.0-5308

I have been trying to run Zelda TWP Wii since 4.0.2. I just read the wiki page on this game and people are getting no slowdowns anywhere. I get slow downs in the intro!!! I am using the recommended settings from that page, so it must be my system that needs more power. I want to know if I can just upgrade the video card to get full speed with 2x resolution, or is my processor the bottleneck?

Thanks

[DJBarry004]

You can still survive with that GPU, the CPU is what kills your experience. If you´re short in budget you can get the G3258 + ASRock Z97 mobo. Before booting, you need to enable the Hyrule Field patch.

[shreduhsoreus]

(01-28-2015, 07:37 AM)DJBarry004 Wrote: If you´re short in budget you can get the G3258 + ASRock Z97 mobo.

I'm not 100% sure but I think Mac Pros have proprietary motherboards, so I don't really think that would be an option.

[DatKid20]

I don't really think the processor is the biggest bottleneck here considering we've had people coming here with Piledriver CPUs who get 30FPS in Twilight Princess. You should probably try Linux/Windows as they have better performance then OSX from what I remember. You could install them through boot camp.

[KHg8m3r]

What specific model number of Xeon do you have?

[phirestalker]

(01-28-2015, 09:59 AM)DatKid20 Wrote: I don't really think the processor is the biggest bottleneck here considering we've had people coming here with Piledriver CPUs who get 30FPS in Twilight Princess. You should probably try Linux/Windows as they have better performance then OSX from what I remember. You could install them through boot camp.

The reason I ask is, when I was still up on hardware the server processors didn't have some of the same features as the consumer ones so weren't as good at some things. I was thinking maybe xeon doesn't have one of the sse's or something like that. Also has anyone actually done any benchmarks between linux,windows,mac with the same or very similar hardware? It's not that I don't believe you, I was actually afraid that might be the issue, but I would like numbers so I know how bad or a disparity there is.

(01-28-2015, 10:00 AM)KHg8m3r Wrote: What specific model number of Xeon do you have?

I'm not sure, it came with the mac and there doesn't seem to be anymore info in system information. The mac model is MacPro5,1. Can you tell me where I can go to find out?

(01-28-2015, 07:37 AM)DJBarry004 Wrote: You can still survive with that GPU, the CPU is what kills your experience. If you´re short in budget you can get the G3258 + ASRock Z97 mobo. Before booting, you need to enable the Hyrule Field patch.

I'm on a mac so can't use that MB. wiki for TWP says the patch is now unecessary in the later development versions. I still see it in the options, and when I enable it and start TWP I get unending popups about execution of some statement and have to force quit Dolphin. What version of Dolphin are you using? I wonder if it is only crashing on macs?

Thanks all for the quick replies.

[KHg8m3r]

This is your Mac, yes? What you have is the Xeon W3530, which is basically the i7-930. The performance is ok, but I'm not sure if it's really strong enough to run TP in OSX. Bootcamp into Windows and D3D will definitely get you closer to fullspeed though.

As for OS performance, it goes Windows > Linux > OSX. Windows can use both D3D and OpenGL and has the best support. Linux uses OpenGL and is still really good in performance, but the drivers are not quite at the level of Windows (but they are getting better). OSX has the worst performance because they insist on writing their own drivers for the GPUs, so their OpenGL is the worst of the 3.

The old hack is not needed, but the new patch is recommended and should really help. Can you post a picture of the error messages?

[phirestalker]

(01-28-2015, 12:05 PM)KHg8m3r Wrote: This is your Mac, yes? What you have is the Xeon W3530, which is basically the i7-930. The performance is ok, but I'm not sure if it's really strong enough to run TP in OSX. Bootcamp into Windows and D3D will definitely get you closer to fullspeed though.

As for OS performance, it goes Windows > Linux > OSX. Windows can use both D3D and OpenGL and has the best support. Linux uses OpenGL and is still really good in performance, but the drivers are not quite at the level of Windows (but they are getting better). OSX has the worst performance because they insist on writing their own drivers for the GPUs, so their OpenGL is the worst of the 3.

The old hack is not needed, but the new patch is recommended and should really help. Can you post a picture of the error messages?

yes that is the mac I have. I was looking for the MC???? number, which I'm sure used to be in the blasted system info in an earlier osx version.

The drivers suck in osx, but is that for ATI and nvidia? or would I be better off with an nvidia card just for better drivers. Is there no way to get drivers that are written by the card manufacturer on mac? I'm assuming they is Apple insisting on writing their own drivers.

I attched a screenshot of the popup. I can click ok all day long and it keeps coming up. Also I click stop emulation in the menu and then yes, but this popup will still keep popping up and I have to force quit dolphin. Oh and just so you don't have to scroll, my version is 4.0-5308

[KHg8m3r]

AMD video cards usually work better in D3D anyways, and Nvidia does better in OGL, so getting an Nvidia card may be of some help, but really not much because Apple drivers are not the best across the board for both cards.

I've heard of experimental drivers for Nvidia, but they're older. No idea on AMD.

I don't know what that means maybe a dev does?

Does this also happen on 4.0-5347?

[phirestalker]

(01-28-2015, 12:53 PM)KHg8m3r Wrote: Does this also happen on 4.0-5347?

yes