Upgrading my PC for Dolphin?

[Tyran]

My PC is slow and it can run GC/Wii games fast.I was thinking to upgrade it so it can at least play some of
the games with proper speed.

My PC's specs are:

MB:Gigabyte M61SME-S2L
CPU:AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+(2.8 GHz)
RAM: Single slot 1GB DDR2 800 MHz
Video:Onboard nVidia GeForce 6100 nForce 405
Running:Windows Vista Ultimate SP2 32 Bit

Soooo slooooow

Configuration I:

MB:Gigabyte M61SME-S2L(I will keep it.It supports AM2/AM2+ Processors)
CPU:AMD Athlon II X4 640 (3 GHz)
Ram: Dual Slot 6GB DDR2 800 MHz (The motherboard supports up to 8GB DDR2 so it should be ok)
Video:Sapphire R7 250 1GB GDDR5
Running:Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

Configuration II:

MB:Gigabyte M61SME-S2L
CPU:AMD Phenom II X4 980 (3.3 GHz)
Ram: Dual Slot 4GB DDR2 800 MHz
Video:MSI GT 630 4 GB GDDR3
Running:Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

Configuration III:

MB:Gigabyte M61SME-S2L
CPU:AMD Phenom II X3 740 (3 GHz)
RAM: Dual slot 6GB DDR2 800 MHz
Video: MSI GT 640 2GB
Running:Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

My only problem is that I can't find neither the Phenom II X4 980 nor the Phenom II X3 740,but I will try to find at least one of them.

Sorry for the bad English,it's not my native language.

[AnyOldName3]

Unfortunately, you're not going to get good results with any AMD processor in Dolphin, as it heavily relies on single threaded performance, which Intel have a massive advantage on.

[Tyran]

(05-05-2014, 11:48 PM)AnyOldName3 Wrote: Unfortunately, you're not going to get good results with any AMD processor in Dolphin, as it heavily relies on single threaded performance, which Intel have a massive advantage on.

What should I do?I don't have enough money for an Intel-based PC,plus the fact that my parents don't want me to sped money for
gaming stuff (new Gaming PC,Wii U,XBox 360 and ect.).

BTW:I know that dolphin works better on Intel PCs.

[admin89]

Just get a Pentium Haswell which is an i3 Haswell but no Hyperthreading and lower clockspeed
Base on our Dolphin Benchmark , i3 4130 blow FX 8350 @ 5.0GHz out of the water due to high single threaded performance (Dolphin is a dual core application btw)
Pentium G3220 (65$) + MSI H81M (49$) + Gskill Ripjaws 2x2GB DDR3 1600MHz
GPU : I recommend EVGA GTX 750 if you can afford it . However , AMD R7 240 is dust cheap , it can handle 2.5x Internal Resolution (1600x1320_ , no AA , 16xAF just fine and you can play most PC games at low-medium settings

[yl-smash]

^ This. G3220 is incredibly cheap and will perform very well all around.

[Tyran]

I checked out how much money do I have,and I might have enough money for an i3 Haswell machine
or i5 if there is a sale .

I was thinking to get a 3rd gen or 2nd gen core i5 processor+GPU if there is a sale this or the next month,because the store makes sales almost every month to get rid of the old tech,but if there is not I have other choices.Anyways the other CPU I picked is Intel Core i3-4330.Is it good?If there is a sale I will look for 3rd gen,but if there is not a 2nd gen 2500k should be ok,right?
I still have a problem deciding the GPU.
My original choice was Radeon HD 7750,but I could not find it.
BTW:Is nVidia GTX 650 good?I have two other cards in mind that may be a bit stronger.

~Sorry for the bad English

[yl-smash]

i3 4330 and gtx 650 will work very well in dolphin.

[AnyOldName3]

Almost any 4th gen (4xxx) will beat any 3rd gen (3xxx) or older, with the exception of ultra-low-voltage parts (4xxxU) etc. vs overclocked 3570K/2500K etc. Haswell brought in a massive performance increase for emulation (although this is potentially because Dolphin is slow rather than Haswell being fast, as it doesn't have such a huge improvement in other single-threaded applications). At any rate, if the price is similar, it's likely the Haswell part is faster. Just check here, and we can tell you.

[Tyran]

Ok so something like this maybe?:

MB:Asus H81M-K
CPU:Intel Core i3-4330 (3.5 GHz)
RAM: Dual-Slot 6 GB 1600 MHz(Single Kingston HyperX 4GB Black 1600 MHz+Single Kingston HyperX 2 GB Blue 1600 MHz)
Videoedicated eVGA GTX 650 1 GB GDDR5

Anyways...There are no Sandy bridge or Ivy bridge i5 processors in stock in the store so I will be getting i3 Haswell.

[admin89]

The difference between i3 4130 and i3 4330 :
_The later one is more expensive (+20$)
_i3 4330 has stronger integrated GPU : Intel HD 4600 vs Intel HD 4400 but what's a point of this ? You will use a graphic card anyway
_i3 4330 CPU frequency is 100MHz higher
Get i3 4130 + EVGA GTX 750 instead . losing 100MHz doesn't affect your gaming experience one bit (not even a single FPS) but a weaker GPU does