What If: 8k Resolution

[Tallix]

So Dolphin is pretty light on graphics cards, as compared to most PC games. But... what kind of hardware would it take to play a game in Dolphin at an 8k resolution (7680x4320)? Would the famed GTX Titan be able to do it? What about several Titans in SLI (four is the highest possible, I think)? And then... what if you wanted something like per-pixel lighting and full anti-aliasing? What if you wanted to run at a higher IR than 8k, like it's recommended to do if possible at lower resolutions? Does anybody have an estimate as to what kind of specs a video card would have to have to achieve all this?

But help the people who need it before you spend time answering this. It's (obviously) not as important. Just an enthusiast thread...

[Shonumi]

It already is possible, and someone's actually gone higher than that resolution with just a single GTX Titan. RDilus (think I spelled his name correctly) managed to play a lot of games at 4x IR with 9xSSAA (or at least SMG), which should give you a scene rendered at 12x IR (7680x6336). Now, Dolphin supports arbitrary IRs through .ini configurations, so you could just set EFBScale to 12 and do it that way. Turning on AA with 12x IR, now there's something spin your head around

Note that Dolphin currently only takes advantage of one GPU at a time. Running GPUs in CrossFire or SLI has no advantages for Dolphin. Single GPUs like the Titan are what we'll need to look at here. Nvidia is already improving on the Titan (http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/nvidia_geforce_gtx_titan_ultra_and_gtx_titan_le.html) so we'll be able to go even further with Dolphin.

[Tallix]

I was talking about using an actual 8k monitor (though you wouldn't have to use one to test the requirements), and trying to achieve results that are playable while taking full advantage of the monitor (games would be so beautiful!). So yeah, I mean running at 12x IR. Going a step further, what would it take to run at 13x IR with other settings like AA and Per-Pixel lighting?

Kind of dissapointing that Dolphin isn't a multi-threaded application, and apparently doesn't take advatage of Crossfire or SLI either. But oh well.

[CaptainRed]

(04-25-2013, 01:16 PM)Tallix Wrote: Kind of dissapointing that Dolphin isn't a multi-threaded application, and apparently doesn't take advatage of Crossfire or SLI either. But oh well.

It is very important gpu, processor does all this work in emulation ...
If you would talk pc game, fps win but despite everything there are always problems in sli or cross or cpu bottle neck ...
Very difficult, since nobody says you want to use more than two cores developers dolphins ...
Cost much work or from their knowledge find it difficult

--------
No tiene mucha importancia gpu, procesador hace todo dicho trabajo en emulacion...
Si hablariamos de juegos pc, ganarias fps pero apesar de todo siempre surgen problemas en cross o sli o cuello botella cpu...

[Shonumi]

You know, very few 8k monitors even exist, least of all the kind consumers can go out an buy :p We have the hardware (albeit it's expensive) to generate 8K content, but we don't readily have the ability to display it. So rather than the GPU, we have to wait on the display technology (and the market) to give us something viable.

Fwiw, Dolphin is multithreaded (there are major threads for the emulated CPU, GPU and optionally the DSP, not to mention the other minor threads for input and the GUI), it's just not programmed in such a way as to take advantage of CrossFire or SLI.

It should be easy to calculate "what does xyz IR require" in terms of the bandwidth a GPU needs. NaturalViolence or admin89 know more about GPUs than I do, so maybe one of them will jump in here.

[Tallix]

I know it can be calculated, I just don't know how.

I know that 8k monitors are virtually nonexistent for the average consumer, I was just asking about these things in theory.

Where did I hear that Dolphin wasn't multi-threaded then??? Hmm... I'm pretty sure it was on this forum.

Yeah, NaturalViolence and admin98 are pretty much the hardware authorities.

[NaturalViolence]

Tallix Wrote:So Dolphin is pretty light on graphics cards, as compared to most PC games.

I'm glad that you recognize that. Most new users think dolphin is more demanding than PC games on their GPU just because their framerates aren't as good when they crank up the settings. Failing to realize of course that they are trying to render their games at ridiculous resolutions that would bring any of their PC games down to much lower framerates if they used the same internal resolution with them.

Tallix Wrote:But... what kind of hardware would it take to play a game in Dolphin at an 8k resolution (7680x4320)? Would the famed GTX Titan be able to do it?

I could be wrong but I don't think the GTX Titan could handle it in every game. Not quite. I think you would need something a bit more powerful (likely less than twice as fast).

I suspect that within another two GPU generations (2014/2015) high end graphics cards (not enthusiast tier like the titan) should be able to pull it off.

Tallix Wrote:What about several Titans in SLI (four is the highest possible, I think)?

Like Shonumi said SLI doesn't benefit dolphin.

Tallix Wrote:And then... what if you wanted something like per-pixel lighting and full anti-aliasing?

I'm not sure if per-pixel lighting would significantly raise the requirements. I'm going to guess no from the little testing that I've done with it so far.

Traditional anti-aliasing methods are out of the question. And quite frankly unnecessary at that resolution. Assuming this hypothetical display was less than 40 inches diagonally your eyes would simply lack the resolution needed to see the aliasing.

Tallix Wrote:Does anybody have an estimate as to what kind of specs a video card would have to have to achieve all this?

There are far too many variables to account for to give you exact numbers. The dolphin build, game, OS, drivers, settings, and choice of video backend all effect this. Not to mention we lack the data to properly conclude how dolphins GPU demands scale with IR.

Tallix Wrote:But help the people who need it before you spend time answering this. It's (obviously) not as important. Just an enthusiast thread...

It's a hell of a lot less draining to answer something like this than the dozen "WHY DOESN'T MY TOASTER RUN SUPER MARIO GALAXY FULLSPEED????" threads we get per day.

Tallix Wrote:I was talking about using an actual 8k monitor (though you wouldn't have to use one to test the requirements), and trying to achieve results that are playable while taking full advantage of the monitor (games would be so beautiful!)

8k monitors don't exist at the moment. But that doesn't matter because internal resolution is all that matters. We can calculate fairly easily that an 8k resolution monitors width resolution would be equivalent to a 12x scale from native resolution. A 12x IR setting doesn't exist in dolphin at the moment but 12x IR is equivalent to 4x IR + 9xSSAA. So naturally Shonumi used that for his comparison because it is a perfect equivalent.

Tallix Wrote:What if you wanted to run at a higher IR than 8k, like it's recommended to do if possible at lower resolutions?

Tallix Wrote:Going a step further, what would it take to run at 13x IR with other settings like AA and Per-Pixel lighting?

At that resolution we can safely assume linear scaling. So exactly (1 + (1/12))(1 + (1/12)) or 1.1726 times the resources needed for 12x IR.

Tallix Wrote:Kind of dissapointing that Dolphin isn't a multi-threaded application

It is a multi-threaded application.

Tallix Wrote:and apparently doesn't take advatage of Crossfire or SLI either. But oh well.

Not much they can do about that unless Nvidia/AMD decide to take an interest in the project for some reason. AAA games have the luxury of being important enough for Nvidia/AMD to optimize their SLI/Crossfire drivers around them.

Edit: And I've been ninja'd multiple times in the time that it took me to write this. Figures.

[admin89]

You won't need 8k res monitor for 4xIR + 9xSSAA . 4k res is enough due to downscaling , the graphic still look gorgeous

Quote:NaturalViolence or admin89 know more about GPUs than I do

NV maybe . I'm not on par with him ...not even close .

Well , you should not spend money on GTX Titan . Next gen GTX 770 or 780(which is about to be released soon) is on par with Titan but will cost less than half

[RachelB]

Close enough...

[admin89]

3FPS ?