What should I upgrade to improve performance?

[brobotnik]

Hey, I love dolphin and all but it lags in games like F-Zero GX and Resident Evil 4. In Resident Evil 4, the game runs fine until I have lots of lighting sources on the screen, and F-Zero GX can't handle being run at 1080p fullscreen.

I want to buy myself something for christmas, and I'm leaning towards getting a new graphics card but I wanted the opinion of this community first.

Windows 7 x64
Intel i5 760 2.8 Ghz
XFX AMD Radeon HD 5770 1GB
Mushkin 4GB

[KHg8m3r]

First off, are you using one of the latest dev builds?
Secondly, the current best setup would be the i5-4670k (with a motherboard that supports overclocking) with any of the new graphics cards. The latest dev builds put OpenGL as the fastest backend on both Nvidia and AMD cards.
How much are you willing to spend?

[admin89]

AMD 5700 is good enough for 4x Internal Resolution , no AA , 16x AF . Those games aren't graphic intensive games . Therefore , you don't have GPU bottleneck
On the other hand , your CPU is just too old and slow for latest Dolphin and those games are CPU demanding games . If you want to save some cash , just get an aftermarket cooler like CM Hyper 212 Evo + Arctic MX-4 tube and overclock that i5 to 3.8GHz or higher
If you want to run all demanding games without lag , just upgrade your system . An i5 4670k @ 4.2GHz (overclocked) + MSI Z87 G41 or higher end G45 (only Z87 mobo support overclocking) . Base on Dolphin Benchmark , i5 4670k @ 4.2GHz is on par with i5 3570k @ 5.0GHz

[brobotnik]

I should also note that I have the Corsair H50, so I don't really need to get an aftermarket cooler. I tried OC'ing this CPU but I could never get a truly stable overclock....weeks down the road it would randomly shut off, so eventually I just reverted to stock and have had no problems since.

But I guess a CPU upgrade would be far more substantial than a GPU upgrade, like twice the price...and I would likely need to rebuy Windows, correct? I mean it's an OEM copy.

[KHg8m3r]

No, you can carry over your hard drive. if you have to reformat, just get your lisence key for when you reinstall

[rokclimb15]

Use a utility like Magic Jellybean Keyfinder to get your Windows key if you have misplaced it. If you upgrade your motherboard you will have to reinstall. You can do a clean install on the same hd with Windows 7 and it will move your old Windows and program files so you can copy things back into your new install.

That upgrade will be substantial in terms of Dolphin and non-Dolphin performance. The 4670K is a great CPU. If you haven't used Handbrake with QuickSync yet, you should. It's a magical experience watching a 1.5 hour movie transcode in about 3 minutes while you still do other things (it doesn't peg the CPU).

[brobotnik]

Yeah, I suppose, but changing the cpus with everything else necessary is a $500 upgrade...it will have to wait.

[rokclimb15]

It should be around $350. I understand if that's still out of your price range, but I just wanted to point out that it shouldn't be $500. Should just be CPU + mobo for you. Unless you picked a really expensive motherboard (hint, don't) it won't be that much.