Which components should I buy right now?

[kingtaco]

Right now, I'm using a GeForce 610 and a Core 2 Quad Q660 2.4GHz. Obviously rubbish, so I'm shopping for upgrades over the next 6-12 months. I'd just like a few recommendations.

How important is the GPU for Dolphin? I have a broken Radeon 4870, is it worth getting it repaired, or should I buy a totally new GPU?

Is a CPU like the i5-4440 or i5-3330 worth purchasing, or is the leap to an i7-4790 a massive improvement?

I'm not a huge gamer and I'm on a budget, so I'm not looking for high-end best-of-the-best gear. But at the same time I'm being realistic and not expecting to run Skyward Sword at 1080p on a $50 GPU. What purchases would you make as a Dolphin user today if you were trying to be a bit thrifty?

[artantaaa]

The CPU is more important than the GPU. Your 610 will suffice unless you want to increase the resolution quite a bit. If I was going to buy a budget system that could run Dolphin right now, I would get a G3220 and a cheap 1150 motherboard. You would have no trouble running lightweight games at full speed with this. Of course, a 4690K will give you much better performance, and allow you to run almost any game at full speed, but it would be much more expensive.

[kingtaco]

(07-01-2014, 04:57 PM)artantaaa Wrote: The CPU is more important than the GPU. Your 610 will suffice unless you want to increase the resolution quite a bit. If I was going to buy a budget system that could run Dolphin right now, I would get a G3220 and a cheap 1150 motherboard. You would have no trouble running lightweight games at full speed with this. Of course, a 4690K will give you much better performance, and allow you to run almost any game at full speed, but it would be much more expensive.

Hmm, unfortunately the games I do want to run (Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Metroid Prime, Mario Galaxy 2) I think are classified as beyond lightweight, and I do want to increase the resolution to 1080p. Funny thing is, I actually own a Wii and copies of all the games I want to play, the problem is that I have no TV, and while my monitor does have component inputs the upscaling is so atrocious that text is illegible and games almost unplayable. I thought hardware improvements would be cheaper than buying a new TV set (and come with fringe benefits, but this is the main reason).

I'm surprised to see the recommendation for the Pentium G3220. Is a dual-core $60 Pentium really ahead of a Core 2 Quad now? I assumed the realistic options were the i5 and i7 ranges.

[admin89]

It's 2 times as fast as your Core 2 Quad since Dolphin is a dual core application
Depending on the generation , i5 and i7 may be strong , may be weak . 1st gen Core i7 (Nehalem) is much slower than 4nd gen Pentium / Core i3 (Haswell)
You may want to look at Dolphin Benchmark
But I wouldn't recommend a locked multiplier CPU like Pentium G3220 . Unlocked Pentium G3258 (Anniversary Edition) is incredibly cheap and can be Oced @ 4.6GHz with Intel stock fan

[artantaaa]

Yes. The G3258 is a much better idea. I forgot it had been released. You will need a more expensive z97 board if you want to overclock though.

[yl-smash]

Have you tried component cables on your tv btw? Looks much better than composite cables.