Why is my Dolphin Performance slow on my Alienware M15x?!

[duckiestbeast]

Hello everyone.

I'm in awestuck frustration as my new Alienware M15x struggles to run the dolphin emulator. I tried F Zero GX and are to test Super Smash brothers Brawl soon.
However thus far it's not looking promising...
My system Specification.

Alienware M15X
Intel i7 820QM Quad Core, 4 x 1.73Ghz- turbo 2.93Ghz
500GB (7200RPM)
6Gb RAM 1333MHz DDR3
Intel 5300 Wireless Card
15.6in Wide TrueLife HD+ (1080) WLED
1 GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX260M
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)

Is there a setting I'm missing to speed up the framerate?
Or would I just be better off with the system below, because I swear a lower i5 2410m that I tested not long ago ran the dolphin MUCH smoother.

Dell XPS 15
Intel i5 2540M (2.6Ghz - Turbo to 3.3Ghz.)
500GB (7200RPM)
4Gb RAM 1333MHz DDR3
Intel Wireless-N 1000
15.6 HD WLED TL (1366x768) 720p
1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 525M (Ill overclock this to a GT 550m as it's the same chip)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)

Awaiting any help/ advice.

[HawaiianPunch]

Post Dolphin rev and specific settings plz. Also GX is one of the hardest games to run on Dolphin; Brawl will fare much better. GX requires an OC'd 2500k to run fullspeed.

[Shonumi]

Dolphin will only use two cores at the most, so you probably can't expect as much of a performance increase with an i7 over an i5 as you might think. If you compare them on Intel's website, that i5 of yours looks to be the better chip. If you're at stock speeds, the i7 has a lower default clock speed, and even when it kicks in to its max speed, it's still lower than the i5. Plus, the i5's architecture is based on Sandy Bridge, while the i7, not so much.

But like HawaiianPunch says, F-Zero GX is a heavyweight GCN game. Put up your settings so we can see how you're doing.

[duckiestbeast]

General
Backend : Direct 3D9 (Direct X9)
Full screen resolution 1600x900
Stretch to Window (Use full screen)
Auto adjust to Window Size

Enhancements
Internal resolution (Auto)
Anti-Aliasing (None)
Anisotropic filtering (1x)
Scaled EFB Copy ticked

Hacks
Ignore Format Changes (Selected)
EFB Copies (Texture)
External Frame Buffer (Disabled)
Fast Minimaps
Disable Per-Pixel Depth

Advanced
Nothing Selected

Game (F-Zero GX)
Dual Core enabled.

[admin89]

I7 820QM @ 2.8ghz (2 cores - Nehalem) Read More
I5 2540m @ 3.1ghz (2cores - Sandy Bridge) Read More

The successor to Nehalem and Westmere is Sandy Bridge and Sandy Bridge is 20% faster than Nehalem clock for clock
-> I5 2540m will smash i7 820qm into pieces (Dolphin only)

[duckiestbeast]

Very good comparison - Thanks for the input.
So basically the XPS 15 thats cheaper with the i5 2540m will run Dolphin and any other CPU intensive games better?

[admin89]

Yup as long as that program/game only uses dual core
Most PC games support quad core , the i7 will run faster than the i5 but not much
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html