Will Either of These Laptops Run Dolphin Smoothly?

[LeCarpetron]

Hello everyone! I am new to the Dolphin Forums  

I found out about this amazing emulator over the Winter Break, and fortunately for me, my parents decided to finally let me have a laptop this Christmas! I am still on the search for one though because we forgot about shopping for one until the Winter Sales were already over, so this Presidents Day, we're making an effort to choose a laptop for me.

The games I am hoping to play are:
- Super Smash Bros. Melee (for me, this running smoothly is a must)
- Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door (this game is still playable while it's slightly laggy)

These games are ones I will probably get to in the future, but aren't as much of a priority:
- Mario Kart Wii
- Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2
- Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
- Super Smash Bros Brawl/Project M

I've had my eye on these two laptops for a bit now, but I'm unsure which would perform better:

------------------------------------------
Lenovo Y40-80 Laptop - 80FA001CUS
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Link: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y40-80/
Specs:
CPU: 5th Generation Intel Core i7-5500U Processor (2.40GHz 1600MHz 4MB)
RAM: 8.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3L 1600 MHz
GPU: AMD Radeon R9 M275 2GB
Operating System: Windows 8.1 x64


and


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Lenovo G510 Laptop 59402507
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Link: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/g-series/g510/
Specs:
CPU: 4th Generation Intel Core i7-4700MQ Processor (2.4 GHz 1600MHz 6MB)
RAM: 8.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3 SDRAM 1600 MHz
GPU: Intel® HD Graphics 4600
Operating System: Windows 8.1 x64


(Please remember, I am hoping to be able to run Melee at 100% for the most part)
Are either of these laptops what I am looking for? Are my laptop selections unreasonable?

Thanks, your help is much appreciated!  

[yl-smash]

The G510 will be a much better choice because of the MQ cpu as opposed to U (ultra low power). The 4700MQ runs most games full speed (i have one) and the 4600 graphics can do 2-3x IR.

[LeCarpetron]

(02-12-2015, 06:00 PM)yl-smash Wrote: The G510 will be a much better choice because of the MQ cpu as opposed to U (ultra low power).  The 4700MQ runs most games full speed (i have one) and the 4600 graphics can do 2-3x IR.

Thank you for the reply, yl-smash!

Just a few more questions:
Since I'm going to be stuck with this laptop for the next 4-5 years or so, if I ever pick-up on any other kind of gaming, would the G510 be able to support my other gaming needs?

Is the Y40-80 completely out of the question? (No way it could run Melee at 100%)/How would the Y40-80 fare at running Dolphin?

I had previously contacted the Lenovo Custumer Support line and the representative was leaning towards the Y40-80 (I described to him the Dolphin emulator briefly) Who should I listen to?

I see from you bio that you want to expand SSBM Netplay. Does this mean you're completely sure ithe G510 will run Melee smoothly?

[KHg8m3r]

Even though the Y40-80 has a newer 5th gen CPU, the 4700MQ has a higher TDP and a higher turbo boost speed, meaning it won't be throttled under load like the 5500U may.

If you wan to do real gaming, I would get a dedicated gaming laptop, like a Sager, with a dedicated video card and two heatsinks (the Y40-80 has only one heatsink = thermal throttling)

The Y40-80 would perform slightly less than the G510

[LeCarpetron]

Alright, 2 responders agreeing on the same laptop is enough to shut me up XD

I just find it funny that the Y40-80 is supposedly designed for gaming and the G510 is supposedly designed for student work/entry-level...

[LeCarpetron]

Does this also mean that Processors matter much more than Graphics Cards to Dolphin? This is what I started to pick-up from my research, but I had a hard time believing it (I don't get any of the technical reasoning behind any of this)

[combine1237]

gpu is needed for higher res and anti aliasing and for better frames in regular games cpu determines max emulation speed for 900 usd you can get a laptop with a gpu good enough to play dolphin at 1080p with good frames and play other games too @1080p

[KHg8m3r]

Jeez, learn how to use sentence structure, that makes my head hurt....

But what combine says is correct. The CPU is what determines the speed, the GPU determines what fancy effects you can add (in Dolphin). For PC gaming, the better the GPU, the better the game runs, which is why for someone who doesn't know how Dolphin works (the Lenovo sales rep), they would say the Y40-80 is better since it has a better GPU.

If you want the best of both worlds, I recommend getting a Sager gaming laptop

[LeCarpetron]

Thank you so much for the insight, KHg8m3r! Unfortunately, my budget is well under the prices of the Sager laptops I briefly searched up, but it's fine because I don't consider my activity anywhere close to "heavy gaming".

I've made my decision: I want to get a Lenovo G510!
(I'm sure my mom will be delighted to hear that I'm choosing a computer meant for school over a gaming computer! Haha )

[admin89]

Actually you can still play most PC game just fine with HD 4600
40FPS on SCII HOTS - High Settings with Anti-Aliasing enabled and 45FPS on Shogun 2 - medium settings , highest shader model 5