Will it run?

[Dini-hoo]

This is going to be another "will my new PC/laptop be good enough?" question but i really need confirmation to specific specs.

My new Laptop is a Lenovo Thinkpad X220 with:

Intel core i7

2.80 GHz

4 GB RAM

and Intel integrated HD graphics

If those look vague i can be more specific

I don't need the best performance in the world, i just need it to run relatively well even at low settings.

Any input to this is greatly appreciated and i will check back regularly for replies. Thank you very much in advance!

[JonnyH]

From what I can see, the X220 is pretty old, so the CPU/GPU will be Sandy Bridge. That on a low-power laptop CPU will mean it's pretty slow CPU wise, and *really* slow GPU wise.

You'll probably get away with some games with no enhancements, but it likely won't be enough to play everything.

[TKSilver]

The 2640m with the HD 3000 will give you performance issues on harder to run games.

Very light games like New Super Mario Wii should work (as long as you don't push enhancements too much)

What is really needed is what games you wish to play.

[Dini-hoo]

From what I can see, the X220 is pretty old, so the CPU/GPU will be Sandy Bridge. That on a low-power laptop CPU will mean it's pretty slow CPU wise, and *really* slow GPU wise.

You'll probably get away with some games with no enhancements, but it likely won't be enough to play everything.

Thanks for the reply. Can you suggest a newer laptop that can support dolphin? Bear in mind i am trying to keep my budget to a minimum

[DJBarry004]

Thanks for the reply. Can you suggest a newer laptop that can support dolphin? Bear in mind i am trying to keep my budget to a minimum

What is your budget, now that you mention it? Pretty sure you´ll be able to get a more decent laptop.

[Dini-hoo]

What is your budget, now that you mention it? Pretty sure you´ll be able to get a more decent laptop.

Anything under £350 at a push. I picked that laptop because it was refurbished at £199 and the specs looked decent to a non computer enthusiast such as myself.

[JonnyH]

Anything under £350 at a push. I picked that laptop because it was refurbished at £199 and the specs looked decent to a non computer enthusiast such as myself.

You're paying for it being small and light, on top of the premium of being a laptop. If you don't *need* portability you can likely get something a bit larger and heavier, but correspondingly more powerful. It really depends on what you are going to be using it for most of the time.

Of course, anything non-portable (IE a desktop) will blow it away at the same price.

Generally you get "fast" - "cheap" - "small". Pick two.

[andykara2003]

Hi, I'm about to buy parts for a smaller PC to run Dolphin and have a couple of questions:

Firstly, the games that are most important to me are: Mario Galaxy 1&2, Metroid prime 1 (from the Wii trilogy), Skyward sword, Pikmin 1 NPC, DKCR, Mario sunshine etc.   Will any of these games have hiccups when using hybrid ubershaders (assuming no hardware limitations)? If so, are we talking maybe a single microstutter every 20 minutes or a stutter every minute of so? If it's the latter, I'll go for a more powerful PC and use exclusive ubershaders.


Secondly, does this collection of parts give me plenty of headroom to run these games at 1080p with SSAA using hybrid ubershaders with no performance impact whatsoever? Helios kindly suggested these parts to me before, but my requirements have changed a bit - now I want to use SSAA and Hybrid Ubershaders. I also changed the suggestion from a GTX1050 to a 1060 to allow for these extra requirements. Is that overkill and does SSAA impact CPU or GPU?.


Pentium G4560 3.5GHz
MSI - B250I PRO Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard
G.Skill - Ripjaws 4 series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory
Geforce GTX1060
SeaSonic - 360W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  (is this too low for the GTX1060?)


Thirdly, I'm looking to make this as quiet as possible. Is using a Mini ITX case too small - should I go with a larger case so as to have larger, quieter fans?


Thanks..

[Helios]

That build will be flawless for HD Dolphin. Even 4K Dolphin, honestly. I can't think of a game that will actually choke the CPU.

You won't get any stuttering if you use Direct3D 11 + hybrid ubershaders in the latest development build. (Avoids an nvidia driver design flaw that happens in GL and Vulkan)

EDIT: Wait, now that I think about it more, SSAA + ubershaders of any kind is a serious tax on the GPU. However, MSAA is free when Ubershaders is on. IMO 4x MSAA looks great at 1080p and at 4k you don't even need AA.

[andykara2003]

Thanks again for that - the 1060 seems to be the sweet spot then as it's not too much more expensive than a 1050 but much cheaper than a 1070.

Would the 8Gb of ram be enough for texture packs? I'm not too bothered if not, just a thought..