Will my computer run the emulator?

[osum4est]

Hello, I am about to build a computer and am wondering how well it will run wii games using the dolphin emulator. I don't plan on playing gamecube games. My computer will include 8gbs of ram, an EVGA SC GTX 760 w/ACX Cooler, and an i5 4670k processor running Windows 8 on an 1080p Monitor.

Complete Part List: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/osum4est/saved/2uzH

Will I be able to play games well on my HDTV through an HDMI cable?
How high will I be able to set the settings with the game still running well?
Overall, how many fps will I get when playing in 1080p HD?

Also, what bluetooth dongle do you recommend that will work with my wiimote with wiimotion plus and nunchuck? (Would also like to use it with DS3 Tool)

Thank you!

[Shonumi]

' Wrote:Will I be able to play games well on my HDTV through an HDMI cable?

Yes, assuming there's nothing wrong with the cable itself of course

' Wrote:How high will I be able to set the setting with game still running well?

How high you can set your graphical settings is dependent on your GPU, as well as the game you're emulating. Some games are very GPU intensive (SMG1 & 2, various parts of Metroid Prime 1 & 2, Xenoblade Chronicles, etc) others are not. Generally speaking, you should be able to do 4x IR in almost all games without slowing down. For AA, you should be able to do 3x IR + 4xSSAA without slowdowns in many games. Of course you can do MSAA (for geometry/edge anti-aliasing only) and that's far less demanding (hence you can raise it quite a bit). The short story is that you'll be able to play in HD no matter how you slice it.

' Wrote:Overall, how many fps will I get set on 1080p HD?

Again, depends on the game and your settings. Assuming you don't push your GPU too hard (would take very high IR + AA to do this on a GTX 760), the rest of your performance is dependent on the CPU. A 4670K is currently one of the best CPUs for Dolphin that you can buy. Once you overclock that, you'll be able to play almost any game at fullspeed (no hardware can practically run all games in Dolphin at fullspeed consistently, not yet). If you have any specific games in mind, we can tell you if you'll need to OC and if it's a demanding game or not. At any rate, the i5-4670K is a beast, and eats Dolphin alive in some cases.

' Wrote:Also, what bluetooth dongle do you recommend that will work with my wiimote with wiimotion plus and nunchuck

Honestly, as long as it's not an absurdly cheap piece of crap, most will work fine. I went to Best Buy, asked for a BT dongle (they only had one kind from one vendor), eyeballed it in the store, bought it, and it worked for me. Avoid Class 3 at all costs. Class 2 is suitable for everyday needs, and Class 1 is likewise a great choice (though more expensive?). If you've heard of the vendor, so much the better (if they're a reputable vendor that is.

[osum4est]

Thank you for the information! I greatly appreciate it.

The main games I will be running include:
•Super Smash Bros
•New super Mario bros
•Zelda skyward sword
•MX vs ATV untamed
•Wii sports
•Super Mario galaxy 1&2

[Shonumi]

Super Smash Bros - Well there are actually 3 games you could be referring to SSB (N64 Virtual Console), SSBM, or SSBB. At any rate, Melee and Brawl are lightweights. The VC version of SSB is not quite lightweight, but it's really nothing the 4670K can't handle on stock (I assume, I have not tried it myself).

New Super Mario Bros Wii - This game needs EFB copies set to RAM (without the Cache enabled) to work 100% correctly (for the blue coins and some 2D animations such as the shine on the blocks). This can be very demanding. Otherwise, if you choose to leave EFB copies to Texture, this game is one of the most lightweight games you can play on Dolphin. If you want to use EFB2RAM, you will have to OC. I get 30 FPS and I'm @ 3.8GHz now. Note that Haswell has to OC far less than Sandy or Ivy Bridge CPUs to reach the same level of performance (it's that much faster in Dolphin). At stock, the 4670K is probably faster than my mildly OC'ed 2500K.

Zelda Skyward Sword - Should run fine. Use a real Wiimote with WiiMotion+, anything less is just not going to work. People have tried, believe me :p

MX vs ATV Untamed - Dunno about this one. Should run just fine. We have very little info on this game in the Dolphin Wiki, unfortunately.

Wii Sports - Shouldn't have any issues running this game.

SMG1 & 2 - HLE audio is imperfect for these games. For the best experience, you'll want to use LLE audio. The problem is that this is very CPU intensive. You will want to OC the 4670K for these games. These are also GPU intensive, so be wary when setting your graphical enhancements too high.

Give the 4670K enough power, and it'll stomp on just about anything.

[Venomx1]

random question. why only a 100mhz bump?

[Shonumi]

(10-10-2013, 02:08 AM)Venomx1 Wrote: random question. why only a 100mhz bump?

I guess you're talking about my 2500K @ 3.8? It's actually 500MHz. It can Turbo Boost to 3.7 using 1 core, but I never observed this happening in any usage scenario ever for the year I had this rig before OCing. 3.3GHz is for all cores on stock, and now it's 3.8GHz for all cores after the OC. I can push it higher, especially with my water cooling, but I'm not interested.