Will this computer run Dolphin at 1080p and some questions about a new GPU

[fizban]

4770k at 4.2ghz
GPU - GTX 260 216c (yes I know it sucks with this cpu, but am buying the video card next).
8 GB 1600cl9

I have the GTX card OC to around gtx 280 speeds. Also will probably be buying a video card in the next few months. The 4770k was 199 and I got it with a MB for 260 at microcenter, just couldn't pass it up. The e8400 was showing it's age.

I see that the emulator is very CPU intensive, but will that old card run at 1080p? If not would the 7870 be a good buy? Is there a big difference between nvidia and ATI in the emu?

Thanks in advance.

[admin89]

Quad Core i5 and Quad Core i7 have the same performance in Dolphin . There is no need to waste your money on an i7
Unless you need i7 for video encoding , heavy multi-tasking or sth along those lines

GTX 260 is a very good GPU , it can handle 4xIR (2560x2112) , no AA , 16x AF in most games . Dolphin need alot of GPU memory bandwidth , 7870 won't bring you huge advantage over GTX 260 .

Btw , There is "Vertex Streaming Hack" that will bring you huge speed up for Nvidia GPU only . Not sure it's a good idea to switch to AMD side

So you should get i5 4670k and wait for next gen Nvidia GPU which will come soon (Q1 of next year)

[fizban]

(12-03-2013, 03:46 PM)admin89 Wrote: Quad Core i5 and Quad Core i7 have the same performance in Dolphin . There is no need to waste your money on an i7
Unless you need i7 for video encoding , heavy multi-tasking or sth along those lines

GTX 260 is a very good GPU , it can handle 4xIR (2560x2112) , no AA , 16x AF in most games . Dolphin need alot of GPU memory bandwidth , 7870 won't bring you huge advantage over GTX 260 .

Btw , There is "Vertex Streaming Hack" that will bring you huge speed up for Nvidia GPU only . Not sure it's a good idea to switch to AMD side

So you should get i5 4670k and wait for next gen Nvidia GPU which will come soon (Q1 of next year)

Thanks again. Already got the 4770k (was same price as the I5 at 199 U.S.), and you saved me some money. Was about to grab the 7870 on sale and now I will wait. Probably go with the 860 (if they keep the same numbers going) as that is the price range I am looking at. Would have been bummed if I bought a new video card and performance wasn't much better. Now I can buy a few Wii games instead.

[pauldacheez]

Vertex Streaming Hack is no longer a complete advantage Nvidia GPUs have over AMD, as there's an AMD-specific OpenGL extension (AMD_pinned_memory) that neobrain recently reenabled Dolphin's support for that does the exact same thing, except AFAIK you don't have to manually enable this free speedup because it's properly supported by AMD's Windows drivers.

tl;dr, on current dev builds (not 4.0.x, but 4.0-xxx), OpenGL is now just as fast on AMD GPUs with VSH unchecked (or checked? I dunno) as it is on Nvidia GPUs with VSH checked. The 7870 should be fine, though so would a GTX 760 or most other popular high-end GPUs nowadays.

[fizban]

Yeah the reason I asked is the 7870 is hitting rock bottom prices from 110-130 bucks. It is basically a 270x with a underclock on the ram so it seems like a very good deal. The 760's are 250 or so.

This old GTX 260 216 is running galaxies 2 pretty well though at 60fps with 4x 16 AF (I bought this card in 2008 lol). I have a pretty big oc on the ram and core, and I don't know if galaxies 2 is one of the harder games to run or not and I am using the newest version. Still very new at this. I think I am going to wait for AMD mantle and see what happens with it in BF4 (I know this won't affect Dolphin). There are a lot of unknowns right now with video cards. It is nice to know AMD video cards work ok with Dolphin.

Thank again guys. Will probably be picking up a bluetooth dongle/sensor bar today though. Mouse keyboard controls is driving me crazy haha.

[Shonumi]

fizban Wrote:I have a pretty big oc on the ram and core, and I don't know if galaxies 2 is one of the harder games to run or not and I am using the newest version. Still very new at this.

Actually, SMG1 and 2 are very stressful on the GPU, at least when it comes to Dolphin. Additionally, if you use LLE audio, SMG1 and 2 and some of the most CPU intensive games you play in Dolphin. If you're running SMG2 fullspeed with LLE audio and at an enjoyable resolution, you've certainly made the right purchase

fizban Wrote:Mouse keyboard controls is driving me crazy haha.

Haha, yeah I remember doing keyboard controls for years from FCEUX to SNES9X to VBAM. Then I got a USB controller in 2011. Never looked back :p Same thing for most Wii games that don't use a Classic Controller or GC Controller, real Wiimotes all the way.