Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

I am fully aware that dolphin runs best on a desktop 2600k or 2500k OC to 4.5, however I am interested in playing my gamecube games and some wii games on the go on a laptop.

I am buying the Toshiba Satellite P755-S5270 with the following specs:

Intel Core i5-2410M Processor 2.3 GHz (2.9 GHz with Turbo Boost Technology), 3MB L3 Cache
6GB DDR3 1333MHz (max 8GB)
750GB (5400 RPM) Serial ATA hard disk drive
15.6" diagonal widescreen TruBrite TFT display at 1366 x 768 native resolution (HD)
Geforce 540m 1GB DDR3

Will I be able to play the following games at my native resolution (NO ANTI-ALIASING) and native speeds? (most cube games are 30FPS & wii games 60 FPS)

1)Smash Melee (with 4 players)
2)Mario Sunshine
3)Windwaker
4) Metroid Prime
5) Lotr: Third Age

WII
1) Ghost Squad
2)Guilty Party
3) Kirby Epic Yarn
4) Punch out
5) Tetris Deluxe
6) New Super Mario Brothers Wii
7) DKCR

Thanks for the help everyone

(08-06-2011, 04:17 AM)terranrus64 Wrote: [ -> ]Intel Core i5-2410M Processor 2.3 GHz (2.9 GHz with Turbo Boost Technology), 3MB L3

1core = 2.9ghz
2core = 2.6ghz

dont hope much
GC:
Windwaker
Metroid Prime

... hopeless

My experience... on Nvidia the DirectX 11 is the setitng to use, I'm getting signficant bost over Direct X 9 on dolphin.

You won't get turbo to 2.9Ghz as that is only with one core... you will get more like 2.6 or 2.7Ghz.

Punch Out isn't going to run at full speed. But it is probably mostly playable

Thnx Dannzen- much appreciated. What about the other games, would they run well? Can I expect my GC games to run smoothly?

(08-06-2011, 04:52 AM)dannzen Wrote: [ -> ]

(08-06-2011, 04:17 AM)terranrus64 Wrote: [ -> ]Intel Core i5-2410M Processor 2.3 GHz (2.9 GHz with Turbo Boost Technology), 3MB L3

1core = 2.9ghz
2core = 2.6ghz

dont hope much
GC:
Windwaker
Metroid Prime

... hopeless

---

Thnx RoundSparrow, u and Dannzen definitely know your stuff. I know there are faster mobile cpus such as the 2720QM, 2620M etc but they are well out of my budget.

The most I would be able to step up to is the i7 2630QM. Would it fare any better than the i5-2410m? I am willing to settle for good speed in my GC games- specially Melee, Windwaker and Sunshine.

(08-06-2011, 06:18 AM)RoundSparrow Wrote: [ -> ]My experience... on Nvidia the DirectX 11 is the setitng to use, I'm getting signficant bost over Direct X 9 on dolphin.

You won't get turbo to 2.9Ghz as that is only with one core... you will get more like 2.6 or 2.7Ghz.

Punch Out isn't going to run at full speed. But it is probably mostly playable

(08-06-2011, 08:00 AM)terranrus64 Wrote: [ -> ]Thnx RoundSparrow, u and Dannzen definitely know your stuff. I know there are faster mobile cpus such as the 2720QM, 2620M etc but they are well out of my budget.

The most I would be able to step up to is the i7 2630QM. Would it fare any better than the i5-2410m? I am willing to settle for good speed in my GC games- specially Melee, Windwaker and Sunshine.

I did spend over 3 weeks testing Dolphin on a 2630QM... with ATI 6770M 1GB. System was an HP-DV6T 6100. Mostly due to buggy ATI drivers that were running the GPU at 270Mhz, haha. I eventually solved that GPU problem and got it running at full speed, but it still wasn't working as fast as I desired. It was decent, but Punch Out! really was running too slow. You should get 2.7/2.8Ghz on the Turbo with the 2630QM if I remember correctly.... where the 2720QM delivers 3.0Ghz.

When I swtched over to the Dell system with 2720QM - I went to a less-capable GPU, only 512MB that is DDR3. The previous HP 2630QM had DDR5 GPU. But, I saw a a fast improvement in Dolphin! MOre than the CPU alone accounted for! So I wonder if Dolphin is running better on Nvidia graphics drivers than ATI? I didn't have time to delve into benchmarking that further... I was just really happy with the performance combo of Nvidia+2720QM on Dolphin... I only had both systems side-by-side for 4 days, but it was a clear winner.


OF course I know a complex topic... make your own choice... but I'll share: If you are in USA, I really recommend looking at Dell Outlet for scratch/dent E6520/E6420 laptops. They have the 2.2Ghz CPU + NVS 4200M GPU at around $700 with coupons when i got mine a month ago [I ended up spending around $840 getting 1080p 15" display and larger battery, Intel 6300 Wifi adapter - the best]. it's an older system, no USB 3.0 - but I've been pretty happy with it for Dolphin Slickdeals.net ("hot deals" Forum, #9) is a great website to track laptop deals.

dolphin runs on native resolution on nearly all new mobile gpus (no integrated)
the cpu's are the problem

Don't get a dual core, a quad core will handle everything better, even programs that aren't designed with them in mind. Also, in recent years Intel has started being more deceptive than ever, and they're really locking shit down too. Go to the link below and see the actual turbo boost speeds. Intel likes to advertise what you'll get when only a single core is being used, which is practically never.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4084/intel...-landscape

I have the 2630qm and it's decent. In most but not all GC/Wii games I'm able to get a consistent ~60vps at 2x resolution (no AA). The 2720qm gives you an extra 400MHz to work with though, and every hertz counts. In benchmarks I see that you can get a 20% FPS improvement over the 2630qm (on PCSX2 anyway)

The Core i7 2630qm is the clear winner here.


I'm sold.