Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

I already read the thread about system requirements, but it didn't help much because I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to processors, graphics cards, etc. So, if it's alright, I'd like to just ask here.

I plan on getting a Macbook Pro eventually. I'm going to install Windows 7 on it via Bootcamp or something, and I was thinking about putting Dolphin on it.

It will be the cheapest, 13-inch version. These are the specs:

2.3GHz dual-core
Intel Core i5
4GB 1333MHz
320GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 384MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory.
Built-in battery (7 hours)2

So I'm wondering, how well can it play these games:

Wii:
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Sonic Colors
Metroid: Other M
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Epic Mickey
Super Mario Galaxy 2

Gamecube:
Zelda: Wind Waker
Sonic Adventure DX
Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

Other: Zelda: Twilight Princess (either version)

How well can it run them at their highest normal setting (480p)?

How well can it run those games beyond that? Better graphics, higher resolution, etc. I'm talking about everything in the games, not just gameplay but cutscenes too.

Can you please be as specific as possible?

Also, the same question as before, but with different settings. If I got the next Macbook Pro right above the cheapest, how well could it play things at normal and advanced? The specs for that one are:

2.7GHz dual-core
Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz
500GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000

Yeah, sorry for all of the questions.

Both GPUs won't perform well, but regarding the CPU, the latter one is better.

By the way, Macs are crazily expensive; in my opinion, you could get a better computer if you build one yourself with the same money you'd use to buy the Mac.

(08-15-2011, 11:51 AM)glan20 Wrote: [ -> ]Both GPUs won't perform well, but regarding the CPU, the latter one is better.

By the way, Macs are crazily expensive; in my opinion, you could get a better computer if you build one yourself with the same money you'd use to buy the Mac.

Yeah I know, but I need a Mac for a few other things.

So not even Gamecube games would play well on the better Mac?

They will boot and run, but you shouldn't really expect the games to run fast at any setting. I've seen some MacBook Pro's with a dedicated graphics card, so you should grab one like those instead of the above two, which have integrated graphics.

(08-15-2011, 11:59 AM)glan20 Wrote: [ -> ]They will boot and run, but you shouldn't really expect the games to run fast at any setting. I've seen some MacBook Pro's with a dedicated graphics card, so you should grab one like that instead of the above two, which have integrated graphics.

Alright, how about this one then? It's the 15-inch Macbook Pro:

2.0GHz quad-core
Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz
500GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
AMD Radeon HD 6490M with 256MB GDDR5

I can't imagine any laptop under multiple thousands of dollars playing half the games you named in that initial post very well, add an extra thousand dollars for a mac. It's been my experience, rather limited and short so far, that there is a cpu threshold you must meet to play games near a certain speed, regardless of even very low image quality settings. Per game of course, I don't mean one size fits all speed. It's not like a pc game where drastically reducing your settings also should(in most cases) drastically reduce the resources the game needs.

And then as far as that image quality goes, your resolution, anti aliasing etc, you have garbage graphics in both of those laptops that even if the processor speed is enough for the game to run, you'll be doing it at something like native resolution with no AA, assuming those integrateds support everything dolphin needs(pixel shaders etc); I don't really know about that stuff.

Well, to be frank, that one isn't very good either (for gaming, anyways). While it has a dedicated graphics card, the CPU clockrate is not very high (recommended clockrate is above 3.0 GHz, and I think even with the Turbo Boost, that CPU won't get to 3.0), but I'm sure you'll get decent speed out of this machine.

Quote:It's the 15-inch Macbook Pro

No. Don't buy that overpriced garbage. Build yourself a hackintosh if you really need macosx for some reason.

Quote:2.0GHz quad-core
Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz
500GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
AMD Radeon HD 6490M with 256MB GDDR5

Dolphin will run with these specs but both that cpu and gpu will have trouble maintaining decent performance with many of the heavier games.

Your able do to all things from osx on windows too, plus they are better too

No seriously, as Natural said build a hackintosh, otherwise you are waisting money (You get the pretty same for like ~800 Dollars and then it can still be faster than the crap they call mac)

Btw, most of the games you mentoned wouldn't run properly with that hardware, so i am asking you: If you are going to get a macbook,i assume you have a pretty high budget...
So, please get a PC with at least the follwing specs:

i-Sandy Bridge Series, i7 2600k/i5 2500k (i7 preferred)
Nvidia Geforce GTX580
At least 6GB RAM
A big pc case
Good motherboard (Asus preferred)
A aftermarket cooler (To overclock)
.....
That's the most important.

So, with this hardware (And the i7 overclocked to at least 4.4GHZ), you will be running all games at fullspeed.
AND it eats macs for breakfast

Don't get a mac. When I budgeted for my laptop, I found a similarly speced MBP for about $1000 more. I got my computer for $1350 and it's good with SMG2 on HLE and Wind Waker and the Macbook Pro was $2500, plus Dolphin doesn't work a well on OSX.