Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Alright, so I've posted them in my sig. Please let me know what you think.

Thanks in advance

P.S. I thought I already posted this thread, but it seems like it didn't show up and my post count is still zero (before this post)...weird.

Most game will run very slow because your CPU bottle neck
Dolphin uses 2 core ...
Try 2D games like New Super Mario Bros or Muramasa the demon blade

Well i believe i can answer you, seeing as how my current laptop is nearly identical, although you may not like what i have to say. The "Good News" is your graphic card should be able to handle about 1.5-2.0 Internal Resolution (roughly 720p) with a decent overclock. The bad news is that dolphin hates low clocked 1st gen mobile i7's, and as such the majority of games won't run full speed. You may be able to overclock your processor to about 1.75 Ghz base with programs like setfsb (10 Dollar donation to the author needed to get an activation key) if you have your clock generator number and its supported. That would give you about a 5-10% speed boost, as your multiples in turbo mode would boost your speed up to about 1.9 Ghz (3-4 cores), 2.5 Ghz (2 cores) 3.0 Ghz (Single Core). Perhaps limiting dolphin with taskmananger to 2 cores in conjuction with lock threads to cores will help you, although its been rather lackluster and futile for me.

The good news is you'll have pretty decent results if you try Pcsx2, since it supports 3+cores with recent releases via a hack called Mtvu. I've been able to play demanding games like Dark Cloud 1/2, Dragonquest 8, Rogue Galaxy, Dragonball Z Budokai with great results, and with your decent graphic card overclocked you'll be able to get near 2x scaling on all but the most demanding Gpu games.

Alternatively if your thinking about getting a new laptop in the coming months you will be in great shape with the introduction of Ivy Bridge. The introductory i7 3610qm has fairly high speeds of 2.3-3.3, and will stay at 3.1 Ghz while under load from all 4 cores. Even better would be a 3720qm with speeds of 2.6-3.6, which will be at 3.4 Ghz under 4 core load! That combined with the superior Architectural Advances from Ivy Bridge over Sandy Bridge will net you the cpu equivalent of an i5 2500k overclocked to 4Ghz (estimate). As such you'll have great results from the vast majority of games on Dolphin, perhaps even those that require LLE on thread. Also it will handle every playable game on Pcsx2 with ease as long as your Gpu doesn't bottleneck you. Just make sure not to rely on the integrated graphics of Ivy Bridge, as although they are much better than Sandy Bridge, and probably not that much worse than your current Gt 335m, they will limit you from getting beautiful ultra high resolutions. I'd advise atleast combining the Ivy Bridge with a solid Dedicated Card like the Nvidia GTX 660m for 3.0+ Internal Resolution. If you have $1000+ to spend on a new laptop in April/May, I'd highly recommend doing it.

(02-24-2012, 01:09 AM)SlickDragon Wrote: [ -> ]Even better would be a 3720qm with speeds of 2.6-3.6, which will be at 3.4 Ghz under 4 core load! That combined with the superior Architectural Advances from Ivy Bridge over Sandy Bridge will net you the cpu equivalent of an i5 2500k overclocked to 4Ghz (estimate)

Not that much . Ivy Bridge is just 10% faster than Sandy Bridge and SB is 20% faster than Nehalem(1st gen)
Core 2 duo -> Nehalem : Intel "tick"
Nehalem -> SB : Intel "tock"
SB -> Ivy B : Intel "tick"
Ivy B -> Haswell : Intel "tock" (2013)

tock is usually better than tick . Ivy Bridge has lower TDP (lower temp -> overclock higher, power saving ) which is good for laptop user or overclocker

It should be like 3.4(3rd gen) vs 3.6(2nd gen) vs 4.0(1st gen) although we shouldn't compare GHZ due to different generation (45/32nm vs 32nm vs 22nm)

Quote: Not that much . Ivy Bridge is just 10% faster than Sandy Bridge

Nothing wrong with disagreeing with me, just note that we are both speculating, and as such my estimate can be perfectly valid within the general consensus of IB being 5-15% PPC (Performance Per Clock) > Sandy Bridge. Not to mention that other factors such as AVX2 intstruction set, lower tdp which leads to better theoretical overclocking (probably 3.5-3.6 Ghz under 4 core load for the 3720qm) all make my statement seem plausible.

Quote:It should be like 3.4(3rd gen) vs 3.6(2nd gen) vs 4.0(1st gen)

Even based on your percentages this would be quite off, mayhap you should recheck your numbers. According to you it should be 3.4 vs 3.75 vs 4.5. This doesn't account for the other benefits brought about by the newer generations/architecture, which further amplify the increases. As such i believe those gaps would be even greater, and the Ps2 Cpu Benchmark Thread seems to support my conclusions. Suffice it to say we both agree there will be a fair amount of improvement for Emulators, and especially for us lowly 1st Gen laptop i5/i7 users upgrading to IB i7.

Actually i did benchmark i5 2410m + Nvidia GT 555M (alienware) vs i5 480m + Nvidia GT 540m(acer)
I5 2410M @ 2.6Ghz (2 core) vs I5 480M @ 2.9Ghz(2 core)
At the end of the video , the speed are almost no difference

According to notebookcheck.net , i5 2410m is somewhere between i5 560M @ 3.1Ghz (2 core) and i5 580M @ 3.2 (2 core )

I'm not sure how your statement is contradicting what i said, let alone rebutting it. I agree with your initial statement that SB is roughly 20%>Arrandale, which is why i rectified your numbers accordingly, eventhough i personally have greater gaps. Your link to notebookcheck does indeed back up what we both know "The 2410M( 2.3 GHz) was able to beat the fast Intel Core i5-560M with 2.7-3.2GHz". As such i stand by my previous posts, and will defend them as long as they seem to be accurate.

Quote:Core 2 duo -> Nehalem : Intel "tick"
Nehalem -> SB : Intel "tock"
SB -> Ivy B : Intel "tick"
Ivy B -> Haswell : Intel "tock" (2013)

Sorry to tell you this but you've got that wrong. The first two transitions should both be tocks.

Core 2 (tock, 2006/2007 core 2 was a major architectural overhaul)
Penryn (tick, 2008, die shrink of core 2)
Nehalem (tock, 2009, major architectural overhaul)
Westmere (tick, 2010, die shrink of nehalem)
Sandy bridge (tock, 2011, major architectural overhual)
Ivy bridge (tick, 2012, die shrink of ivy bridge)
Haswell (tock, 2013, major architectural overhual)
Broadwell (tick, 2014, die shrink of haswell)
Skylake (tock, 2015, major architectural overhual)
Skymont (tick, 2016, die shrink of skylake)

Everything else in your post is correct. Nobody is expecting anything more than minor improvement from ivy bridge because intel "ticks" have never been major improvements. Slickdragons math is slightly closer to what I'm expecting but both of you are now arguing over tiny tiny differences in your numbers.

And everything you guys said applies to both Wii AND Gamecube games, right? Intuitively, I would estimate that the requirements to run a Gamecube game at full speed are less than that of a Wii game.

(02-25-2012, 10:49 AM)NaturalViolence Wrote: [ -> ]Ivy bridge (tick, 2012, die shrink of ivy bridge)

Lol wut XD