Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

First time on the forums and I have been really enjoying the different conversations. But after reading several threads I am still not 100% certain which is more improtant to upgrade... CPU or GPU?

Let me give some details. I mainly play Wii LOZ Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword along with GC Metroid Prime and LOZ Wind Waker. (I like to stick to the classics : )

My current system is as follows:
Windows 7 Pro X64
Phenom II X4 965BE running at 3.4ghz
4gb Ram at 1600mhz
Nvidia Geforce GTX 560

I can currently play Twilight Princess at 3x IR with no AA but I think the game looks better with enhancements turned on. I run at 1080p resolution and was wondering which would be better to upgrade, the cpu or the GPU in order to get more fps in the games I run with enhancements like AA turned up? Currently only getting 28 to 33 fps in Twilight Princess which seems to be my most demanding game I have.

I look forward to hearing your opinions.

You already have a pretty good GPU, the most you could do is get an intel sandybridge CPU but you need a new mobo

(04-14-2012, 07:08 AM)Zee530 Wrote: [ -> ]You already have a pretty good GPU, the most you could do is get an intel sandybridge CPU but you need a new mobo

This ^^

Well, in two weeks, Ivy Bridge is here. (about 5-10% faster than Sandy Bridge)

I would wait

So the CPU would give me more performance gain then per the opinions im seeing. I figured that was the case but just wanted to get confirmation before I started planning my upgrade. I probably will wait to see what the Ivy bridge succesor to the CoreI5 2500k can do before deciding.

But a l cpu upgrade would definitly helkp out more then a Gpu upgrade in my situation, Correct? Out of curiosity, can anyone tell me why?

Dolphin is heavily CPU-dependent. As your current GPU is good enough already for playing most games in 1080p with 3-4xIR, an upgrade wouldn't make much of a change FPS-wise.

Got it. Thanks guys.

using 3x or 4x + msaa is not a good idea unless you are on 580 680

i played some parts with 3x+4xmsaa fine, but not everywhere in zelda

and yes, a new i5 + oc is the way to go, but i finished both zeldas just fine (not in hyrule fields)