Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Hello,

For a long time, I've been having slow down problems with various games in Dolphin such as Super Mario Galaxy. Upon hearing all of its fanfare, I bought an Intel Core 2 Duo a while back but was rather unimpressed by how little the performance improved for Dolphin. Suffice it to say, I was unaware that it supposedly had to be overclocked for its use to be met. To add insult to injury, with my recent installation of Windows 7, I've noticed that games under Dolphin have been running slower than ever with Xenoblade Chronicles running at a record low 8 frames per second. As an FYI, on Windows XP, Xenoblade's FPS ranged from 19-25.

In any case, I was wondering what the best course of action would be right now. Should I overclock, invest in a new CPU and/or GPU, etc?

With that said, here are my specs:
Intel DG33TL
Windows 7 x86 (Formerly XP)
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E8600 @ 3.33 GHz
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
2.00 GB RAM

Quote:Super Mario Galaxy

Recommend Specs :
i5 2500K @ 4.5GHz or i5 3570k @ 4.2GHz
Nvidia GTX 550Ti or AMD 6850
Windows 7 or 8 64 bit - 4GB of Ram in Dual Channel (2x2)

Quote:Should I overclock, invest in a new CPU , GPU

Nvidia 8600GT is weak but it will work fine for most games (2x IR , no AA , 16xAF) except those Graphic & CPU intensive games such as TLS , SMG , Xenoblade . Overclocking (GPU) won't help
Core 2 duo is outdated . Of course , overclocking (CPU) will help alot ( 3.33GHz -> 3.6 -> 3.8GHz) . Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo is cheap and it will help you overclock well

Edit : Make sure you have aftermarket thermal compound (Arctic MX-4) and your motherboard must support overclocking
Edit 2 :

Quote:Intel DG33TL

I didn't see that lol
Sorry but you can't overclock via bios with that mobo . You can try software overclocking tools like Systool, clockgen and setfsb but i don't recommend software overclocking . Do at your own risk

Thanks for replying. I'm not surprised that the Core 2 Duo is outdated considering that I started using it a few years ago. Anyway, am I correct in assuming that you're recommending me to purchase a new CPU/GPU as opposed to simply overclocking? If so, that's fine by me as I've been planning on upgrading for a while anyway. I would like to know which would be the more efficient and/or expensive route, however.

Concerning those recommended specs, are they sufficient for running most if not all Dolphin games at full speed? And supposing that I were to get an i5 2500K or 3570K, would I have to overclock it for desired performance? Also, what about the i7? Is it not worth the extra price difference compared to your recommendations? So, when you mentioned that overclocking GPU would not help, you were simply trying to say that installing a single new video card like the GTX 550Ti would be enough, I presume?

I suppose investing in a new GPU would be imperative for me considering that I do wish to play those graphic & CPU intensive games that you mentioned. In addition to that, I suppose it would not hurt to be able to use Dolphin with maxed out graphical enhancements. Would your recommended specs still hold if I wanted that? How much of an effect does the RAM have on performance, by the way?

Quote:So, when you mentioned that overclocking GPU would not help, you were simply trying to say that installing a single new video card like the GTX 550Ti would be enough, I presume?

No , you will need new CPU and new GPU . If you use 4xIR , no AA , 16x AF on SMG , even Nvidia GTX 550Ti won't be enough . Of course , Nvidia 8600GT is out of the question
E8600 @ 3.8GHz should run Xenoblade fullspeed
SMG need LLE backend (google it) . Even if you overclocked E8600 to 4.2GHz , it wouldn't be enough
Notes :
1st generation i3/i5/i7 (i3 530 , i5 760 , i7 920) @ 3.0GHz is much faster than Core 2 duo / Core 2 Quad @ 3.0GHz
2nd generation i3/i5/i7 (i3 2100 , i5 2500k , i7 2600k) @ 3.0GHz is much faster than 1st generation i3/i5/i7 (i3 530 , i5 760 , i7 920) @ 3.0GHz
3rd generation i3/i5/i7 (i3 3220 , i5 3570k , i7 3770k) @ 3.0GHz is faster than 2nd generation i3/i5/i7 (i3 2100 , i5 2500k , i7 2600k) @ 3.0GHz

Quote: Also, what about the i7

Unless you need Hyper Threading (HT) that bad ( 4 cores 8 threads) . Dolphin doesn't support HT , i7( i7 2600K , i7 3770K) will perform nearly the same as i5 (i5 2500K , i5 3570K)
HT will give you better performance for video editing , multi-tasking . It's worthless for Dolphin
You can go with the cheap combo : i5 3450 + Asrock Z77 Pro 4 -> Overclock to 3.9GHz which is good enough for SMG
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=366476
Non K CPU is not designed for overclocking but you can overclock them with "No k OC" function - Asrock Z77 Pro 4 mobo

(10-29-2012, 06:30 PM)admin89 Wrote: [ -> ]SMG need LLE backend (google it) .

I think it would be better if he just searched the forums :p

(10-29-2012, 05:57 PM)rightnow Wrote: [ -> ]Concerning those recommended specs, are they sufficient for running most if not all Dolphin games at full speed? And supposing that I were to get an i5 2500K or 3570K, would I have to overclock it for desired performance?

You'll be able to run all games full speed IF you overclock.
If you don't overclock you'll get good speed in most games but not necessarily full speed.
If you use LLE or/and if you plan to play demanding games such as SMG 1/2, Xenoblade, TLS, etc an overclock will be needed.

(10-29-2012, 05:57 PM)rightnow Wrote: [ -> ]what about the i7?

Getting an i7 won't give you a real better performance compared to i5. The 3770k is a good choice though.

(10-29-2012, 05:57 PM)rightnow Wrote: [ -> ]I suppose it would not hurt to be able to use Dolphin with maxed out graphical enhancements. Would your recommended specs still hold if I wanted that?

Of course they would.

(10-29-2012, 05:57 PM)rightnow Wrote: [ -> ]How much of an effect does the RAM have on performance, by the way?

None. 4GB is enough

The speed of the RAM has indeed a little effect on the performance concerning EFB Copies to RAM But it's actually not worth mentionning it

(10-29-2012, 10:21 PM)DefenderX Wrote: [ -> ]The speed of the RAM in theory has indeed a little effect on the performance concerning EFB Copies to RAM But it's actually not worth mentionning it

I believe some tests were done that showed no change :3

Where are those tests? I search the forums but I found nothing.

(10-29-2012, 10:31 PM)ExtremeDude2 Wrote: [ -> ]

(10-29-2012, 10:21 PM)DefenderX Wrote: [ -> ]The speed of the RAM in theory has indeed a little effect on the performance concerning EFB Copies to RAM But it's actually not worth mentionning it

I believe some tests were done that showed no change :3

Adjusting my RAM timings has shown that there actually was a difference between 2 FPS or something^^