Tallix Wrote:So Dolphin is pretty light on graphics cards, as compared to most PC games.
I'm glad that you recognize that. Most new users think dolphin is more demanding than PC games on their GPU just because their framerates aren't as good when they crank up the settings. Failing to realize of course that they are trying to render their games at ridiculous resolutions that would bring any of their PC games down to much lower framerates if they used the same internal resolution with them.
Tallix Wrote:But... what kind of hardware would it take to play a game in Dolphin at an 8k resolution (7680x4320)? Would the famed GTX Titan be able to do it?
I could be wrong but I don't think the GTX Titan could handle it in every game. Not quite. I think you would need something a bit more powerful (likely less than twice as fast).
I suspect that within another two GPU generations (2014/2015) high end graphics cards (not enthusiast tier like the titan) should be able to pull it off.
Tallix Wrote:What about several Titans in SLI (four is the highest possible, I think)?
Like Shonumi said SLI doesn't benefit dolphin.
Tallix Wrote:And then... what if you wanted something like per-pixel lighting and full anti-aliasing?
I'm not sure if per-pixel lighting would significantly raise the requirements. I'm going to guess no from the little testing that I've done with it so far.
Traditional anti-aliasing methods are out of the question. And quite frankly unnecessary at that resolution. Assuming this hypothetical display was less than 40 inches diagonally your eyes would simply lack the resolution needed to see the aliasing.
Tallix Wrote:Does anybody have an estimate as to what kind of specs a video card would have to have to achieve all this?
There are far too many variables to account for to give you exact numbers. The dolphin build, game, OS, drivers, settings, and choice of video backend all effect this. Not to mention we lack the data to properly conclude how dolphins GPU demands scale with IR.
Tallix Wrote:But help the people who need it before you spend time answering this. It's (obviously) not as important. Just an enthusiast thread...
It's a hell of a lot less draining to answer something like this than the dozen "WHY DOESN'T MY TOASTER RUN SUPER MARIO GALAXY FULLSPEED????" threads we get per day.
Tallix Wrote:I was talking about using an actual 8k monitor (though you wouldn't have to use one to test the requirements), and trying to achieve results that are playable while taking full advantage of the monitor (games would be so beautiful!)
8k monitors don't exist at the moment. But that doesn't matter because internal resolution is all that matters. We can calculate fairly easily that an 8k resolution monitors width resolution would be equivalent to a 12x scale from native resolution. A 12x IR setting doesn't exist in dolphin at the moment but 12x IR is equivalent to 4x IR + 9xSSAA. So naturally Shonumi used that for his comparison because it is a perfect equivalent.
Tallix Wrote:What if you wanted to run at a higher IR than 8k, like it's recommended to do if possible at lower resolutions?
Tallix Wrote:Going a step further, what would it take to run at 13x IR with other settings like AA and Per-Pixel lighting?
At that resolution we can safely assume linear scaling. So exactly (1 + (1/12))(1 + (1/12)) or 1.1726 times the resources needed for 12x IR.
Tallix Wrote:Kind of dissapointing that Dolphin isn't a multi-threaded application
It is a multi-threaded application.
Tallix Wrote:and apparently doesn't take advatage of Crossfire or SLI either. But oh well.
Not much they can do about that unless Nvidia/AMD decide to take an interest in the project for some reason. AAA games have the luxury of being important enough for Nvidia/AMD to optimize their SLI/Crossfire drivers around them.
Edit: And I've been ninja'd multiple times in the time that it took me to write this. Figures.
