Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

I'm not really new to this website, but it's my first time posting, so here goes. I'm getting a new laptop, and found this ASUS laptop for just under $1000. I'm wondering if it'll be able to play most GCN/wii games at a reasonable speed. It has 8GB ram, a Nvidia GeForce GT 740M GPU and an i5 3317U processor clocked at 1.7Ghz. I was wondering whether the processor will slow down the games considerably, as I am looking to play SSBM, Wind Waker, Metroid Prime Trilogy and Super Mario Sunshine (all games that I legally own). The graphics card seems fine, I'm just concerned about the processor, because 1.7Ghz is not very impressive. Also, the specifications describe the GPU as a "4GB DDR3 GT740M" video card. Is there such thing as 4gb dedicated graphics in a $999 laptop, or could it just be an error? Or am I misreading it? I'm looking to use the latest dolphin build, if that's important. Will 'turbo boosting' the computer increase the speed significantly? I doubt it can run Metroid, but will the others work fine? Thank you.

Here's the description from the website:
Intel Core i5 3317U 1.7Ghz (Turbo 2.6Ghz) CPU, 15.6" (1366 x 768) Touch Display, 4GB DDR3 RAM FREE Upgrade to 8G RAM,
24GB + 750GB Hybrid HDD, Intel PM43 Chipset, NVIDIA 4GB DDR3 GT740M
Video Card, VGA (D-Sub), HDMI, DVD-S Writer, Speakers, Wireless-N,
Gigabit Ethernet, 4 Cell 2950mAh Battery, 720P HD WebCam, 1 x USB 3.0, 2
x USB 2.0, SD Card Reader, Windows 8 64bit

(SOURCE: http://www.computeralliance.com.au/asus-...ade-8g-ram)

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i5/In...essor.html
2.6GHz is single core turbo (Only 1 core active)
2.4GHz is 2 cores turbo which is the max clock speed you can get with Dolphin as long as laptop run cool enough (it probably run hot or maybe overheat since it's not a gaming laptop )
If laptop overheat , CPU clock speed will go down and you will lose performance
My advice : Never buy an ultra low voltage CPU for Dolphin

(08-08-2013, 10:23 PM)ypana3 Wrote: [ -> ]I'm wondering if it'll be able to play most GCN/wii games at a reasonable speed

It will be too slow for most games.

(08-08-2013, 10:23 PM)ypana3 Wrote: [ -> ]I am looking to play SSBM, Wind Waker, Metroid Prime Trilogy and Super Mario Sunshine

Metroid Prime: No chance.
You'll be more lucky with the other ones

Ahh shame. Oh well, the laptop is probably going to be good for uses other than dolphin then. How about an i7-3537U processor but Intel integrated 4000 GPU? I'm assuming overheating will still be a problem for most ultrabooks.

You can manually switch GPUs via Nvidia Control Panel , you know

A $1000 is enough to get you an extremely decent laptop for emulation, give us the address of your local computer dealer and we'll try to pick out something better.

If it's $1200 US dollars then may be something like this thinnest gaming notebook (not compare it to razer blade 14" though)
i7-3537U is a good CPU indeed . However Intel HD 4000 will bottle his CPU if he play Dolphin at high resolution or even play GPU intensive game at low resolution
i5/i7 3xxxM/QM (Ivy Bridge) are older CPUs , i5/i7 4xxxM/MQ (Haswell) are latest CPU atm
Haswell is so much faster than Ivy bridge

Never mind , I found this one (750.45 USD ~ 827.12 AUD )
Shipping Rates to Australia
It has the beast CPU + Intel HD 4600 which is almost 2 times as fast as Intel HD 4000
With Intel HD 4600 , you can still play PC games . Intel HD 4000 is out of the question

(08-09-2013, 01:44 AM)admin89 Wrote: [ -> ]Never mind , I found this one (750.45 USD ~ 827.12 AUD )
Shipping Rates to Australia
It has the beast CPU + Intel HD 4600 which is almost 2 times as fast as Intel HD 4000
With Intel HD 4600 , you can still play PC games . Intel HD 4000 is out of the question

i agree with admin89,

here a benchmark intel HD 4000 vs 4600

I would prefer not to get things off Amazon, because they always have something hidden ($240 AKG headphones went up to $270 without telling me). I was thinking of maybe opting for a $150 more expensive solution in http://www.computeralliance.com.au/asus-...ith--touch . Nearly the same specs as the first post except with the i7-3537U. How would this one perform in comparison to intel HD 4600?

My go-to dealer has usually been http://www.umart.com.au/newindex2.phtml?bid=2