Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Hello guys,

Been playing around with Wind Waker for a while, generally have noticed that it plays fine if you are just walking around and the music is fine indoors or in smaller spots but the game slows down fairly significantly outside and especially in combat (with the choppy audio being the worst problem) I've worked with both HLE and LLE and it doesnt generally help my problem so I'm wondering if its due to the laptop I'm using. I admit I'm generally not very knowledgable about this stuff so apologies in advance. I figure if I'm having problems with WW, I doubt ill be able to play some of my other favorites with ease (Tales of Symphonia + Twilight Princess being two of them) so this is also asking if its more feasible to upgrade one or two parts, or just buy a better gaming rig.

Processer: Intel Core i7 720 QM
GPU: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670
Memory: DDR3/6.0 GB

If there is anything else I need to inform about or specs I need to put up, I'll be sure to post it in this thread, thanks very much for your time.

Your cpu is too slow.

Your CPU is quite a bit dated for Dolphin. Dolphin relies heavily on single core speeds, and yours is not very strong at stock speeds. What you need to do is to get your CPU to activate turbo boost to get that clock speed up. Follow this guide: (https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-un...ance-guide)

Also try these:
1) Update drivers, Windows updates, DirectX Web Update (some components may be missing), and latest version of Visual C++
2) Make sure under Power Management in Windows you're running in High Performance, and are plugged in to power. Also set a high performance profile under Catalyst Control center
3) Use the OpenGL backend on one of the latest dev builds, as it is faster than D3D. The current dev build is 4.0-716

This game needs LLE. And your CPU is too weak to use LLE

(01-27-2014, 09:27 AM)LordVador Wrote: [ -> ]This game needs LLE. And your CPU is too weak to use LLE

I manage without LLE. Even if it's supposed to hang a lot more, which it doesn't seem to do for me.

Thanks for all the responses.

Everytime I tried to use OpenGL backend the game does not even start up and closes pretty quickly. The turboboosting using the throttlestop hasn't really done anything though I notice it won't go past 13 on the multiplier. The drivers are up to date and the system is on high performance. I have been doing a little research on upgrading the cpu for my laptop but starting to get the sense that it might be more cost effective to just invest in a gaming computer, probably a desktop. In any case, thanks for answering my questions.

Have you installed the latest drivers for your GPU?

As for a CPU upgrade, you might be able to go up to an i7-2860QM. However, to get more bang for your buck, look into a new Haswell desktop, with an i5 4670k or i7 4770k (only benefits of the i7 is hyper threading)

Asimov91 Wrote:but starting to get the sense that it might be more cost effective to just invest in a gaming computer, probably a desktop.

Your senses are good then.

Quote: As for a CPU upgrade, you might be able to go up to an i7-2860QM

Uhm , no . He has a 1st gen Nehalem CPU which is based on Intel Tick . 2nd gen i7 Sandy is based on Intel Tock
Intel Tick Tock :
Tock = completely new microarchitecture .
Tick = Die shrink (65nm->45nm->32nm->22nm->14nm ....)

You may upgrade 2nd gen i7 2xxxQM Sandy -> 3rd gen i7 3xxxQM Ivy (require mobo bios update that support Ivy) but you can't upgrade 3rd gen i7 -> 4th gen i7 because 4th gen Haswell is based on Intel Tock . If you desperately want to do that , you will have to replace the motherboard . However , he's using a laptop , laptop components are really damn hard to replace

In short :
Tick -> Tock : Nope
Tock ->Tick : Ok (no need new mobo but you must update bios that support newer CPU)

1st gen Nehalem , 3rd gen Ivy Bridge , 5th gen Broadwell .....are tick
2nd gen Sandy Bridge , 4th gen Haswell ....are tock
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Tick-Tock

I was under the impression that if the socket type matched, it would be able to use that CPU (Intel lists them as the same socket): http://ark.intel.com/compare/53476,52227,43122