Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

I am looking into getting an HTPC with emulators on it. Will these specs be good enough to play most gamecube games and some Wii games on medium settings? Any help is appreciated.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QHxyt6
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QHxyt6/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($116.97 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus H81I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($77.99 @ Mwave)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.91 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R7 250 1GB Video Card ($84.95 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($53.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $552.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-03 12:23 EDT-0400

Would look at a Pentium G3258, a Z97 Mobo and an aftermarket cooler

(08-04-2014, 03:13 AM)Anti-Ultimate Wrote: [ -> ]Would look at a Pentium G3258, a Z97 Mobo and an aftermarket cooler

Why do you say that? Should I be overclocking? is the pentium better than the i3? it is about 30 dollars cheaper so I am confused.

(08-04-2014, 03:24 AM)falseblackbear95 Wrote: [ -> ]

(08-04-2014, 03:13 AM)Anti-Ultimate Wrote: [ -> ]Would look at a Pentium G3258, a Z97 Mobo and an aftermarket cooler

Why do you say that? Should I be overclocking? is the pentium better than the i3? it is about 30 dollars cheaper so I am confused.

It's faster for emulation in general, especially when overclocked.

Pentium G3258 , Asrock Z97 Extreme 4 , Noctua nh-l9i

Quote:is the pentium better than the i3?

Pentium G3258 @ 4.7GHz is almost as fast as i7 4790k @ 4.7GHz since Dolphin is a dual core application . See benchmark :
https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-20...-benchmark

Quote:it is about 30 dollars cheaper so I am confused.

i3 has Hyper-threading (HT)
With HT : 2 cores 4 threads (i3) or 4 cores 8 threads (i7) or 8 cores 16 threads (i7 Haswell-E Desktop CPU )
Without HT : 2 cores 2 threads (Pentium) or 4 cores 4 threads (i5)
HT is useful for video encoding , some PC games support it . However , it's useless for Dolphin

The biggest issue is that the i3-4130 is multiplier locked, so you can't really overclock it and will be stuck at 3.4 GHz, which is not enough to run all Dolphin games at full speed.
The Pentinum G3258 has an unlocked multiplier and can be overclocked: can pretty much guarantee getting >4 GHz at reasonable voltages/temps (<1.25 V) and up to about 4.6-4.7 GHz if you get a good chip or push the voltage up (though you'll need a good cooler for this).

Pretty much all emulators, including Dolphin, rely on single core performance (it uses about 1.5 cores during operation and the rest just sit there). The cores in the i3 and pentium chip are very similar, so their relative performance will be roughly proportional to their clock speed. Hyperthreading (which the i3 and i7 have) has no beneficial effect on Dolphin.

So, the G3258 will be ~20% faster in Dolphin at 4.2 GHz than the i3 at 3.4 GHz. Same goes for other emulators like Higan, etc.

If you only plan to use this for HTPC and emulator tasks, the G3258 is a better choice (cheaper and faster - especially if you get a combo deal with a motherboard at microcenter or newegg, which run ~$100 for the processor + mobo http://www.microcenter.com/site/brands/G3258Bundle.aspx ). For modern gaming, the i3 may win in some circumstances and the OCd G3258 will win in others.

Newegg also has a combo deal with a microATX motherboard, if you want something smaller for your HTPC:
https://slickdeals.net/f/7106072-msi-b85...e-shipping