Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Hello all,

Recently bought a new custom desktop pc. I have a few questions though. First I'll list the specs:

OS: Win 7 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 Haswell 3.2GHz
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2GB
Motherboard: ASUS H81M-A LGA 1150 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
PSU: FSP Group 450W Micro ATX12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified
Ram: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series DDR3 1866 8GB (2 x 4GB)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L12 Low-profile


Ok. So now first question is, out of these specs, which would be the bottleneck? According to Dolphin benchmarks my CPU is ranked #5 (if I counted that correctly) so would it be the GPU? Also I'm curious as to how the PSU plays a role in Dolphin. I hear if the PSU doesn't have enough power to utilize the GPU and the CPU then the PSU would be a bottleneck by throttling the GPU (I don't know if I understood that right). Alright so with these specs I'm thinking consistent full speed (60+) in all gamecube games and many Wii games at 1x. Perhaps I might drop below 60 at some points in several Wii games. Anyway is this rig that I posted good enough to run any Wii/GC game at 60 fps consistently? If not which games come to mind that wouldn't reach 60 on my rig? And of course out of my specs, which is the bottleneck?

Hopefully someone will be able to answer my questions. Thanks in advance!

(10-11-2014, 07:07 AM)lamentofking Wrote: [ -> ]Hello all,

Recently bought a new custom desktop pc. I have a few questions though. First I'll list the specs:

OS: Win 7 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 Haswell 3.2GHz
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2GB
Motherboard: ASUS H81M-A LGA 1150 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
PSU: FSP Group 450W Micro ATX12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified
Ram: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series DDR3 1866 8GB (2 x 4GB)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L12 Low-profile


Ok. So now first question is, out of these specs, which would be the bottleneck? According to Dolphin benchmarks my CPU is ranked #5 (if I counted that correctly) so would it be the GPU? Also I'm curious as to how the PSU plays a role in Dolphin. I hear if the PSU doesn't have enough power to utilize the GPU and the CPU then the PSU would be a bottleneck by throttling the GPU (I don't know if I understood that right). Alright so with these specs I'm thinking consistent full speed (60+) in all gamecube games and many Wii games at 1x. Perhaps I might drop below 60 at some points in several Wii games. Anyway is this rig that I posted good enough to run any Wii/GC game at 60 fps consistently? If not which games come to mind that wouldn't reach 60 on my rig? And of course out of my specs, which is the bottleneck?

Hopefully someone will be able to answer my questions. Thanks in advance!

That looks like it will run dolphin just fine (just make sure you are using a latest dev build, they are much faster).

By bottleneck do you mean over all computer performance or bottleneck in dolphin? Because if its for dolphin the largest factor is (mostly) CPU so if you upgrade your CPU, you will almost always get more fps. The exception is when you want to add more graphical enhancements such as higher multiples of native resolution (such as 2x, 3x, 4x, etc.) or anti-aliasing, those features are more GPU dependent. Your GPU looks like it will be able to run 2x native maybe 2.5x native.

So if you want more fps (even though your CPU looks good already) upgrade to an i5-4690K.
If you want more graphical enhancements while still keeping a good fps (even though your GPU looks good already) upgrade to a 750 Ti.

EDIT: Btw, if you want more performance with most regular PC games (like Steam and such) those games are mostly GPU dependent.

lamentofking Wrote:Ok. So now first question is, out of these specs, which would be the bottleneck?

Depends on your settings and which game you're playing. Higher graphics settings = higher probability of GPU bottleneck. Lower graphics settings = higher probability of CPU bottleneck.

lamentofking Wrote:Also I'm curious as to how the PSU plays a role in Dolphin.

It doesn't. It's a power supply. It's only job is to supply power. It has nothing to do with performance.

lamentofking Wrote:I hear if the PSU doesn't have enough power to utilize the GPU and the CPU then the PSU would be a bottleneck by throttling the GPU (I don't know if I understood that right).

That doesn't make any sense.

lamentofking Wrote:Anyway is this rig that I posted good enough to run any Wii/GC game at 60 fps consistently?

Depends on the game, depends on the settings. People don't like this answer because it's not a simple yes/no answer, it's a fairly complicated "it depends" answer. But it happens to be the only correct answer for 90% of the questions asked on this forum regarding performance.

lamentofking Wrote:If not which games come to mind that wouldn't reach 60 on my rig?

The last story doesn't run fullspeed everywhere on pretty much any rig. SMG/SMG2 might struggle in some spots. I don't know which games you plan on playing so I'll just stop here.

lamentofking Wrote:And of course out of my specs, which is the bottleneck?

You already asked this.

Edit: Ninja'd