Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Hi guys,

I could use some advice on the issue if my setup is good enough for mainly playing (super) Mario / Mario Kart / Mario Party fullscreen (SNES/Gamecube/Wii), 2x native (1280*1056) (when connected to my PC) and when connected to my TV full HD. I don't care much for anti-aliasing (at least, I think I dont mind). I have come up with the following setup:

-Intel Core i5-4460 Boxed
-ASRock H81M-ITX
-Sapphire R7 250 2GB DDR3 Boost
-Silverstone RAVEN RVZ01
-Thermaltake Slim X3
-G.Skill N S F3-10600CL9D-4GBNS
-be quiet! SFX Power 2 300W
-Arctic Silver 5

But if I look at the CPU benchmark (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?...ring#gid=0) I'm not sure whether I should go for the Intel Core i5 4460 or the 4570. But is this necessary? And do I need to use an SSD? The setup is only for playing SNES/GC/Wii. And if I choose for the i5 4570, could I then rely on the onboard GPU (Intel HD Graphics 4600) or do I for example need the Sapphire R7?

Many thanks!

Mario Kart:DD and MK Wii aren't particularly demanding if you exclude multiplayer modes, but you should be fine for Double Dash. MK Wii will probably give you some slowdowns with 4 players. Solo or 2P play will be fine, however, by my guess. Mario Party games shouldn't be an issue either. The same goes for SNES games.

As for the Super Mario games, just be aware that the Galaxy games are GPU intensive games, so you might not hit 2x IR @ fullspeed all the time with an Intel HD 4600. It really depends on what's going on on-screen. Some parts will do fine; in others you'll probably notice a drop. For just about every other game though, you'll be able to hit 2x IR or 3x IR with no issues.

You don't really need an SSD, unless you want better boots times. But it doesn't make a significant difference for Dolphin as far as I know. You can stick with the i5-4460 over the i5-4570. The i5-4570 has a 200MHz advantage for its top speed in Turbo Boost, but that's not a lot. There is also a .05 MHz difference in their "graphics max dynamic frequency", but that's not much either. That's $20 you could save towards shipping fees or whatever.

The i5-4570 has a slightly higher max turbo frequency than the 4460, so I would go with that.
However, the best choice would be to the the i5-4690K and a Z97 board, as it will allow overclocking which will allow you to play the most demanding games in Dolphin.
You'll need a stronger PSU anyways, at least 500 W to be on the minimum safe side.

As for the GPU, getting a dedicated GPU makes things easier in the long run. The R7 250 will suit you fine. Although I would recommend going the Nvidia GTX 750 Ti route, because Nvidia has better driver support.