Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

CPU: Intel i3-2370M @2.4GHz (2 cores)
GPU: Intel "2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller"
RAM: Hynix/Hyundai 6GB @ 1333 MHz
OS: Ubuntu 14.04 x64 (although I could also boot into Win7 x64 if need be)
Dolphin build: 4.0-4163 (from the development PPA)
(My entire laptop's specs can be found at http://biff.org.uk/joshua/hardware.html)

I'm hoping to run Super Mario Sunshine; I don't really care about having all the fancy effects, as long as it's playable (i.e. >= ~20fps: the 60fps hack looks beautiful, but realistically that's not going to run on a laptop). Settings-wise I've stuck to what's recommended in the wiki article on SMS (https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?t...o_Sunshine) – anisotropic filtering x1, EFB to RAM, Force Texture Filtering disabled. I'll actually try the game as soon as I've found my controller and got the game on my computer.

I know I've played it on a second gen i5 at the same Ghz before on Windows, so it should be fine.

It runs, at an almost constant 30fps to start. However, it drops down to 15fps when you first enter Delfino Plaza proper, and even the title screen at that point only runs at 25fps. I'll fiddle with some settings, see if I can get it going any faster.

Conclusions:

• Processor is (probably) much less important than graphics card for 3D GCN games.
  
• A real graphics card is needed to run Sunshine at > 15fps.
  
• I do not have a real graphics card.
  
• 
  

Title screen & save file loading works fine, 30fps, but pretty much as soon as you gain control it drops to 15fps (and given that I haven't found my controller yet the first mission is unbeatable, because you can't spray water whilst moving unless you can "press R lightly").

Wrong, the CPU is the deciding factor. Dolphin relies on the CPU to do most of the calculations, the GPU is just to crank up the resolution and make it look nicer (as long as it meets the minimum requirements)

Does this even happen in the latest dev build? Is your power options for Windows set to maximum performance and plugged into the wall adapter? Do you have your graphics set to 1x under enhancements?

Checking the Wikipedia page for i5 processors most of them are quad-core, my i3 is only dual-core. Graphics are set to 1x, I tried it on Ubuntu so no fancy power/speed balancing (although I will try on Windows next time I have a chance) and it was the latest build from the Linux PPA (4.0-4163); this isn't the absolute latest build as of now, so I'll update and try again (when I have the chance, as I'm pretty busy all today and weekend).

All mobile i5 are dual core with 4 threads ...If you want quad cores i5 , build your own gaming desktop
Dolphin is a dual core application , more cores won't help much