Personal experience here, my current laptop has a CPU that is somewhat weak or equal the one you're getting, Ivy Bridge i7 at 3.2GHz with Turbo Boost -- however I have 4 physical cores while the low power i7's has only 2 cores, not sure if this changes anything, especially in Dolphin. I have finished both Paper Mario TTYD and Super Paper Mario in this computer and I can say these games are lightweight and should run fullspeed with that computer too.
The only issue you may get here is Bounding Box emulation: Paper Mario games use and abuse of this feature for some graphical effects and it can give you some performance hits depending of the scenario. I'm not completely sure but at the moment Dolphin can emulate bounding box either by hardware (fast and lightweight) or by software (needs a lot of CPU power). The last thing I read (some Pull Request at GitHub I think), bounding box emulation doesn't work with Intel HD Graphics and that would give you a performance hit since it would fall back to software emulation but if you use a compatible GPU you shouldn't have any performance issue and the games should run fine and smooth...
Edit: nevermind, just saw the laptp you plan buying has an nVidia GPU, it's not the fastest (in fact it may be slower than Intel HD 4400 in some scenarios) but it should fully support hardware bounding box emulation. Paper mario games will run fullspeed then, don't worry
(04-27-2015, 03:09 PM)Jhonn Wrote: [ -> ]Personal experience here, my current laptop has a CPU that is somewhat weak or equal the one you're getting, Ivy Bridge i7 at 3.2GHz with Turbo Boost -- however I have 4 physical cores while the low power i7's has only 2 cores, not sure if this changes anything, especially in Dolphin. I have finished both Paper Mario TTYD and Super Paper Mario in this computer and I can say these games are lightweight and should run fullspeed with that computer too.
The only issue you may get here is Bounding Box emulation: Paper Mario games use and abuse of this feature for some graphical effects and it can give you some performance hits depending of the scenario. I'm not completely sure but at the moment Dolphin can emulate bounding box either by hardware (fast and lightweight) or by software (needs a lot of CPU power). The last thing I read (some Pull Request at GitHub I think), bounding box emulation doesn't work with Intel HD Graphics and that would give you a performance hit since it would fall back to software emulation but if you use a compatible GPU you shouldn't have any performance issue and the games should run fine and smooth...
Edit: nevermind, just saw the laptp you plan buying has an nVidia GPU, it's not the fastest (in fact it may be slower than Intel HD 4400 in some scenarios) but it should fully support hardware bounding box emulation. Paper mario games will run fullspeed then, don't worry
While lurking in other threads I heard you're also from Brazil. Always funny to find someone from here online that has actual good English skills.
Great to hear that CPU is actually useful. Earlier today I found another laptop with reasonable pricing, the only problem is finding somewhere to buy it from (almost all stores are sold-out). It's the Samsung 550P5C-AD1, and it's a bit better than the other one I mentioned:
i7 3630QM 2.40 GHz - 3.40GHz Turbo, 6 MB L3 Cache
GeForce GT 630m (better benchmark than 710m)
Still studying what to buy though, after looking around I found some complaints about this one as well (no SSD, bad quality screen). But the processor seems capable for what I want.
I suppose the only problem left is the overheating. In the other thread I saw someone mentioning how it brings the hardware to a slow death. Can this problem be solved by using a regular cooler table? Or do I absolutely need something such as the Arctic MX-4 to be safe?
Edit: Yes, from what I've heard it's better if it has 4 cores, I could be wrong but to be safe I don't think I will stick to the 2 cores one anymore.
Well, this Samsung you found is almost the same laptop I currently have, specs in my signature (the only difference is the GPU -- mine is slightly better). And forget the Turbo Boost at 3.4 GHz, it'll only run at that speed with only one core being used -- an almost impossible scenario -- so yeah, 3.2 GHz is the maximum you'll get assuming it doesn't overheat. By the way, replacing thermal compound is absolutely necessary given our warm weather, I used Prolimatech PK3 in my laptop and although it still gets a little hot while running Dolphin (85°C more or less),
all games I currently own run smoothly at full speed, especially in current development builds (before replacing thermal compound, after 10 minutes of Dolphin the CPU would overheat and the laptop would shut down at around 100-105°C)
However, I still find a 4th gen Haswell more interesting and future-proof, the 5th gen of Intel processors already are available and you can even find some of them for sale in our local stores, so, at that point Ivy Bridge is pretty old, at least for me there's no point in buying anything older than Haswell if I would buy today. Unfortunately I've never seen a non-U model in brazilian stores (neither Ivy Bridge or Haswell -- in fact, I bought my current laptop outside of Brazil), the only exception being
Avell which you can build your own laptop from a wide range of CPUs and dedicated GPUs but this comes at a price: Avell laptops aren't the prettiest, generally bigger and heavier than normal laptops and are reeeally expensive compared to the common laptops with low power processors widely available here.
Right now I'm in doubt. I'm seriously considering getting a desktop instead, not only because of the heating hassle, but also because of the cheaper (and less rare) parts and for it being easy to upgrade.
I was really into getting a laptop because of the mobility and practicality - but it seems it'll cost me a lot more worrying, money and limitations than a desktop.
So, for now I'm thinking of building a decent PC that can run some Wii games in lower resolution. I would go for HD if it wasn't so expensive. The Dolphin FAQ page says that a i5 3570k is fine, I've confirmed that with videos. But the recommended GTX 460 seems to be slower than normal from what I've watched. My question is: can a GTX 750 TI get me through Galaxy and Skyward Sword without lag? I would go for the GTX 780, but it is incredibly more expensive. Maybe I'll get a 960, but it's still pricey. If the 750 TI is enough, I'll settle for it. I couldn't confirm if it runs games well because there are no videos of it.
Sometimes I still want a laptop so I'm not stuck at home for playing and can take it to someone's place, but building a desktop from scratch seems better. Especially because I can switch the GPU for a better one in the future, when I have more money. And the thought of running Dolphin without worrying about heating (I'll get a watercooler, if that's enough) puts me at ease. I'll probably spend a lot of time playing on the 42" TV anyway, so the laptop's mobility wouldn't be that important.
So what do you think? Is a 750 TI enough for fullspeed Wii games? Is the 4670k significantly better than the 3570k or they're basically the same thing? And will I be able to go HD or will I have to wait until I can upgrade the GPU to something like the GTX 970?
I would definitely suggest getting a desktop for Dolphin, and having a laptop or tablet for everything else that you need mobile. A really good GPU is not necessary for Dolphin, the 750 TI will be excellent unless you want to run crazy IRs or something. You want to invest more in the CPU, for which I would suggest getting an i5 4690k, better OC and significantly better performance.
Noted, thanks. I'll be definitely set for the 4690k then. Even though I'm very jealous of the people posting 1440/2160 videos of Zelda, I'll stick with a cheaper GPU because my budget technically has exploded. I suppose the 750 TI runs at 1080p okay at least? And that it handles some high texture patches?
(BTW, it begins now a long, long journey of price checking on energy supply, MOBO's and coolers... All the decent stuff seems so expensive!)
Get a Z97 board, and you shouldn't need more than a like 600W PSU.
So... I won't be able to afford a 4690k xD. Am I fine with a 4590? It has no "k" and can't be OC'd but it has a 3.7 turbo. And I'm sticking to either that 750 TI or a R9 270.
1) If I run the 4590 constantly at 3.7 will I need an aftermarket cooler or am I okay with the regular one?
2) And is that enough for Skyward Sword/Galaxy 60FPS with 0 lag?
3) Since I won't be OCing anything, is a 500W Real Bluecase enough or I may regret it when I upgrade?
By the way, I'll just get 4GB probably, I don't need 8GB anyway.
(05-14-2015, 03:59 AM)RogerFVB Wrote: [ -> ]And I'm sticking to either that 750 TI or a R9 270.
If you want 2160p / 6xIR or better, go with the R9 270. The 750Ti just doesn't have the memory bandwidth and integer processing performance necessary for those super high resolutions.
(05-14-2015, 04:58 AM)kirbypuff Wrote: [ -> ] (05-14-2015, 03:59 AM)RogerFVB Wrote: [ -> ]And I'm sticking to either that 750 TI or a R9 270.
If you want 2160p / 6xIR or better, go with the R9 270. The 750Ti just doesn't have the memory bandwitth and integer processing performance necessary for those super high resolutions.
Good to know, the R9 270 isn't that expensive so I may get it.
Isn't the 4590 going to bottleneck it when trying to go for 6x / 2160p?
I'm actually surprised that I can build such a good PC without spending too much. I thought it was going to be 2/2.5 x more expensive. I wasn't even going for super high res. at first but now I kind of want to do that.
(of course, I still think the PSU I mentioned is shitty/risky. Need to search for other PSUs at local stores)