Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Hi all.

I recently purchased a relatively high-spec laptop from PC World on a clearance sale for Uni work, and was wondering if the performance was any good for Dolphin (since I know it's CPU- heavy).

The hardware is:

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-5500U CPU @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz

Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M 4GB

RAM: 12GB

Screen: 17 inch @ 1080p


Overall the processor has a relatively low amount of GHz, will it be sufficient though?

Thanks in advance guys!

Onboard ULV (ultra-low voltage) CPU's are not recommended for Dolphin, but latest ULV CPU's are relatively getting up to par with performance using latest dev. builds. You should be able to perform well on light-weight games however, on heavier demanding ones I doubt how they might fair up with that CPU. Any particular games?

Pikmin 1 and 2, Pokemon Colosseum/ XD, The Mario Parties and a few other games like Sonic Colours, among others, I'll play the most.

And what sort of laptop CPUs do you recommend the most of gaming with Dolphin? As my main PC plays them fine, it'll just be nice to play GC/ Wii games when not at home without my main rig haha.

Onboard CPU's recommended are anything but ending in "U". (Ex. xxxx-M, xxxx-HQ, xxxx-MX, etc.) but if your considering for these CPU models its best to just build your own desktop or upgrade as these mobile rigs may cost upwards of at least $1000 so it wouldn't be worth it really. For example I have an i5-4200M and I got it for about $700 two years ago. If you must have a mobile rig then prepare to at least put down some good amount of money.

You should be fine for the games listed as they are not considered that heavy, Sonic Colors maybe. Just make sure your on high performance mode and plugged in.