Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

I'm buying a new laptop soon and would like to be able to run Dolphin on it. From what I understand Dolphin really relies on CPU but, not knowing much about this kind of thing, it's hard for me to tell what CPUs are going to be able to do the job and which aren't.

I've been looking at Lenovo Thinkpads in particular (not just for Dolphin) and can't work out if any of the CPUs will be good enough. I've seen ones with an i5 5200U, which from what I understand is 5th generation (good) but low power (bad). I've also seen one with an i5 3320M, which I guess is third generation but not low power. Would that, for example, be better than the 5200U if they have the same clock speed? I noticed that the 3320M appears on the benchmark list, but it's fairly low down and I don't know what it really means.

I guess one of my main queries then is how important the generation is compared to the U suffix which seems to indicate low power. I'm also wondering if there's a generally accepted minimum clock speed for getting decent results.

I'm not expecting to play games with high settings, I'd mainly just want a good fps. I'm particularly interested in RPGs like the Fire Emblem games and Xenoblade.

I'd recommend looking for (at least) a Haswell CPU which is not an ultra-low voltage (U) one -- for example, the i7 4700MQ (the i5 4210H I have seems not too bad either). So basically, try to get something which is both higher than 4xxx and isn't an U-series CPU.

Clock speed is not as meaningful as Dolphin benchmark results, because clocks do not mean the same thing about performance across generations and brands.

You will also want to have a good dedicated GPU, or at least, one which isn't too bad, or you'll be limited by your GPU. So avoid laptops with only an Intel integrated GPU.

(12-15-2015, 09:00 AM)leolam Wrote: [ -> ]I'd recommend looking for (at least) a Haswell CPU which is not an ultra-low voltage (U) one -- for example, the i7 4700MQ (the i5 4210H I have seems not too bad either). So basically, try to get something which is both higher than 4xxx and isn't an U-series CPU.

Clock speed is not as meaningful as Dolphin benchmark results, because clocks do not mean the same thing about performance across generations and brands.

You will also want to have a good dedicated GPU, or at least, one which isn't too bad, or you'll be limited by your GPU. So avoid laptops with only an Intel integrated GPU.

Ideally that's what I would do, but the price goes up or I end up looking at laptops that I'm less interested in overall. Are you saying that neither of those CPUs would be good enough at all? I had considered that, but it seems like some people are getting some results with ULV CPUs.

I was under the impression that something like Intel HD 4000 or up would be adequate to run games without upping the settings and resolution, is that wrong?

Look into the Dell New 15in 7000. Its got good specs

(12-15-2015, 03:42 PM)KHg8m3r Wrote: [ -> ]Look into the Dell New 15in 7000. Its got good specs

Looks good, but a little out of my budget unfortunately

leolam Wrote:I'd recommend looking for (at least) a Haswell CPU which is not an ultra-low voltage (U) one -- for example, the i7 4700MQ (the i5 4210H I have seems not too bad either). So basically, try to get something which is both higher than 4xxx and isn't an U-series CPU.

Clock speed is not as meaningful as Dolphin benchmark results, because clocks do not mean the same thing about performance across generations and brands.

You will also want to have a good dedicated GPU, or at least, one which isn't too bad, or you'll be limited by your GPU. So avoid laptops with only an Intel integrated GPU.

So, I've found a Thinkpad with an i5-4300m processor and Intel HD 4600 graphics - is this likely to run Dolphin relatively decently? Again, I am not expecting to be able to play on high settings, I'd just want a good fps and no crashes

that should be fine