Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Hey!

I'm in the process of building a HTPC and given the case that I'm going with, I cannot use a dedicated graphics card. There's not enough room for even a low-profile card. After I finish upgrading my desktop, I'm going to have my i7-4790K to work with and I understand that it's a pretty good processor for running Dolphin. However, all of the emulation on the system I'm building would have to be rendered on the processor's iGPU, so I'm wondering if I can upgrade my chip.

If it's possible, I'd like to be able to run 1080p and 60fps, but I know that's ambitious. I could settle for 30fps, but I'd like to stay in 1080p. From what I've seen the 4790K can do 720p well, but I think it might struggle with 1080p.

Have any of the newer processors in these past few years come bundled with a more powerful iGPU or APU? Would upgrading to a processor that can use DDR4 help me get the extra edge?

Framerates are not negotiable. The game runs at the framerate it's designed, no more, no less (with a handful of exceptions with variable framerate games)

Resolution is the only thing you can adjust here. I imagine 1.5x would be fine in many cases, 2x in some.

Shooting for 1080p in most cases will not be possible.

Quote:Have any of the newer processors in these past few years come bundled with a more powerful iGPU or APU?

APU is a bad idea . I have A10 6790k @ 5.0GHz and it's slow .
In theory , i7-5775C with Intel Iris Pro 6200 should be able to handle 1080p but barely and it's more expensive than i7 4790k .
In term or raw performance , Intel HD 4600 is a little bit slower than Nvidia GT 430 , Intel Iris Pro 6200 is a little bit faster than Nvidia GT 640

Quote:Would upgrading to a processor that can use DDR4 help me get the extra edge?

No , it won't help . I went from 1333MHz to 2133MHz(overclock) , the FPS stay the same . DDR4 has higher clock speed / lower power consumption than DDR3 , other than that it's pretty much the same

(07-28-2016, 11:14 AM)admin89 Wrote: [ -> ]In theory , i7-5775C with Intel Iris Pro 6200 should be able to handle 1080p but barely and it's more expensive than i7 4790k .
In term or raw performance , Intel HD 4600 is a little bit slower than Nvidia GT 430 ,  Intel Iris Pro 6200 is a little bit faster than Nvidia GT 640

Hm. It would be expensive to upgrade and probably not worth it but I'll fish around or deals a bit while I'm modding my case and working on some other projects. If I can sell my 4790k for a good price I'll probably do that. The lowered TDP is another selling point.

What's prohibiting you from getting a low profile dedicated graphics card?

(07-28-2016, 03:48 PM)KHg8m3r Wrote: [ -> ]What's prohibiting you from getting a low profile dedicated graphics card?

The form factor of the case I chose. The HTPC's performance won't ultimately matter due to things like Steam in-home streaming, I just want it to be as self-sufficient as I can make it.

Ah yes, that would definitely affect getting a dedicated card.

(07-29-2016, 02:25 AM)KHg8m3r Wrote: [ -> ]Ah yes, that would definitely affect getting a dedicated card.

I actually own a 750 Ti which would be great, but it's not fitting in the case I'm working with.

Why not get a PCI extender cable and keep it outside the case? It's probably not practical but it could work

>you could also cut a hole in the side of the case right where the GPU would poke out if we're offering impractical solutions