Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Hello there!
So, while waiting until I can get a new, non-pitiful laptop, I'm stuck with my current one if I want to use Dolphin, and it is horribly underpowered. (no "real" GPU besides the fake integrated Intel one, U-series ultra low voltage CPU)

CPU: Intel Core i5-5005U (Dual-core @2.00GHz)
iGPU: Intel HD Graphics 5500
RAM: 6 GB DDR3L

I already know that I will never be able to reach anywhere close to full speed in most Wii, and even GC games, even at 1xIR.
I have made some tests on previous builds, and here are the results (all at 1xIR):

New Super Mario Bros. Wii: 60 ingame.
Mario Kart Wii: variable performance depsnding on tracks, hit the 50-55fps mark on some of the least polygon-heavy custom tracks (i.e. GBA remakes), falls to ~30-40 on heavier tracks, ~20 on the most intensive ones.
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour : 58-60fps reachable, easily affected by any CPU use (opening Firefox makes it fall down to ~55fps)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl. : some small tests ingame, 60fps from what I've played (didn't try any really graphically demanding situations/stages)

So my question is, is there some dark voodoo "kill all the accuracy" magic setting I could use to reach more playable speeds in the most known games? And if not (which is very, very likely), are there any "mainstream" games besides NSMBW and obscure 2D shovelware that I can still enjoy at fullspeed?

Thank you in advance.

There is no i5-5005U, I think you mean the i3-5005U?

To make sure you're getting the most out of your laptop, here are some things that may help:
-Make sure you have Windows Updates installed
-Make sure you have the latest iGPU drivers: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downloa...duct=86210
-Check in Window's Power Options that you're running a High Performance power plan
-Make sure you're playing with your charger plugged in
-Download the latest Dolphin dev build from the downloads link at the top of the page
-Use the D3D11 backend

If you don't mind breaking stuff, a lot of stuff, on the latest development build:

Graphics > General > Shader Compilation > Asynchronous (Skip Drawing)

Graphics > Hacks > check skip EFB access from CPU.

Config > Audio > check enable audio stretching

That is mostly the "I want to go fast and break everything" setting

Also, as stated above, use the Direct3D 11 backend since you're on an intel GPU, but that doesn't break stuff.

Three other things you could do:

1. If it truly is an i5, then use ThrottleStop to force your CPU to constantly run at the highest speeds it can without overheating (Windows only). However, if it's an i3, then this shouldn't make any difference.

2. Use Linux so that you can use the faster Vulkan renderer with that Intel iGPU (Ubuntu 18.04 LTS should be launching sometime this month).

3. Swap out the 2GB RAM stick for a second 4GB RAM stick (or swap the 4GB for another 2GB); mixed memory configurations such as your 4GB+2GB config can reduce the performance of your integrated graphics.

OP cant use ThrottleStop if he has an i3 due to no TurboBoost

(04-11-2018, 07:59 AM)KHg8m3r Wrote: [ -> ]OP cant use ThrottleStop if he has an i3 due to no TurboBoost

Oh right, derp.  I came up with the throught of using ThrottleStop before I got to your comment that it may actually be an i3.  I'll fix that now.

Thanks for your answers!
Indeed, bad typo here, it is indeed an i3-5005U and not an i5. As for D3D11, that's already the renderer I'm using by default. I will try the Skip Drawing and Skip EFB access settings. If that really doesn't work, well, I guess I could try dualbooting Ubuntu some time. Thank you again!