So I've been having the itch to build a new computer and decided to build my own emulation "console" to have in the living room and take to wherever the party is. Problem is, I've only ever emulated on a i7 7700k and 1070. So I'm not 100 percent sure what the limits of emulation are. I've done some research for this build and wanted to keep it as cheap as possible since it's sole purpose will be to emulate and nothing else.
I came across the Pentium G5400 which from the several videos and reading I've done seems to be a decent budget build cpu for general, non AAA gaming. I'm wanting to put this into an ITX motherboard with 4 gigs of RAM and use my spare Asus HD 7770 1 GB GPU.
Generally, I want to play Super Mario Sunshine, Smash Bros, Wind Waker, and Star Fox at HOPEFULLY 1080p and 30 fps.
So do you think that CPU will be capable of running what I want? Or will there be issues and need to look at an i3 instead? I've seen the G4560 run these games at 30 fps on YouTube, so I want to say if that can do it, the new generation should too! Right?
Your cpu is perfect it's good for emulation,4gigs of ram is ok but I'd recommend 8gigs at least and your gpu I'm not very sure about it you might wanna get a Gtx 1050 or 750ti to be safe
(07-04-2018, 11:50 PM)luckyboy421 Wrote: [ -> ]4gigs of ram is ok but I'd recommend 8gigs at least
4 GB is totally fine for Dolphin (unless you want to prefetch big texture packs) and emulators for less powerful systems.
(07-04-2018, 11:50 PM)luckyboy421 Wrote: [ -> ]Your cpu is perfect it's good for emulation,4gigs of ram is ok but I'd recommend 8gigs at least and your gpu I'm not very sure about it you might wanna get a Gtx 1050 or 750ti to be safe
I also considered putting in 8 gigs of RAM but with the prices these days it just put me over budget. I will take a look on eBay and see what I find though .
As for the GPU, I'm fairly certain that it should run well. I read somewhere of a "minimum requirements" GPU and the Asus surpasses that. I am considering a 1050 in the future however .
(07-04-2018, 11:55 PM)JosJuice Wrote: [ -> ]4 GB is totally fine for Dolphin (unless you want to prefetch big texture packs) and emulators for less powerful systems.
So if I wanted to plug in HD textures the 4 gigs will get me in trouble?
If 8 gb of ram is over your budget than just stay with 4gb just like josjuice said it will be fine and for the gpu try it with this build if it wasn't good than get a Gtx 1050 it's cheap
(07-04-2018, 11:59 PM)NeburZerep Wrote: [ -> ]So if I wanted to plug in HD textures the 4 gigs will get me in trouble?
It depends. Some games have texture packs that are small enough that they probably could be prefetched reasonably with just 4 GB of RAM, but some other games don't.
(07-04-2018, 11:17 PM)NeburZerep Wrote: [ -> ]So I've been having the itch to build a new computer and decided to build my own emulation "console" to have in the living room and take to wherever the party is. Problem is, I've only ever emulated on a i7 7700k and 1070. So I'm not 100 percent sure what the limits of emulation are. I've done some research for this build and wanted to keep it as cheap as possible since it's sole purpose will be to emulate and nothing else.
I came across the Pentium G5400 which from the several videos and reading I've done seems to be a decent budget build cpu for general, non AAA gaming. I'm wanting to put this into an ITX motherboard with 4 gigs of RAM and use my spare Asus HD 7770 1 GB GPU.
Generally, I want to play Super Mario Sunshine, Smash Bros, Wind Waker, and Star Fox at HOPEFULLY 1080p and 30 fps.
So do you think that CPU will be capable of running what I want? Or will there be issues and need to look at an i3 instead? I've seen the G4560 run these games at 30 fps on YouTube, so I want to say if that can do it, the new generation should too! Right?
That CPU is great for most things, the only thing that is worrying me is the GPU because it is AMD, if you are planning to do other emulation than Dolphin or lower you will get in trouble since the AMD hasn't really updated their OpenGL support for a long time (at least on Windows) This also means that PS2 emulation wil be very hit or miss since their D3D11 backend isn't maintained and is missing functions. It means that Wii U emulation will be out of reach until somewhere 2019 when Vulkan drops.
If you are also looking at PS3 emulation it will be both your CPU and GPU holding you back.
(07-05-2018, 12:34 AM)mstreurman Wrote: [ -> ]That CPU is great for most things, the only thing that is worrying me is the GPU because it is AMD, if you are planning to do other emulation than Dolphin or lower you will get in trouble since the AMD hasn't really updated their OpenGL support for a long time (at least on Windows) This also means that PS2 emulation wil be very hit or miss since their D3D11 backend isn't maintained and is missing functions. It means that Wii U emulation will be out of reach until somewhere 2019 when Vulkan drops.
If you are also looking at PS3 emulation it will be both your CPU and GPU holding you back.
Glad you mentioned PS2! Didnt know if bringing that up in the Dolphin forum was taboo or not... My goal for this system is to emulate GameCube, PS2, and N64 games. Possibly a few Wii/WiiU games if it can handle the load. I definitely want to upgrade the GPU in the future but for now it's something I already have.
For PS2 emulation your CPU should handle most games (only the really really demanding titles will see issues with the CPU). The GPU will have cause issues with any game that requires OpenGL or has been fixed and the fix was never backported to directX or can be ported. This will be highly dependent on a game by game basis.
Wii is not really any more or less demanding on dolphin then GC. There are some GC titles more demanding then Wii titles and some demanding Wii titles. WiiU is a whole other story and even if it gets vulkan you might be more restricted on what games work well, until then even less.
N64, PS1,and older... unless you go out of your way to find some extra demanding way to emulate these systems they will pose very little difficulty at all. they have mature emulators built for far less specs.