Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

I just wondered what would be the best laptop in 2018 that is about 500$ could run Smash Bros Melee just fine.

We talked about $500 laptops recently in this thread. The subject of Melee came up too.

Basically, any new or recent laptop you buy is going to run Melee without giving you much trouble. As I see it, the best dollar/performance ratio mobile CPUs for Dolphin for $500 or less are going to be something like the i3-8130U or i3-7200U. You can easily find the i5-8250U, but I would avoid that. It has a low base clock, meaning it could possibly throttle back down to that low speed if the laptop gets too hot. Higher base clock is better; never rely on Turbo Boost for small form-factors.

These have no trouble running Melee (and you can get away with far less). The only caveat is that the Intel HD620 struggles with anything more than 1x resolution for Melee. I tested it myself on my laptop. Generally, at 2x, I got slowdowns anywhere from 55FPS, to 45FPS. On 1x, there's no issue with slowdowns. You could potentially find an AMD based laptop with a substantially weaker CPU (assuming pre-Ryzen) but one that comes with a dedicated GPU. Personally I would not risk having a weak CPU/decent GPU (which would give you slowdowns no matter what resolution you play at) versus having a decent CPU/weak GPU (which would give you slowdowns depending on the resolution).

1x isn't all that bad. At $500, you have to make some compromises though.

If u could give a link to at least one laptop that would be awesome! I really don't need more than 1x speed. I don't really mind bout low resolution too.
I just want to play it solid without any slowdowns and support multiple controllers

Something like this will do: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a...gnorebbr=1

(11-27-2018, 01:32 PM)Shonumi Wrote: [ -> ]Something like this will do: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a...gnorebbr=1

Did you test it before? if so I will definitely buy that one. Thanks!

(11-27-2018, 12:49 PM)Shonumi Wrote: [ -> ]We talked about $500 laptops recently in this thread. The subject of Melee came up too.

Basically, any new or recent laptop you buy is going to run Melee without giving you much trouble. As I see it, the best dollar/performance ratio mobile CPUs for Dolphin for $500 or less are going to be something like the i3-8130U or i3-7200U. You can easily find the i5-8250U, but I would avoid that. It has a low base clock, meaning it could possibly throttle back down to that low speed if the laptop gets too hot. Higher base clock is better; never rely on Turbo Boost for small form-factors.

These have no trouble running Melee (and you can get away with far less). The only caveat is that the Intel HD620 struggles with anything more than 1x resolution for Melee. I tested it myself on my laptop. Generally, at 2x, I got slowdowns anywhere from 55FPS, to 45FPS. On 1x, there's no issue with slowdowns. You could potentially find an AMD based laptop with a substantially weaker CPU (assuming pre-Ryzen) but one that comes with a dedicated GPU. Personally I would not risk having a weak CPU/decent GPU (which would give you slowdowns no matter what resolution you play at) versus having a decent CPU/weak GPU (which would give you slowdowns depending on the resolution).

1x isn't all that bad. At $500, you have to make some compromises though.

Hi Shonumi, I was searching the specs for the  i3-7200U, but noticed it's not listed on the intel website nor cpubenchmark.net  There is an i5-7200U and just wondered if that's the one you meant? thanks

Yeah, that's the one. Defo typo.

Huawei Mate D(Ryzen 2500U) - Good construction, battey and enough performance for run most games on dolphin. If you're lucky you can buy it for U$ 599.