Hi! So, full disclosure, I'm not super knowledgable about computers. I know just enough to get by. Not a fan of PC's and much prefer the Mac Mini which I've been happy with for several years now. So I'm not looking for advice on ditching the Mac for a PC, even though I understand that building a gaming PC is far superior. It's just not for me. I'm hoping to get some advice from fellow Mac users
I'm curious if there are any Mac Mini users who have the 4th gen Mini that was released in late 2018 and could tell me how Dolphin performs on that. Or more specifically, how Dolphin performs through RetroArch.
I have a Late 2012 Mac Mini and it can juuuuuust manage to get by playing GameCube games, although oddly enough it plays them WAY better through RetroArch. If I try playing directly on Dolphin (version 5.0-10965) it stutters and isn't really playable. I assume it has to do with the settings or something. I'm not really sure. I'm just glad it works on one of them!
So far all I've really tried playing are a handful of titles: Windwaker, Crazy Taxi and Mario Golf play decently. Rogue Squadron II is too much and isn't really playable. I figure if the Mini I have now can play some games decently, then the new model is likely a huge improvement. Below are the specs I'm looking at vs what I have now:
2018
3.2GHz 6‑core 8th‑generation Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 4.6GHz)
32GB 2666MHz DDR4
Intel UHD Graphics 630
2TB SSD storage
2012
2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz) - I believe this is quad core
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB
1TB HDD storage
Any input provided is much appreciated! Thank you!
(10-12-2019, 12:44 PM)The7PercentSolution Wrote: [ -> ]Hi! So, full disclosure, I'm not super knowledgable about computers. I know just enough to get by. Not a fan of PC's and much prefer the Mac Mini which I've been happy with for several years now. So I'm not looking for advice on ditching the Mac for a PC, even though I understand that building a gaming PC is far superior. It's just not for me. I'm hoping to get some advice from fellow Mac users
I'm curious if there are any Mac Mini users who have the 4th gen Mini that was released in late 2018 and could tell me how Dolphin performs on that. Or more specifically, how Dolphin performs through RetroArch.
I have a Late 2012 Mac Mini and it can juuuuuust manage to get by playing GameCube games, although oddly enough it plays them WAY better through RetroArch. If I try playing directly on Dolphin (version 5.0-10965) it stutters and isn't really playable. I assume it has to do with the settings or something. I'm not really sure. I'm just glad it works on one of them!
So far all I've really tried playing are a handful of titles: Windwaker, Crazy Taxi and Mario Golf play decently. Rogue Squadron II is too much and isn't really playable. I figure if the Mini I have now can play some games decently, then the new model is likely a huge improvement. Below are the specs I'm looking at vs what I have now:
2018
3.2GHz 6‑core 8th‑generation Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 4.6GHz)
32GB 2666MHz DDR4
Intel UHD Graphics 630
2TB SSD storage
2012
2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz) - I believe this is quad core
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB
1TB HDD storage
Any input provided is much appreciated! Thank you!
Well to start out: OpenGL is deprecated and Vulkan is not really supported on OSX this is what probably causes the biggest issues that you are seeing. But that being said, yeah, you will probably see a huge boost in Dolphin because of the Intel UHD 630 which is much faster than the 4000 (My laptop with an i7 4800MQ and Intel Graphics 4600 struggles, but when I use the discrete card (GTX870 6GB) it runs great.) So upgrading to a newer CPU will also definitely help... but the thing that will help the most is changing out OSX for Windows 10 using Bootcamp, even on the 2012 one.
The 2.6 GHz Core i7 in the 2012 version is a quad core: 3720QM
The 3.2 GHz Core i7 in the 2018 version is a hexa core: 8700B
The speed will be so much better on the 8700B as it has a higher clock and is a post Haswell/4th gen chip, for whatever reason the 4th gen and up are much, MUCH faster in emulation than 3rd gen and before even at the same clock speeds. The problem you will probably run in to is the heat dissipation inside such a small case, causing the CPU to thermal throttle.
They both are HT enabled (if I'm not mistaken) so the 2012 has 8 threads and the 2018 has 12 threads. Just keep in mind that cores don't matter for Dolphin, the maximum amount of cores that Dolphin will ever use is 2 and even that is a hack implemented by the developers and it is possible that it will break things.
Also keep in mind that the Rogue squadron games are evil... even my i9 9900k @5.1GHz with 2080ti is struggling with it.
Thanks for the reply! So Windows can run on a Mac? Never heard of Bootcamp. I likely won't go down that route because one reason I enjoy my Mac so much is that I don't have to deal with Windows, lol.
Something else I should note is that in the past, using the Dolphin emulator, I'd hear the Mini's fan kick in as it started to heat up (generally the computer is dead silent). But then through RetroArch it takes a while, if ever, for the Mini to heat up. I just find it really interesting how the GameCube games work so much better through RetroArch. I have no business even thinking about getting a new computer right now but it sure is tempting.
It's a shame I can't just test out the program and a couple games at an Apple store. That would certainly put my mind at ease
(10-12-2019, 10:30 PM)The7PercentSolution Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks for the reply! So Windows can run on a Mac? Never heard of Bootcamp. I likely won't go down that route because one reason I enjoy my Mac so much is that I don't have to deal with Windows, lol.
Something else I should note is that in the past, using the Dolphin emulator, I'd hear the Mini's fan kick in as it started to heat up (generally the computer is dead silent). But then through RetroArch it takes a while, if ever, for the Mini to heat up. I just find it really interesting how the GameCube games work so much better through RetroArch. I have no business even thinking about getting a new computer right now but it sure is tempting.
It's a shame I can't just test out the program and a couple games at an Apple store. That would certainly put my mind at ease
AFAIK The Retroarch core is based on an older version of Dolphin, also I do not know if Retroarch actually uses the game .ini files... if it doesn't than that will give you huge speedups... at the cost of breaking a lot of games.
The 2012 to 2018 upgrade seems worth for me, not only for Dolphin but generally speaking.
Windows with BootCamp was the way to go for gaming when I was using a MacBook (too bad current MacBook are too expensive for my usage), Dolphin have access to more graphics API options, and performance was better.
Yeah from everything I've been reading about the 2018 Mini it does sound pretty great. I'm not sure when I'd make that upgrade because my 2012 still runs very well and I've never had issues. It could just be better at playing GameCube games and that isn't a very practical reason to get a totally new computer
(10-18-2019, 10:14 PM)The7PercentSolution Wrote: [ -> ]Yeah from everything I've been reading about the 2018 Mini it does sound pretty great. I'm not sure when I'd make that upgrade because my 2012 still runs very well and I've never had issues. It could just be better at playing GameCube games and that isn't a very practical reason to get a totally new computer
I completely understand the aversion to Windows as I share it. Unfortunately, it does run Dolphin better. If you end up buying a newer Mac mini, then you should be good. But keep in mind that with BootCamp you don’t replace macOS with Windows, you install Windows alongside macOS and then you can boot to whichever one you need. So you could install Dolphin on Windows and boot to it when you’re wanting to play and then boot back into macOS (and breathe a sigh of relief) for everything else you do.
There is a perfectly serviceable version of Dolphin for Linux as well if you do not wish to use Windows. But keep in mind even if you use a better OS for emulation (MacOS is great for many things.... emulation is not generally one of those things), it will not fix the main issue of using a mobile CPU in a small formfactor that will limit already limited performance.
Also while Devs hate this... Older versions of emulators are fine to use as long as you realize that you will receive less help. In the case of Dolphin on retroarch, it would be better to ask for help about it on their forums. Also compatibility will likely be lower, but if every game you want to play works great andruns better on 4.0, 3.5, ect... then who cares if you use that version..... just don't complaign if you lose all your progress to a gamebreaking error that was fixed in a later version, no one will care.
(10-31-2019, 09:38 AM)TKSilver Wrote: [ -> ]Also while Devs hate this... Older versions of emulators are fine to use as long as you realize that you will receive less help.
Just to be clear, there's no hate involved, people are free to use whatever version they want. However, if you want support on these forums, you abide to its rules, so you should be running at least the last stable version (currently 5.0) or newer. For older versions or unofficial forks, you can get help elsewhere, just not here...
Hello again and happy new year! I just wanted to share my success story with the 2018 Mac Mini. I caved and got one about a week ago and it's been
fantastic. Just to note, I didn't get it ONLY to play GameCube games... although I'd be lying if I said that wasn't part of the goal. Anyways, as I mentioned in the first post my 2012 Mini will just barely play GameCube games but then the fan kicks in as the computer starts to get REALLY hot. That isn't the case for the 2018. I've been playing several games for extended periods of time and when I go put my hand on the computer it's barely warm! I can't express how ecstatic I've been about this.
Here's what I had before and what I ended up getting.
2012
2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz) - I believe this is quad core
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB
1TB HDD storage
2018
3.2GHz 6‑core 8th‑generation Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 4.6GHz)
16GB 2666MHz DDR4
Intel UHD Graphics 630
2TB SSD storage
There are just a couple things though that maybe someone can help answer.
Initially I tried playing the GameCube games through OpenEmu because they just added Dolphin to that. However, I did notice the computer starting to get hot when playing on OpenEmu so I've opted to play directly from Dolphin which has worked great. Any particular reason why playing on OpenEmu causes more of a strain on the computer?
Also, I have version 5.0-11452 of Dolphin and the ONLY flaw with that is that when I want to close the program I have to use Force Quit. Not a big deal, but it'd be nice if it didn't do that. If anyone is familiar with that problem I'd appreciate any input!
Thanks!