Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Hey guys, I figured I would post this here concerning my experience with using Mac Dolphin vs Windows Dolphin in Boot Camp.

After performing extensive testing between three different versions of Dolphin in both MacOS and Windows--the most recent build as well as the Faster Melee 5.9 and Slippi builds from SmashLadder--it seems that my computer runs much hotter in Windows than in MacOS when using the same programs. For example, 2 player Smash Melee using the most recent build of Dolphin in Windows would send my 2017 MacBook Air up to a max of 103 degrees Celsius and an average of 96 degrees Celsius. However, the same build of Dolphin in MacOS would only top out at 79 degrees Celsius maximum and stay at an average of 72-75 degrees Celsius. Likewise, I received similar results when testing Faster Melee 5.9 and Slippi. I don't know what causes this variance, but if you want your MacBook to last as long as possible, I wouldn't recommend using Boot Camp even if it offers slightly better performance. Again, these measurements are not exactly scientific, but something I have noticed and wanted to share.

Thanks.

You should probably download a program that lets you adjust the fans in Windows to crank them up when playing. macOS is doing the same thing, or throttling the CPU more, which is why you aren't seeing those temperatures.

Yes, when proper GPU drivers actually allow your hardware to be used instead of the rendering threads just waiting forever (not using the hardware) on very inefficient, deprecated code paths, your hardware gets hotter.

Use fan speed monitoring software to manage your fan speeds.

Yes, I also found out that Windows on BootCamp don't handle cooling the same way macOS do, it's hotter. Performance was better on Windows using Direct3D and even OpenGL, but it's an old MacBook (late 2008).