I might buy a new laptop (Inspiron 15) and I want it as cheap as possible, so it will come with 2GB RAM. Should I put 32 or 64 bit Win 7 on it, cuz I heard that you should have at least 3GB to make 64 bit Windows worth installing.
Well here's the specs:
2.2GHz Intel Dual Core T4400
2GB 800MHz DDR2
Intel GMA X4500HD
Also since this is Dolphin discussion, has anyone tried Dolphin on an Intel GMA X4500HD? Honestly, I think it'll run like sh*t.
It's not so much having at least 3 gb to make it worth installing as it is "if you have more than 3 gb, you should use 64 bit", because of the whole limitation of 32 bit. I have personally tested dolphin on windows 7 32/64 and 64 is by far faster, but that's with my specs and you never know. The only problem with 64 bit is SOME software still does not run properly in it and very VERY poor driver support for laptops. If you can find all your drivers for windows 7 x64 then you should use it. Some 32 bit software also runs slower (It's hard to believe but it's true) on a 64 bit o/s. It's basically one trade-off after another and you'll probably get more info if you do some research.
For reference this is the laptop i use that i play dolphin on:
Intel C2D E8400 (Forget the clock speed, i'm at work)
4gb ram (667 mhz)
geforce 9600m GT (512 vram)
intel x-25 ssd
I get 60 fps solid on most gamecube games, excluding twilight princess and most wii games run 55/60 fps (except brawl with 4 players - - 35-40/50 fps)
I use windows 7 32 bit also and I still get these ridiculous framerates on such a mediocre laptop.
Try and get a laptop with something other than an intel GMA, it's not even worth considering buying that laptop for dolphin with that gpu in it, if you want to actually "play" the games. I have no clue in comparison that card is to an intel GMA 945, but the 945 i have in another laptop is 256 meg vram and it BARELY can play perfect dark on n64 @ 512x384 resolution.
Side note - I tried x64 windows 7 and I had solid 60 fps in gamecube and wii games that I tried, brawl with 4 players at the odd time would drop like 3 fps but thats about it and of course in zelda hyrule field still is slow as all hell. The only reason im not using 4 bit win7 is because my shell doesen't run on 64 bit os's yet properly. If it did I would be using x64.
(03-11-2010, 07:55 AM)Bacon Wrote: [ -> ]Try and get a laptop with something other than an intel GMA, it's not even worth considering buying that laptop for dolphin with that gpu in it, if you want to actually "play" the games. I have no clue in comparison that card is to an intel GMA 945, but the 945 i have in another laptop is 256 meg vram and it BARELY can play perfect dark on n64 @ 512x384 resolution.
Well yes, you should always try to get the best possible everything when buying a laptop, as you will not be able to upgrade it and will be stuck with it, so better be stuck with something decent if you can. As far as your comparison goes to PJ64 and PD, PJ64 actually needs a good video card to run the games, Dolphin does not depend on it as much.
(03-11-2010, 07:10 AM)a mad pigeon Wrote: [ -> ]I might buy a new laptop (Inspiron 15) and I want it as cheap as possible, so it will come with 2GB RAM. Should I put 32 or 64 bit Win 7 on it, cuz I heard that you should have at least 3GB to make 64 bit Windows worth installing.
Well here's the specs:
2.2GHz Intel Dual Core T4400
2GB 800MHz DDR2
Intel GMA X4500HD
Also since this is Dolphin discussion, has anyone tried Dolphin on an Intel GMA X4500HD? Honestly, I think it'll run like sh*t.
My laptop specs are in my sig. I would definitely run Win 7, 64-bit if I were you. Just upgrade your memory so it would run better, though I'm not all that convinced that it wouldn't run fine even on 2GB. As far as the video card goes, if it's anything like my Mobility HD4200, it will run Dolphin just fine, as long as you don't use AA in games.
I guess I could put the 64 bit version on, but I don't know how much RAM I'll have to work with if I use the 64 bit version. I mean, the PC in my sig doesn't run anything on startup and the mem usage is around 1.3GB. Windows should be fairly responsive, right?
And I really want to go higher than that garbage Intel card, but I don't have any money left and I really need to go on the cheap side for the laptop. Dell also offers a Radeon HD4330 for another $100, but I really have to stick with the 4500HD. Now that I think of it,
I don't even think it can handle Dolphin on the lowest settings... crap. UGH
If it says it can play Fear on low, then it will work in Dolphin. The only problem is that it says it will take another 380mb of your memory while playing games. Need more ram.
Yeah you're right, maybe 384MB for video, ~1300MB for the OS, about 300MB free for programs. Maybe I should just dual boot with Linux and compile Dolphin. But then it might not support the 4500HD and with OpenGL the performance will suffer. I would add more RAM to the laptop if only they wouldn't put Windows on it, save me the licensing costs so it can fit my budget.
(03-11-2010, 08:05 AM)[SS] Starscream Wrote: [ -> ]As far as your comparison goes to PJ64 and PD, PJ64 actually needs a good video card to run the games, Dolphin does not depend on it as much.
Any links/proof to back this up? I'm having a hard time believing n64 needs more gpu power to run games than gamecube, especially since i've ripped models from both systems and n64's are far inferior in polygon count/faces. Not trying to be rude or anything but it just makes no sense to me :p
(03-11-2010, 08:36 AM)Bacon Wrote: [ -> ] (03-11-2010, 08:05 AM)[SS] Starscream Wrote: [ -> ]As far as your comparison goes to PJ64 and PD, PJ64 actually needs a good video card to run the games, Dolphin does not depend on it as much.
Any links/proof to back this up? I'm having a hard time believing n64 needs more gpu power to run games than gamecube, especially since i've ripped models from both systems and n64's are far inferior in polygon count/faces. Not trying to be rude or anything but it just makes no sense to me :p
IT would make sense if the n64 GPU in pj64 is actually emulated in the GPU ( we emulate the GC/WII GPU in one core of the CPU so )
(03-11-2010, 07:55 AM)Bacon Wrote: [ -> ]It's not so much having at least 3 gb to make it worth installing as it is "if you have more than 3 gb, you should use 64 bit", because of the whole limitation of 32 bit. I have personally tested dolphin on windows 7 32/64 and 64 is by far faster, but that's with my specs and you never know. The only problem with 64 bit is SOME software still does not run properly in it and very VERY poor driver support for laptops. If you can find all your drivers for windows 7 x64 then you should use it. Some 32 bit software also runs slower (It's hard to believe but it's true) on a 64 bit o/s. It's basically one trade-off after another and you'll probably get more info if you do some research.
For reference this is the laptop i use that i play dolphin on:
Intel C2D E8400 (Forget the clock speed, i'm at work)
4gb ram (667 mhz)
geforce 9600m GT (512 vram)
intel x-25 ssd
I get 60 fps solid on most gamecube games, excluding twilight princess and most wii games run 55/60 fps (except brawl with 4 players - - 35-40/50 fps)
I use windows 7 32 bit also and I still get these ridiculous framerates on such a mediocre laptop.
Try and get a laptop with something other than an intel GMA, it's not even worth considering buying that laptop for dolphin with that gpu in it, if you want to actually "play" the games. I have no clue in comparison that card is to an intel GMA 945, but the 945 i have in another laptop is 256 meg vram and it BARELY can play perfect dark on n64 @ 512x384 resolution.
Side note - I tried x64 windows 7 and I had solid 60 fps in gamecube and wii games that I tried, brawl with 4 players at the odd time would drop like 3 fps but thats about it and of course in zelda hyrule field still is slow as all hell. The only reason im not using 4 bit win7 is because my shell doesen't run on 64 bit os's yet properly. If it did I would be using x64.
I use a GMA video card (see my signature), and don't are so bad.
The most of Games from GC, Wii and WW, run very well (such super paper mario, new mario bros wii, smash bros melee, mario sunshine, crazy taxy, and more. Mario strikers is perfect at palace field, not so good in others. Mario kart gc is playable, but at perceptible lack of speed (constant). Resident 1 are nearly to perfect (but some cameras give a speed to decrease, such that in first stairs).
All problems is visible with even great specs, then i don't think that GMA is not good for dolphin...
yeah but when you say these game run "very well" what fps are you talking about here? Im not sure about the OP, but if I was buying a laptop to "play" gamecube games, i'd want them to actually run at a constant framerate, as well as close to full as possible. What kind of fps do you get on that card?
@James333: I understand that, the part about how the gpu is emulated by the cpu, the part im not getting is how rendering 3d geometry on gamecube taxes the gpu less than an n64 game, it just doesen't make sense to me at all.
What you guys are saying (from what I read) is that if you had two of the exact same system, same cpu, everything, but one had say a geforce 9800 and the other had an intel GMA, they would both perfrom *around* the same (in dolphin). I just highly disbelieve this is true