budget emulator build.

[originalconman]

I want to run pcsx2 and dolphin at full 60 fps and also would like to run older titles such as world at War. I have a ps4 to run newer games but that would be a plus if I could run those too. I'm stuck between which processor to buy, a 7th gen pentium, i3 7100 or should I just go ahead and get a i5 7500. I'm trying to stick to a 400-550 budget so I don't know if I should buy a 4gb rx 480 for 180$ and i5 7500 because that takes up alot of my budget. Any feedback is appreciated. I've also been under the impression that emulators are heavy on cpu so Idk if I should spend less on the gpu and more the gpu. Thanks 

[Mira Yurizaki]

"Full 60 FPS" is sort of a misnomer as the emulator won't render faster than the what the game was originally played at. i.e., if the game is 30 FPS on the console, it's going to be 30FPS on the emulator.

 

However the last time I dabbled in PCSX2, it was back a few years ago and it seemed to work just fine on my i5-2500 and GTX 560 Ti. So I can't imagine you need a whole lot of power today to run them adequately.

 

Also Anandtech runs the Dolphin CPU benchmark test, here's a sample: http://www.anandtech.com/show/11083/the-intel-core-i3-7350k-60w-review/4. So an i3-7100  should be fine since the i3-6100 performs ~40% faster than the actual Wii.

[aeroencychris]

2 minutes ago, Abyssal Radon said:

Check out Dolphins website for system requirements. You will want a decent dual or (preferably quad) core processor. The GPU is very important too. Do not buy a AMD CPU for Dolphin. If Ryzen works well with Dolphin then that's a different story. 

Ryzen is appealing to much higher end performance than he needs anyways. I use an i5 4460 and it's more than capable.

[aeroencychris]

2 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

"Full 60 FPS" is sort of a misnomer as the emulator won't render faster than the what the game was originally played at. i.e., if the game is 30 FPS on the console, it's going to be 30FPS on the emulator.

 

However the last time I dabbled in PCSX2, it was back a few years ago and it seemed to work just fine on my i5-2500 and GTX 560 Ti. So I can't imagine you need a whole lot of power today to run them adequately.

 

Also Anandtech runs the Dolphin CPU benchmark test, here's a sample: http://www.anandtech.com/show/11083/the-intel-core-i3-7350k-60w-review/4. So an i3-7100  should be fine since the i3-6100 performs ~40% faster than the actual Wii.

Comparing to the actual Wii means nothing since the games weren't written for x86

But yes, that CPU is probably enough,

[originalconman]

so i5 7500 or wait for ryzen? I can run dolphin my dell inspirion 17 with an i3, but I worried about pcsx2.

[aeroencychris]

2 minutes ago, originalconman said:

so i5 7500 or wait for ryzen? I can run dolphin my dell inspirion 17 with an i3, but I worried about pcsx2.

Don't forget to quote people so we get notifications

I'd say i5 7500 is going to be more than enough for Dolphin, but it'll mostly be needed in modern games if you're really going down that route. You also need to consider your GPU, though. I'd say a 1050ti/1050 is probably a good fit here

[Mira Yurizaki]

1 minute ago, cdsboy2000 said:

Comparing to the actual Wii means nothing since the games weren't written for x86

But yes, that CPU is probably enough,

They mentioned the actual Wii's score. Though I goofed, it's not on the chart. The i3-6100 does the benchmark in 8 minutes and some change. The Wii does it in 17 minutes.

 

1 minute ago, originalconman said:

so i5 7500 or wait for ryzen? I can run dolphin my dell inspirion 17 with an i3, but I worried about pcsx2.

PCSX2 isn't that much harder to run. http://pcsx2.net/getting-started.html

[originalconman]

1 minute ago, cdsboy2000 said:

Don't forget to quote people so we get notifications

I'd say i5 7500 is going to be more than enough for Dolphin, but it'll mostly be needed in modern games if you're really going down that route. You also need to consider your GPU, though. I'd say a 1050ti/1050 is probably a good fit here

a rx 480 is on amazon for 180$ and the 1050 ti is about 150$ so should I sepnd the extra 30

[aeroencychris]

2 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

They mentioned the actual Wii's score. Though I goofed, it's not on the chart. The i3-6100 does the benchmark in 8 minutes and some change. The Wii does it in 17 minutes.

 

PCSX2 isn't that much harder to run. http://pcsx2.net/getting-started.html

Sorry, didn't realize you were comparing game performance, thought you were talking about raw specs.

[aeroencychris]

2 minutes ago, originalconman said:

a rx 480 is on amazon for 180$ and the 1050 ti is about 150$ so should I sepnd the extra 30

I have a dumb subconscious bias towards NVIDIA since it seems a lot of experimental programs like Moonlight or Cemu seem to favor NVIDIA cards over AMD. In all honestly it probably doesn't matter, so an RX 480 would be fine. The 8GB models can get as low as $180 sometimes so watch out for sales

[originalconman]

how are the stock coolers on those kaby lake ? I can shave off 60-80$ from budget if iknow my system will be cool I have 4 120mm fans and nice cooler master cpu cooler. I want the best for my build but iwant everything to stay cool.

[Streetguru]

3 hours ago, originalconman said:

 

You want the fastest CPU you can get, namely an i5 7700K at 5ghz.

Otherwise wait a week or so for Ryzen assuming the $149 4c/4t unlocked chip comes out by then