# Would a I3 be good for Emulation?



## DeoNaught (May 16, 2017)

Hi, i was wondering if an I3 is good enough for Dophin? or maybe an I5,
I dont plan to scale up textures that much.
(Or how good is Emu with a Pentium, or Celeron?)

i plan to have around 8Gb of ram, and Cheapish Video Card.


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## Dionicio3 (May 16, 2017)

DeoNaught said:


> Hi, i was wondering if an I3 is good enough for Dophin? or maybe an I5,
> I dont plan to scale up textures that much.
> (Or how good is Emu with a Pentium, or Celeron?)
> 
> i plan to have around 8Gb of ram, and Cheapish Video Card.


Maybe, but an i5 would be waaaay better


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## ployermick (May 18, 2017)

so far i havent had a game that had issues or noticeable lag on dolphin (i didnt test the wii emulation) 720p using i3 5005U


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## Depravo (May 18, 2017)

I currently have an ancient i3 2120 and an equally ancient Radeon HD7770 and all the games I've tried with Dolphin are entirely playable. Even with improved resolution in some cases.


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## DeoNaught (May 18, 2017)

Depravo said:


> I currently have an ancient i3 2120 and an equally ancient Radeon HD7770 and all the games I've tried with Dolphin are entirely playable. Even with improved resolution in some cases.


Is that just gamecube? or wii too?


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## Depravo (May 18, 2017)

DeoNaught said:


> Is that just gamecube? or wii too?


I only tried Xenoblade Chronicles. It had the occasional stutter but was still playable. The GC stuff was fine.


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## spotanjo3 (May 18, 2017)

DeoNaught said:


> Hi, i was wondering if an I3 is good enough for Dophin? or maybe an I5,
> I dont plan to scale up textures that much.
> (Or how good is Emu with a Pentium, or Celeron?)
> 
> i plan to have around 8Gb of ram, and Cheapish Video Card.



Go with i5. You won't regret it. I have and Dolphin runs great with i5.  Do not go with Pentium or Celeron.. Go with i5!


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## G0R3Z (May 31, 2017)

The Graphics Card is pretty important too, but an i3 will still limit things. Most notably, it will limit the performance in regards to higher resolutions, shaders and effects like AF and SSAO. Go with an i5 if you can afford it, but an i3 will still be playable if your GPU is up to the task.


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## TotalInsanity4 (May 31, 2017)

Actually, yes. Even a Pentium should be more than enough for any emu pre-Cemu, because they all only use 1-2 cores. Note, though, that for optimal performance you would not be able to have ANYTHING else open


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## StarTrekVoyager (May 31, 2017)

An i3 for emulation is complete garbage, especially if your GPU isn't a beast.

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TotalInsanity4 said:


> Actually, yes. Even a Pentium should be more than enough for any emu pre-Cemu, because they all only use 1-2 cores. Note, though, that for optimal performance you would not be able to have ANYTHING else open


Nope, Dolphin won't run even New Super Mario Bros. with a Pentium/Celeron. An i3 lags like hell with DeSmuME, since the DS emulator only uses the CPU and not the GPU.


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## TheDarkGreninja (May 31, 2017)

The question is what model is it? If its one of the higher end ones that are overclockable you should be set.


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## Deleted User (May 31, 2017)

avoid celerons at all cost. and the cheaper pentiums


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## TheDarkGreninja (May 31, 2017)

StarTrekVoyager said:


> An i3 for emulation is complete garbage, especially if your GPU isn't a beast.
> 
> --------------------- MERGED ---------------------------
> 
> ...


Im pretty sure a pentium G4560 would be pretty good considering its clocks.

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@DeoNaught what model i3 are you planning on having?

Although, for really good emulation Ryzen might be a pretty good budget bet.


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## G0R3Z (May 31, 2017)

We're still assuming that the GPU is up to the task. It really does depend on the Graphics he's plugging at the moment. If he's got a decent card, a lower end CPU would be enough and the Card could take the heavy lifting.


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## spotanjo3 (May 31, 2017)

DeoNaught said:


> Hi, i was wondering if an I3 is good enough for Dophin? or maybe an I5,
> I dont plan to scale up textures that much.
> (Or how good is Emu with a Pentium, or Celeron?)
> 
> i plan to have around 8Gb of ram, and Cheapish Video Card.



I have i5 and Dolphin runs great! And with Intel Core and 8GB. NO PROBLEM! GO FOR IT!


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## StarTrekVoyager (May 31, 2017)

G0R3Z said:


> We're still assuming that the GPU is up to the task. It really does depend on the Graphics he's plugging at the moment. If he's got a decent card, a lower end CPU would be enough and the Card could take the heavy lifting.


Yeah, but he said he'd take a cheapish video card. Plus, like I said, some emulators (DS and SNES in particular) take 100% of the charge on the CPU.


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## the_randomizer (May 31, 2017)

Glad you're not going with AMD's line of CPUs or GPUs, a Core i5 and a decent GPU will be plenty.


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## dpad_5678 (May 31, 2017)

My i3-4030u (Quad Thread, Duel Core, 1.9GHz) runs just about any Wii game in Dolphin at 720p60. However, you also need a decent graphics card.


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## TotalInsanity4 (May 31, 2017)

StarTrekVoyager said:


> Nope, Dolphin won't run even New Super Mario Bros. with a Pentium/Celeron. An i3 lags like hell with DeSmuME, since the DS emulator only uses the CPU and not the GPU.


What i3 were you using?... That's completely contradictory to my experience  (well, except Desmume), but I've also been testing more modern stuff


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## StarTrekVoyager (May 31, 2017)

TotalInsanity4 said:


> What i3 were you using?... That's completely contradictory to my experience  (well, except Desmume), but I've also been testing more modern stuff


I'm on a laptop, and I had to use X432R which actually uses the GPU. DeSmuME is VERY badly optimized. DraStic running through BlueStacks runs faster.


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## Kennerc (May 31, 2017)

dpad_5678 said:


> My i3-4030u (Quad Thread, Duel Core, 1.9GHz) runs just about any Wii game in Dolphin at 720p60. However, you also need a decent graphics card.



Since you're using a "u" processor I believe you're on a laptop, do you have a graphic cards, or only the intel HD graphics?


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## castdreams (May 31, 2017)

The newer i3s that are 2 cores/4 threads are actually pretty good for light gaming. I imagine they'd be able to handle Dolphin at the native resolution, but it might not be beefy enough to play games upscaled to 1080p. Just make sure you have a dedicated GPU you pair with it because the Intel HD integrated GPU probably won't cut it.


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