Is this notebook able to emulate Wii games?

[Hargrun]

So, guys... I'm about to acquire a gaming notebook. It's actually to work, but I'm aiming to emulate some cool multiplayer games occasionally (mainly Super Smash Bros. Brawl).

Copied and pasted stuff:
> Intel Core i5 Haswell - 4210M 2.6 GHz, 3MB Cache (3.20 GHz with Max Turbo)
> 4 GB HyperX Impact DDR3 (1600 MHZ) / ( 1 x 4 GB ) (But I'm considering 2 x 4 GB, just because.)
> NVIDIA GeForce 840M GPU

It's enough or should I look for a i7 and/or a better GPU?

 

[RevPokemon]

You need much better to run it tbh.
Even the best gaming laptops will struggle

 

[Hargrun]

Seriously? Heck... I've been reading a lot of stuff before post it, and this seemed "acceptable".

 

[RevPokemon]

Seriously? Heck... I've been reading a lot of stuff before post it, and this seemed "acceptable".

Well it depend on what setting and fps do you want

 

[Gamemaster1379]

You need much better to run it tbh.
Even the best gaming laptops will struggle

Not really. I have a medium range gaming rig and as long as I don't try going ridiculously overboard (like 4k upscaling and crazy shaders and whatnot), I can run everything with a steady 60 FPS.

I just built a machine today for my brother with a 4150 and 8 GB of RAM with some sort of ATI 270 card. I honestly think your processor could handle it, but the graphics card might struggle a little bit. I'd want to see something closer to a *60 series for that kind of emulation for sake of trying not to bottleneck. And given those, you could probably run things at native res, maybe upscaled a little bit. Obviously not outrageously upscaled nonsense though.

Also, just do yourself a favor and get 8 gigs. 4 gigs is an imposed limbo game for no real reason. 8 GB of memory shouldn't be too expensive.


What kind of budget are you looking by the way? IMO, unless you NEED portability, go desktop. The one I built that can handle emulation of these things was only about $600. If you NEED laptop, I'm quite fond of the MSI GT70 series (what I have). They are nice build, but more of a portable desktop than a laptop.

 

[RevPokemon]

Not really. I have a medium range gaming rig and as long as I don't try going ridiculously overboard (like 4k upscaling and crazy shaders and whatnot), I can run everything with a steady 60 FPS.

I just built a machine today for my brother with a 4150 and 8 GB of RAM with some sort of ATI 270 card. I honestly think your processor could handle it, but the graphics card might struggle a little bit. I'd want to see something closer to a *60 or *70 series for that kind of emulation. And given those, you could probably run things at native res, maybe upscaled a little bit. Obviously not outrageously upscaled nonsense though.

Also, just do yourself a favor and get 8 gigs. 4 gigs is an imposed limbo game for no real reason. 8 GB of memory shouldn't be too expensive.


What kind of budget are you looking by the way? IMO, unless you NEED portability, go desktop. The one I built that can handle emulation of these things was only about $600. If you NEED laptop, I'm quite fond of the MSI GT70 series (what I have). They are nice build, but more of a portable desktop than a laptop.

Off course but it being a laptop makes it harder than a desktop. You can make a desktop that plays most games on 1080p and 60s fps for 300 bucks if you know where to shop

 

[PhoenixWrightX]

You got your answer when you typed "notebook".

 

[Gamemaster1379]

Off course but it being a laptop makes it harder than a desktop. You can make a desktop that plays most games on 1080p and 60s fps for 300 bucks if you know where to shop

Well it's harder finding the prefab combinations and whatnot sure, the market is inflated a bit for that, of course.

$300 sounds a little bit iffy to me. Perhaps if you lived in a good area where the secondhand market was good, but not here.

Price aside, the only other issue you'll see is mobile version of video cards being downscaled in power, and heat dissipation. The video cards are just something you have to live with, and heat dissipation is how the laptop is engineered.

That said though, I am quite fond of the Haswell series machines. The integrated 4000 series graphics are enough to run some PC games in medium settings on their own, and with the ability to run processor graphics alongside dedicated, you can run a second monitor or even livestream with little to no performance impact (QuickSync allows you to play a game on dedicated graphics while the processor's onboard encodes).

 

[RevPokemon]

Well it's harder finding the prefab combinations and whatnot sure, the market is inflated a bit for that, of course.

$300 sounds a little bit iffy to me. Perhaps if you lived in a good area where the secondhand market was good, but not here.

Price aside, the only other issue you'll see is mobile version of video cards being downscaled in power, and heat dissipation. The video cards are just something you have to live with, and heat dissipation is how the laptop is engineered.

That said though, I am quite fond of the Haswell series machines. The integrated 4000 series graphics are enough to run some PC games in medium settings on their own, and with the ability to run processor graphics alongside dedicated, you can run a second monitor or even livestream with little to no performance impact (QuickSync allows you to play a game on dedicated graphics while the processor's onboard encodes).

Yeah but I personally can make a 300 dollar build with used and reverb but it depends I guess

4600 can get 720 on light games but brawl would be less than 720 (1.5 ir)

So a dedicated card is a must

 

[Gamemaster1379]

Yeah but I personally can make a 300 dollar build with used and reverb but it depends I guess

4600 can get 720 on light games but brawl would be less than 720 (1.5 ir)

So a dedicated card is a must

Oh, no doubt. Dedicated card is a must. Not arguing that. But it is impressive to see how integrated has come along, and can be used in junction with dedicated to make some things possible that previously weren't.

I've actually been able to stream myself playing Guild Wars 2 in 1080p on my laptop with the game settings at medium-high. 4700MQ with mobile 770.

 

[RevPokemon]

Oh, no doubt. Dedicated card is a must. Not arguing that. But it is impressive to see how integrated has come along, and can be used in junction with dedicated to make some things possible that previously weren't.

I've actually been able to stream myself playing Guild Wars 2 in 1080p on my laptop with the game settings at medium-high. 4700MQ with mobile 770.

True.
Either way I personally feel its best to take your budget and get a cheap gaming build (can be done under 400 easy) and then spend extra for a laptop

 

[Gamemaster1379]

True.
Either way I personally feel its best to take your budget and get a cheap gaming build (can be done under 400 easy) and then spend extra for a laptop

You're right. Custom built desktops are by far the way to go. I have a custom built rig I built a few years ago for the very cause. It runs everything I need to do and then some. Hell, my first one lasted me 8 years with only having to upgrade the graphics card once. Ridiculously cheap compared to other stuff by comparison, and lasts way longer.

Only reason I have the laptop is I've been moving all around the country lately, and a tri-monitor display + custom desktop build don't travel well. I needed something when I was bouncing around, or to be there to pick up the lag of my machine coming with me. I needed something for my home away from home.

Using a laptop 100% of the time is just too hard on them. They are pricier and die sooner with heavy usage. It's not worth the investment. IMO, go all out on a desktop rig, and have a laptop for the same reason I do, an on-the-go for when a desktop just won't work.

 

[RevPokemon]

You're right. Custom built desktops are by far the way to go. I have a custom built rig I built a few years ago for the very cause. It runs everything I need to do and then some. Hell, my first one lasted me 8 years with only having to upgrade the graphics card once. Ridiculously cheap compared to other stuff by comparison, and lasts way longer.

Only reason I have the laptop is I've been moving all around the country lately, and a tri-monitor display + custom desktop build don't travel well. I needed something when I was bouncing around, or to be there to pick up the lag of my machine coming with me. I needed something for my home away from home.

Using a laptop 100% of the time is just too hard on them. They are pricier and die sooner with heavy usage. It's not worth the investment. IMO, go all out on a desktop rig, and have a laptop for the same reason I do, an on-the-go for when a desktop just won't work.

Well I have a Toshiba it coated 500 bucks and have had it like 8 years!!!
But yeah I only use it for basic stuff (and it age shows on web browsing) but a good laptop at 500 bucks on general use will last much longer than a gaming laptop at 2k

 

[Gamemaster1379]

Well I have a Toshiba it coated 500 bucks and have had it like 8 years!!!
But yeah I only use it for basic stuff (and it age shows on web browsing) but a good laptop at 500 bucks on general use will last much longer than a gaming laptop at 2k

Well, given that it's just web browsing, that's not as power hungry and would last longer all on its own. When it comes to everyday use, especially gaming or development, those things outdate far more quickly. I play heftier games, and am quite an enthusiast (i've done quite a bit of competitive stuff, and weaker machines simply couldn't run the games I played), so I needed something beefier. For all intents and purposes though, they'll last me a while nonetheless.

 

[RevPokemon]

Well, given that it's just web browsing, that's not as power hungry and would last longer all on its own. When it comes to everyday use, especially gaming or development, those things outdate far more quickly. I play heftier games, and am quite an enthusiast (i've done quite a bit of competitive stuff, and weaker machines simply couldn't run the games I played), so I needed something beefier. For all intents and purposes though, they'll last me a while nonetheless.

True but its still kinda neat when I know people who get a Mac.every other year yet do nothing but Facebook.

 

[Gamemaster1379]

True but its still kinda neat when I know people who get a Mac.every other year yet do nothing but Facebook.

I know people like that too. Pretty saddening.

I actually remembered when I built my first rig for about $800, I offered to build one for somebody else I knew too who had seen it. They went out and bought the same specs on an Alienware for $2500 at the time. Best part? They had to replace the PSU and motherboard on theirs, and it stopped working two years ago. Meanwhile, mine still runs.

 

[RevPokemon]

I know people like that too. Pretty saddening.

I actually remembered when I built my first rig for about $800, I offered to build one for somebody else I knew too who had seen it. They went out and bought the same specs on an Alienware for $2500 at the time. Best part? They had to replace the PSU and motherboard on theirs, and it stopped working two years ago. Meanwhile, mine still runs.

Even still not as good. I checked it I could build a much better PC for the price. Even if you don't want to build use something like I buyer power where you can pick the parts (its much better than alienware)

 

[The Real Jdbye]

So, guys... I'm about to acquire a gaming notebook. It's actually to work, but I'm aiming to emulate some cool multiplayer games occasionally (mainly Super Smash Bros. Brawl).

Copied and pasted stuff:
> Intel Core i5 Haswell - 4210M 2.6 GHz, 3MB Cache (3.20 GHz with Max Turbo)
> 4 GB HyperX Impact DDR3 (1600 MHZ) / ( 1 x 4 GB ) (But I'm considering 2 x 4 GB, just because.)
> NVIDIA GeForce 840M GPU

It's enough or should I look for a i7 and/or a better GPU?

Everyone here is underestimating the power of laptops, I have a i7 3630QM at 2.4ghz (with a HD7970M GPU) and it has absolutely no problems running dolphin at 60 FPS at all, even at high internal res. Both Super Mario Galaxies run at a smooth 60FPS and look great, and those are among the heavier games. Even most new PC games run well on high with it.

With just a 840M you probably won't be able to use a very high internal res to take full advantage of 1080p screens, but at the very least 2x internal res should work fine I think. If your laptop is just the standard 1366x768 or 1280x720/1280x800 then that doesn't really make much difference anyway.

CPUs have improved a lot since Dolphin was introduced and beefy specs are no longer really required to run it full speed, your run of the mill i5 will do the job just fine. Even the Intel HD Graphics built in to more recent CPUs is powerful enough to run Dolphin well, since it doesn't rely on the GPU much.

My laptop CPU is Ivy Bridge so yours will be faster clock-for-clock, it should have no trouble running Wii games. Putting another 4GB RAM stick in it is probably a good idea, 4GB is a little short nowadays. All it takes is having Chrome open with a bunch of tabs and opening a game, or a media player, or something else, and Windows will start complaining about low RAM forcing you to close apps or suffer freezing or glitches when the RAM gets low enough.

 

[Gamemaster1379]

Everyone here is underestimating the power of laptops, I have a i7 3630QM at 2.4ghz (with a HD7970M GPU) and it has absolutely no problems running dolphin at 60 FPS at all, even at high internal res. Both Super Mario Galaxies run at a smooth 60FPS and look great, and those are among the heavier games. Even most new PC games run well on high with it.

With just a 840M you probably won't be able to use a very high internal res to take full advantage of 1080p screens, but at the very least 2x internal res should work fine I think. If your laptop is just the standard 1366x768 or 1280x720/1280x800 then that doesn't really make much difference anyway.

CPUs have improved a lot since Dolphin was introduced and beefy specs are no longer really required to run it full speed, your run of the mill i5 will do the job just fine. Even the Intel HD Graphics built in to more recent CPUs is powerful enough to run Dolphin well, since it doesn't rely on the GPU much.

My laptop CPU is Ivy Bridge so yours will be faster clock-for-clock, it should have no trouble running Wii games. Putting another 4GB RAM stick in it is probably a good idea, 4GB is a little short nowadays. All it takes is having Chrome open with a bunch of tabs and opening a game, or a media player, or something else, and Windows will start complaining about low RAM forcing you to close apps or suffer freezing or glitches when the RAM gets low enough.

The dolphin dev team is ridiculously capable. They do astounding work, so the power requirements are steadily trickling down more and more all the time.

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Even still not as good. I checked it I could build a much better PC for the price. Even if you don't want to build use something like I buyer power where you can pick the parts (its much better than alienware)

Yeah, Alienware is satan. They also used to use proprietary parts, making it impossible to order reasonable replacements. The power supply and motherboard dimensions were proprietary in my experiences. They actually wanted $400 for a replacement board for a 3000 series Intel board since no others would fit the dimensions. It was actually cheaper to buy a new power supply, case, and motherboard from another source, and then just carry over the processor and RAM than it was to buy the replacement board.

 

[raystriker]

I'd just like to say @Hargrun that whatever you buy, don't get a ULV notebook for emulation.

What is your budget anyway?