Hardware Best laptop for Dolphin Emulator

[ganons]

Can someone recommend some laptops that can run GC/Wii games 1080p for £500 that's just under $800

 

[ganons]

Or a small PC but about £300 that is easy to carry between rooms

 

[XDel]

Use this as your guide:

https://dolphin-emu.org/docs/faq/#which-cpu-should-i-use

https://dolphin-emu.org/docs/faq/#which-gpu-do-i-need

Something with an i5 for sure!

 

[Rockhoundhigh]

Can't give a specific recommendation but I'd say focus on getting the best CPU you can. You still need a dedicated graphics card of course, preferably Nvidia for their better drivers but performance in Dolphin is generally CPU limited even with all the recent optimizations. Also, make sure it's well ventilated as performance throttling due to overheating can be a real pain when it comes to emulation on laptops.

 

[henn64]

None, honestly. GPU options are fairly limited, and mobile CPUs are worse than desktop counterparts. Plus overheating is a thing.
As an actual answer, Toshiba Satellite S series, but they're $1,000 pre-rebate and as low as $549 post-rebate. If $800 is all you can give up front, I guess these won't help.

 

[the_randomizer]

Dolphin relies on the CPU more than anything, as emulators are wont to do, so naturally, you'll want a beefy laptop CPU and a decent dedicated GPU.

 

[ganons]

Or is the nvidia shield going to better in the long run as its cheaper than a beefy laptop

 

[Originality]

As far as I know, Dolphin won't run on ARM CPUs, so that rules the nVidia shield out. Unless you just stream from a desktop, but that defeats the point.

Edit: I stand corrected.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

As far as I know, Dolphin won't run on ARM CPUs, so that rules the nVidia shield out. Unless you just stream from a desktop, but that defeats the point.

Dolphin runs on Android, and the Shield tablet is the only device actually capable of running it at a decent (read: playable) FPS. But it's still far from fullspeed, maybe the Tegra X1 will be able to run it fullspeed.