Hardware Minimum specs for optimal performance

[Drak0rex]

I'm thinking of getting a gaming pc, and I'd like to know what the minimum specs are that I would need to get the most out of the more demanding emulators for consoles like PS2, Wii U and 3DS, as well as more demanding PC titles. I need to know how much I should expect to spend without going bankrupt, and wonder where the line is drawn between what the emulators are capable of and the power needed to reach that point.

 

[Zhongtiao1]

Minimum 8GB of RAM, if it's just emulators, don't need too much more than that except a good CPU. GPU doesn't matter too much

Edit: I already know people are going to scream at me for this...

 

[Drak0rex]

What about things like the graphics card? I'd like to be able to run games like ARK on max settings.

 

[Zhongtiao1]

What about things like the graphics card? I'd like to be able to run games like ARK on max settings.

Then AMD would be best (please don't attack me).

RX 580 should work well enough

 

[Drak0rex]

My buddy got a HP desktop, not sure the specs, but he's able to run ARK and Warcraft on max settings, said it only cost him $500. I'm guessing it could handle any emulator without problems, but I dunno. Any good recommendations on what I should buy outright without having to spend more to upgrade?

 

[GunzOfNavarone]

Minimum 8GB of RAM, if it's just emulators, don't need too much more than that except a good CPU. GPU doesn't matter too much

Edit: I already know people are going to scream at me for this...

I'm not going to scream at you for it, but can I just draw your attention to his last sentence 'as well as more demanding PC titles'. He's going to need a mid range gpu depending on what games they are. I'd say something like 8gb ram, i5-4670 cpu (or thereabouts), 780-980 geforce depending on what PC games you intend to play and what settings you want to apply and an SSD. Everything else is relative e.g. power supply, ram brand, fans, case etc.

For the emulators you've mentioned, you won't need much to run a PS2 game (gpu or cpu wise) although Wii U... I can't say I've tried. I've tried Wii and if you want to apply the various gpu effects and get the games looking nice through dolphin, a mid range card works well. I haven't emulated 3DS as I own one, but again, it's a minimally powered machine. I couldn't see it needing a lot.

 

[Zhongtiao1]

I'm not going to scream at you for it, but can I just draw your attention to his last sentence 'as well as more demanding PC titles'. He's going to need a mid range gpu depending on what games they are. I'd say something like 8gb ram, i5-4670 cpu (or thereabouts), 780-980 geforce depending on what PC games you intend to play and what settings you want to apply and an SSD. Everything else is relative e.g. power supply, ram brand, fans, case etc.

For the emulators you've mentioned, you won't need much to run a PS2 game (gpu or cpu wise) although Wii U... I can't say I've tried. I've tried Wii and if you want to apply the various gpu effects and get the games looking nice through dolphin, a mid range card works well. I haven't emulated 3DS as I own one, but again, it's a minimally powered machine. I couldn't see it needing a lot.

I updated and said an RX 580 would be good

 

[GunzOfNavarone]

I updated and said an RX 580 would be good

Fair enough :-)

 

[The Real Jdbye]

What about things like the graphics card? I'd like to be able to run games like ARK on max settings.

Ark needs a lot of RAM, 8GB is a bit low, you may have lag spikes in game due to it using the page file a lot like I did with 6GB. I suggest 2x8GB sticks if the mobo has 4 slots, that way you get dual channel and still have room to upgrade later. I have 12GB but that's only because my mobo has 6 RAM slots (6x2GB).
It's always best to use same size RAM so you get the benefit of dual/triple/quad (depending on your CPU and mobo, I believe current gen hardware is either dual or quad) channel RAM.

I get about 40 FPS @ 1080p with the settings mostly maxed out on my GTX 970. An 1070 could probably do 60 FPS maxed with ease. If you have a >1440p monitor and want to game at native res or you want to do 120/144hz gaming you'll probably want a GTX 1080 or even a Ti.

You can mostly get away with a GTX 1060 for 1080p@60 gaming but I think for Ark it will be a bit too weak.

I can't suggest specs for Wii U emulation as I haven't tried it but I think you need a fairly beefy CPU (plus a beefy GPU for 4K if you want that)
3DS/GC/Wii/PS2 are pretty easy to emulate, any modern gaming PC should be able to run them with ease.

 

[raystriker]

I'm thinking of getting a gaming pc, and I'd like to know what the minimum specs are that I would need to get the most out of the more demanding emulators for consoles like PS2, Wii U and 3DS, as well as more demanding PC titles. I need to know how much I should expect to spend without going bankrupt, and wonder where the line is drawn between what the emulators are capable of and the power needed to reach that point.

Wait for a while, the market's a bit sketchy for now. A 1000usd+-100 build should see you make a decent PC for all your emulation needs.

 

[Drak0rex]

I have a 4k tv and will be wanting to max settings like anti-aliasing, texture smoothing, and applying various filters and shaders depending on the emulator

 

[RaptorDMG]

https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/8sfrxr/entry-level-intel-gaming-build
This is probably good enough for what you want if you want to play in 1080p

 

[ginadajani]

I'm thinking of getting a gaming pc, and I'd like to know what the minimum specs are that I would need to get the most out of the more demanding emulators for consoles like PS2, Wii U and 3DS, as well as more demanding PC titles. I need to know how much I should expect to spend without going bankrupt, and wonder where the line is drawn between what the emulators are capable of and the power needed to reach that point.

Emulators are good for nothing. Better buy a gaming console. And believe me, you wouldn't get enough if that either. Buy a PS4 instead as it has some really awesome gaming titles. I have recently started playing many VR games like VRChat, but that too required VPN services from ReviewsDir to play it hassle-free. So, it would be a lot better if you can tell which gaming titles are you aiming to play?

 

[Drak0rex]

Emulators are good for nothing. Better buy a gaming console. And believe me, you wouldn't get enough if that either. Buy a PS4 instead as it has some really awesome gaming titles. I have recently started playing many VR games like VRChat, but that too required VPN services from ReviewsDir to play it hassle-free. So, it would be a lot better if you can tell which gaming titles are you aiming to play?

And this helps me how? You come into a thread about computer specs, and spout off garbage that a PS4 is somehow better than far more powerful machines that can play games from a multitude of consoles far better than their original hardware could. I couldn't give two farts about VR Chat. If you need help finding the Sony fangirl section, I can show u de whey.

 

[SoslanVanWieren]

Emulators are good for nothing. Better buy a gaming console. And believe me, you wouldn't get enough if that either. Buy a PS4 instead as it has some really awesome gaming titles. I have recently started playing many VR games like VRChat, but that too required VPN services from ReviewsDir to play it hassle-free. So, it would be a lot better if you can tell which gaming titles are you aiming to play?

They make it so you don't need to buy a bunch of old systems and you can make the games look better you can also rip some games from the discs just with your pc. so you don't have to pirate.

 

[the_randomizer]

Emulators are good for nothing. Better buy a gaming console. And believe me, you wouldn't get enough if that either. Buy a PS4 instead as it has some really awesome gaming titles. I have recently started playing many VR games like VRChat, but that too required VPN services from ReviewsDir to play it hassle-free. So, it would be a lot better if you can tell which gaming titles are you aiming to play?

Pfft, I hardly see this as being helpful, he needs help finding out what hardware he needs for emulators to run well, not a lecture on why he has to own the real consoles.

@Drak0rex since emulators rely almost entirely on the CPU, so anything mid-range like the Core i5 or Core i7's will be more then enough, a decent GPU like the 900 or 10xx series will be good. Heck, even Haswell or Sky Lake will be plenty fast. Ignore those who are trying to tell you what to do regarding not using emulators.

 

[SoslanVanWieren]

thing is you can't dump a wii u game with out a wii u so you can't really use the emulator to replace a wii u unless you want to pirate

 

[RattletraPM]

Well, here are my suggestions:

CPU: Unless you're willing to get used or previous gen parts get a Ryzen, they are excellent CPUs for their price and they've all got an unlocked multiplier: considering that the included heatsink is actually pretty decent and most Ryzen CPUs can get to 3.8 GHz with little to no Vcore bump it's not that difficult to see why they offer a great value - but they're also good if overclocking isn't really your thing. That aside, a quad core CPU is the bare minimum to do any kind of gaming nowadays but if you can I'd recommend you get an hexa core CPU so that you'll get better framerates on more optimized games while less optimized ones won't be bothered by background processes.

If you want me to be a bit more specific, I either recommend you get a Ryzen 5 1600 or if you're on a tighter budget Ryzen 3 1300X if you're going with AMD, or a Core i5 8600K or a Core i3 8100 if you're going with Intel. Of course if you're looking for used offers you might find last gen stuff with very similiar performance that's still perfectly good for gaming (except for AMD... but we don't speak about that) so keep that in mind that mine are just suggestions.

Keep in mind however that AMD will launch the new Ryzen 2 processors soon, so it might be better to wait until they're released if you want to build your system. Still, they will be just a die shrink of the older models with a slightly faster clock speed so it won't matter that much if you're planning on overclocking, but I'd still recommend you to wait unless you're really that impatient.

GPU: With the current mining craze it might not be a good time to buy a graphics card, but still: if you want to game in 1080p then either get a GTX 1060 (6GB) or an RX 580/480 (8 GB preferrable, but the 4GB model will also do). Keep in mind that there are very few differences between a 480 and 580 as the RX 5 series so while getting a 580 is more preferrable, a 480 will deliver very, very similiar performance in games. If you want to game in 4K however, a GTX 1070 would be better unless you want to tune down your games' graphical settings a bit.

Again, it's expected that NVidia might launch the new 11 series GPU pretty soon so it might be better to wait before buying one of the currently available cards (and, as an added bonus, miners could start to sell their older GPUs so you might find plenty of great used deals!)

RAM: There's not much to say here, get 16 GB if your budget allows it or 8 GB if you can't. Speeds don't really matter unless you have a Ryzen CPU: in this case, getting faster RAM will make you gain a kinda noticeable performance increase in games.

One last thing to keep in mind about emulators: some of them (for example, Citra) are programmed to use one core in order to be able to mimick the emulated system's architecture in a more accurate way. So if you're planning to run more emulators and less games, it might be better to save up some money and get a CPU with less cores and a higher frequency (again, don't even bother with dual cores, a quad core CPU is pretty much the norm nowadays) because the extra ones wouldn't be used by your emulator anyways.

 

[Deleted member 388531]

Don't build a PC right now. GPU prices are beyond shooting past the roof.

 

[SoslanVanWieren]

Don't build a PC right now. GPU prices are beyond shooting past the roof.

weaker gpus aren't going to be used for minning so budget builds should be okay