Since we quad core users are out of luck about getting more than two cores working I'm wondering if Core i7 is a good option for this emu?

At same clock speed, core i7 is faster than core 2 duo.
However the price/performance ratio is much worse with core i7 (understand: not worth to get one for pcsx2 only)
Currently there's no optimisation in plugins/pcsx2 that are specific to core i7.

If you have the money to splash around the i7 is better than the C2D range, however the difference is not so amazing that its that much of a worthwhile upgrade. If you play PC games / Have money to waste then go ahead.

More than two cores are usefull for PCSX2. GSDX's software renderer can use multiple threads. Would be nice to see some benchmarks with i7s and 4-6 threads.

@VeaaC

Quote:GSDX's software renderer can use multiple threads

But no one that is seriously playing will use the software renderer.
That would just be unbearably slow.

.... Unless with 7 (= 8 - 1) threads on the i7 WILL make it not-unbearably-slow. Maybe even fast.
Are there any benchmarks on it?

I highly doubt that even with 8 threads you'll get decent speed.

Try the latest gsdx sw renderer.
It gives playable speeds on many of my games now

(core2duo 4,3Ghz)

well if even rama says it ...
Ok I've tryed, and the speed is less catastrophic than I thought (around 25 fps for crash bandicoot). However , it's native resolution only...

(12-18-2008 07:52 AM)bigmehdi Wrote:  However , it's native resolution only...

Yep, that's the main problem.
If you just want to play PS2 games as they are, software rendering will be a very good option in the future. Gabest said he can't get much further with neither DX9 nor DX10 (compatibility-wise), so he'll focus on software rendering which is already more compatible.
Yet if you want to enjoy PS2 games at very high resolutions/anti-aliasing any i7 is way too slow. Even if you can make full use of the upcoming Larrabee I doubt it'll be fast enough.