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Hello everyone, I'm about to purchase a new laptop and the big question I wanted to ask was, is the processor more important than the GPU when wanting to use this emulator?
I'm asking because laptop I'm getting has the NVIDIA 650M GPU but I'm only getting an i5 core; specifically: 3rd generation Intel® Core i5-3210M Processor (2.5 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz), which I believe is the new Ivy Bridge.
Thanks for your time! If you need any additional info, just ask!
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07-24-2012, 06:09 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-24-2012, 06:12 AM by YumiLovesMe.)
The processor is a big factor - you definitely want something with some power behind it. I only have a quad core (AMD Phenom II X4 955 @3.20GHz) but it works ok for the most part.
I wanted to ask was, is the processor more important than the GPU when wanting to use this emulator?
As for your question - they both play a part in it but I am not qualified to give you an answer as to witch is more important
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(07-24-2012, 06:09 AM)YumiLovesMe Wrote: The processor is a big factor - you definitely want something with some power behind it. I only have a quad core (AMD Phenom II X4 955 @3.20GHz) but it works ok for the most part.
I wanted to ask was, is the processor more important than the GPU when wanting to use this emulator?
As for your question - they both play a part in it but I am not qualified to give you an answer as to witch is more important
the CPU is much more important you can always scale your games to a lower res when your GPU bottlenecked ( even lower than
native )
but that CPU is pretty good Ivy bridge is kicking nowadays
i would buy it because you may use this emu for month or 2 but Gaming mainly require GPU power rather that Emulating which require CPU power
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07-24-2012, 06:34 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-24-2012, 06:34 AM by touchtoplay.)
Thanks for all the answers guys! I know you get this question a lot but can you rate my ability to run the emulator based on the info from my first post?
I prefer performance over visual quality, so I'd happily turn down graphical settings for better frames. I know some games will be different from others, but can you give me a general analysis?
EDIT: Will also be 6GB's of RAM if that matters any.
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Thanks for the reply, just out of curiosity and speculation's sake, how much better would it run on a 3rd generation Intel® Core i7-3610QM Processor (2.3 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache), which is also Ivy Bridge and a quad core? Won't be spending the extra cash to make the upgrade but I would just like to know.
Also, thanks for the heads-up about the heat; I'll be sure to limit and keep an eye on my playtime.
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I would think you'd see a noticeable boost from the i7. Dunno if the i5 is quad, but since the i7 is you would benefit from the MTVU in the SVN.
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I recommend you to get the 3210M over the 3610QM. i5 and i7 are the "brand name", and doesn't matter. What you need to care are the processor specs. PCSX2 uses 2 processor cores, and it loves a high speed dual-core CPU, not a low-speed quad-core one. So the 3210M is the winner.
The MTVU hacks in recent builds of PCSX2 utilizes the 3rd processor core, but for most games I have, the CPU usage for MTVU thread is low. And generally you gain 30% speed boost with it. The 3210M clock speed is higher (2.5 Ghz) plus tubo boost to 2.9 Ghz so perhaps you don't need MTVU. Quad-core CPUs such as the 3610QM have some trouble with turbo boost, so don't expect it boosts to 3.3 Ghz as the Intel product page states. Anyway, you can use MTVU with the 3210M as well since it has Hyperthreading.
I currently use a quad-core CPU. I thought it was powerful when I bought my laptop. Now if you ask me, it is useless in most applications.
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(07-24-2012, 09:47 AM)Livy Wrote: I recommend you to get the 3210M over the 3610QM. i5 and i7 are the "brand name", and doesn't matter. What you need to care are the processor specs. PCSX2 uses 2 processor cores, and it loves a high speed dual-core CPU, not a low-speed quad-core one. So the 3210M is the winner.
The MTVU hacks in recent builds of PCSX2 utilizes the 3rd processor core, but for most games I have, the CPU usage for MTVU thread is low. And generally you gain 30% speed boost with it. The 3210M clock speed is higher (2.5 Ghz) plus tubo boost to 2.9 Ghz so perhaps you don't need MTVU. Quad-core CPUs such as the 3610QM have some trouble with turbo boost, so don't expect it boosts to 3.3 Ghz as the Intel product page states. Anyway, you can use MTVU with the 3210M as well since it has Hyperthreading.
I currently use a quad-core CPU. I thought it was powerful when I bought my laptop. Now if you ask me, it is useless in most applications.
the dual core will have no Turbo in PCSX2 ( since we're using the 2 of them
while the quad core 3610QM will have near turbo frequencies with 3 cores on 2.5 GHz + MTVU
if you ask me the more cores in a Laptop the better because the Turbo wil only get higher and higher