Good card for emulation?

This is relevant to my interests. Always looking for options to upgrade the reliable-but-long-in-the-tooth wii.
 
I run a lot of Project64 and Dolphin. I've had great results (i.e. smooth game play) with only an i3. However, my GPU has a little more meat than the one you linked. HD7750LP from Sapphire.

That said, I have run it without the GPU before and it still ran okay.

You're on target with the i5. It's the perfect CPU for emulation. However, if it is in the budget I'd bump up the GPU. Even the 6650LP (however old it may be) there are some good deals out there. The HIS with the twin fans performs well and quietly.

Edit: Of course with the deal on Newegg after the rebate, I'd say go for it and see if it cuts the mustard.
 
A top end i3 would be more than enough without the video card. Just the onboard video card would be enough for PS1-N64 emulation, maybe even enough for dolphin and PS2 emulation.
 
I'm using an i5 2500k @ 4.2ghz and a overclocked GTX 670 for mine.

I use, Dolphin, Project 64, MAME Plus+ , Epsxe , pcsx2 and a few others. No FPS issues whatsoever. They all run great.
 
After doing more research, it may be pretty underwhelming compared with the onboard iGPU. I'll check out other options. Thanks for the feedback, though. I'll be finding a better card (low profile) and go with it.
 
When it comes to console emulation, a CPU is generally going to be the more important item. One of the PCSX2 developers explained to me that due to the physical differences between a desktop CPU and a GPU that make each better for certain functions and tasks than the other in the role of frame-by-frame recomputation makes it impossible to offload much of the computation involved in console emulation. GPU is composed of specialized processors in parallel that are really good at doing just pure math, but in console emulation, because we do not have original programming and hardware behind the consoles, are forced to reverse engineering and figure out algorithms and tricks to try describe/guess/recompile a scene -- each next frame is different and unknown in a way that a GPU's physical composure makes it not too useful.. but a desktop CPU has the right components to be able to more "intelligently" approach this situation. I remember the developer I communicated with telling me that PS2 games really don't require very much GPU horsepower to render them at full frames -- the bottleneck is really with code responsible for recompiling each frame (or if you want to look at it this way, the CPU because it doesn't truly operate in parallel) -- and going from a still-pretty-good-GPU to the most high-end GPU out there really isn't going to make a huge impact on FPS. I further observed this myself when overclocking my Q9450 from its stock of 2.66 GHz --> 2.8 GHz --> 3.0 GHz --> 3.2 GHz --> 3.4 GHz --> 3.6 GHz.

I can't say how much this applies to each and every emulator, as I am sure there is a possibility that for some emulators something close enough to their origins (or maybe the origins themselves) have been developed that perhaps a bulk of it could be offloaded to a GPU, but I really don't know as I am not a console emulator developer, let alone a developer/programmer. :p

You know what would be even better than a desktop CPU? CPUs in parallel. Hardware like this is what is used for emulating neural networks; most suitable in the example of you have a service like Google Maps and want to get directions from Point A and Point B, and ask -- what is truly THE MOST efficient, time-saving and/or mile-saving route? To do that, you have to analyze and calculate for virtually every possibility, resulting in a number of possible combinations so high I think most would say 'virtually' unlimited.

Read at http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-PS3-emu?pid=53391#pid53391 if you're curious about the "CPUs in parallel" that I speak of.
 
I've always thought that emulators, like Dolphin, were heavily CPU based.
 
bigdogchris said:
I've always thought that emulators, like Dolphin, were heavily CPU based.
Click to expand...


Yes. GPU comes into play when pushing the resolution beyond the original hardware but a modest gaming card is all you need. Making the game run at 60 fps is all done by CPU. More single threaded power the better.
 
If you plan to run at a decent resolution than a good GPU can really help but as others have said CPU emulation is where a lot of the action is.

Also since they haven't updated the Dolphin to work properly with Wiimote Plus and using Windows 8 I would recommend sticking to Windows 7 as it sees the Wiimote Plus without any issues. Getting the Wiimote Plus to work in Windows 8 or 8.1 is a total nightmare.
 
I know CPU is best in most emulators, but I was told that for the modern (PS2/Wii, some MAME games like Gauntlet Legends) is more reliant on a decent GPU. I have the expansion there, so I'm going to go ahead and build the machine and get it up and running and see how it does. The card above was just an excellent deal that would be hard to turn down if it worked. Then, I found that my i5 has built in video, so I'm going for onboard for now.
 
From my own experience with the PCSX2 emulator, when I first used it (their first alpha versions), I had an AMD Athlon X2 5000+ processor and Radeon 3870. Performance was really slow and emulation wasn't perfect, but it was an alpha nonetheless.

Later, I upgrade it to a Phenom II X4 840 (the older one with an L3 cache) and a Radeon HD 5770. Emulation speeds improved by quite a lot and I was able to play FFX between 20 to 30FPS.

I have since moved up to an Intel Core i5 and a Radeon HD 6950, PCSX2 got a code overhaul in the emulator and speeds and compatibility improved. I'm somewhere around 30 to 50 FPS depending on the area in most games. I'm able to play my copy of Xenosaga III with AA on as if it was running natively on my own PS2 Slim. Outside of the AA, it's like playing on the PS2. With the Phenom II X4, I could not muster higher than 30FPS in Xenosaga III and audio emulation was very choppy. With the better processor, I'm able to watch the first cutscene and play the game farther than the menu without issues now.

So, in large part, a good processor is needed for emulation for something like Dolphin and PCSX2. ePSXe I don't worry that much since it's emulating an older console. I would say that the graphics card plays a role when you start adding additional effects like antialiasing to the game. And, as always, the higher the settings, you will need a better video card than integrated to have a game like FFX or Xenosaga look better than it did on the PS2.
 
I just did some non-scientific testing, as I have a core i3 3240 CPU in my HTPC and Radeon HD5450. WIth the task manager open, my CPU usage never broke 60%, but I was getting lots of slowdown, even with AA/AF off and rendering at native resolution (480p). So, I think for Dolphin's case, a decent GPU is necessary. YMMV.
 
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