Can I assume I need a Radeon/GeForce?

[omnislash124]

well, a picture this bad probably means I need either a Radeon or a GeForce.....now herein lies the question....which one...?

[SoberAnalyst]

try both, at the same time even. which version of Dolphin are you using?

[omnislash124]

The Teaser....isn't that the only one out?

[Clements]

I think he means whether to get a Radeon or a GeForce graphics card, and you're right, you need a Radeon or GeForce for Dolphin really, as other stuff like integrated graphics do not have an adequate feature set to emulate the GC's graphics.

Well, first you have to find out what you computer can use. If you have an AGP slot, then get an AGP card; if you have a 16x PCI Express slot, then get a PCI Express card (not likely); or if you don't have either then it's PCI only.

Once you have this sorted, then you need to concentrate of card features. Dolphin makes use of shaders, so I'd strongly recommend a Direct X 9.0 compliant card. This means a Radeon 9500 or better, or GeForceFX 5200 or better.

As for ATi Vs. GeForce, it really doesn't matter which you go for for Dolphin as of right now. Both types of cards will display the graphics correctly, as they are fairly evenly matched.

[SoberAnalyst]

i would recommend RADEON 9700, theinquirer.net says it's the best card for your dollar at the moment. i think the documentation recommends at least 9500 for ATI.

[jareg]

What card to you have anyway

[SoberAnalyst]

omnislash124 has VIDEO: S3 Graphics ProSavageDDR ... it's on his profile.

[jareg]

omnislash124 has VIDEO: S3 Graphics ProSavageDDR ... it's on his profile.

Then he needs a upgrade to see something normaly in Dolphin

[omnislash124]

Upgrade Graphics Card? I think it's built into the motherboard.....will a Radeon fix the graphics?

[DOGG]

It would be a waste of time for you to upgrade your card just to get 2fps

[Modem]

It would be a waste of time for you to upgrade your card just to get 2fps

Haha. Yeah right. With that videocard, he'd get a 250% increase (likely) with upgrading to a Radeon 9000 Pro alone. Though I wouldn't go all out (your processor will bottleneck any new card you get), a Radeon 9700 Pro would do great. Or a (fairly) new GeForce card would do fine as well.
- Modem

[yaustar]

You can always get a 9500 and soft mod it to a 9700 .. wont be as fast as a true 9700 but close and cheap :P

[SoberAnalyst]

they discontinued the 9500s last year ... i doubt you can find any of those for sale anymore.

[omnislash124]

So a Radeon 9600 would get me somewhere other than what I have now......?

[JinXD]

So a Radeon 9600 would get me somewhere other than what I have now......?
Yes

[DOGG]

But buying it just to get dolphin to work would be a very bad idea

[Modem]

Kinda. Though it would greatly improve dolphin (it's still not even working all that great as is, as it will likely take another couple years to get it anywhere near PJ64/1964 is to N64 as Dolphin is to Gamecube, it will improve any other game released within the past few years by a lot, if you do play any other games.
- Modem

[omnislash124]

No, the Radeon isn't just for Dolphin, but I've been wanting one for a while now, and this is just one more reason to get one.....So....graphics wise, would I get graphics like the ones in the Shots Thread?

[SoberAnalyst]

don't get anything less than RADEON 9700 is all

[DOGG]

I diaagree. His computer isnt the best. So a 9600 would be more than sufficient. Otherwise his CPU would be holding back his gfx card and it would be a waste of money

[SoberAnalyst]

9600 compaired to 9700 is a big difference ... plus, the documentation says:


The System Requirements
======================================== ===================
GFX: Radeon 9500+ series card recommended, but Geforce FX
series also work. Expect severe graphics problems
with lower cards.
CPU: The fastest you can find.
RAM: 256MB or higher strongly recommended.
Audio: Any Windows/DirectX-compatible soundcard.

the 9500 runs much faster than the 9600 ... but the 9500 is a discontinued line ... the next fastest would be the 9700 ... so why get a 9600?? ... then get a reasonable CPU and still have to possibly upgrade the video card later? ... no way, i'm right, 9700 is the best choice. the readme.txt that i have was probably written last year when the 9500 were still around too.

P.S. there are also many different versions of the 9600 just to make it more confusing ... and many places sell the 9600XT for the same price as the 9700 PRO ... and the 9700 PRO is still way faster.

check this link:
http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/videocards/article.php/3211_2231351__4

i think this sums things up alot ... when you look at that benchmark and then you look at the prices ... oh gee, the 9700 is good. plus, i've known people to have ancient CPU's and new video cards and still play new games that looks decent. another thing, he wants to buy a video card which he knows will work with Dolphin ... nobody's CPU is going to work with Dolphin anyway but at least he can carry that video card into the future and play Dolphin with it. (sorry this was so detailed and long and unstructured and blah)

[omnislash124]

I haven't seen any 9500+ and 9700+ ATI cards lately around here....the only thing here is 9600+ and 9800+....So I'm about to go with the 9600+? Also, does it matter who makes it? like the site above says Sapphire and I've seen a few others like Power Color and Gigabyte.....

[SoberAnalyst]

powercolor doesn't have a good reputation ... also, sapphire is the one ... i believe ... put out 128bit CPUs instead of 256bit CPUs in the same cards that ATI was putting out ... i think they're in a legal battle over that one, as it's very missleading. i strongerly urge you to get ATI. i'm not sure about gigabyte. personally, i've had:

ATI RADEON 7000 64mb
ATI RADEON 7500 64mb
ATI RADEON 8500LE 64mb
ATI RADEON 9800 PRO 128mb

yah, now that i have 9800, i wouldn't want anything less ... but i see 9700 isn't much slower and it's alot cheaper. 9600 would be fun, but i swear you'll regret it after a couple months ... or maybe not.

[Falcon4ever]

Just get a DX9 videocard if you're planning to upgrade your Videocard.
BUT don't upgrade it for dolphin, since the emu isn't finished not much can be said about the specs which are needed in future (besides that a faster Videocard won't give you that much speed boot since it isn't the bottleneck). The video plugin uses dx9 (and pixelshaders) so be sure to have a card which have them hardware supported.

[edmend_duke]

Would a Radeon 7500 works, and like even a bit?

[Clements]

You probably wouldn't get colours with that card, since it has no Pixel Shaders at all. As already stated in this thread, the best option is to use a DX9 compliant card like a Radeon 9500 or above or GeForce 5200 or above.

[JuSt_BasIc]

10 fps on a S3 Graphics ProSavageDDR??!!! not bad at all. in my ati 9200 i get 6+-. my pc sucks lol anyway i think the nvidia geforce 6600 gt 128 is a good one, and it is not much expensive...but if you want o buy this one you have to buy a new motherboard maybe...

[cooliscool]

powercolor doesn't have a good reputation ... also, sapphire is the one ... i believe ... put out 128bit CPUs instead of 256bit CPUs in the same cards that ATI was putting out ... i think they're in a legal battle over that one, as it's very missleading. i strongerly urge you to get ATI. i'm not sure about gigabyte. personally, i've had:

ATI RADEON 7000 64mb
ATI RADEON 7500 64mb
ATI RADEON 8500LE 64mb
ATI RADEON 9800 PRO 128mb

yah, now that i have 9800, i wouldn't want anything less ... but i see 9700 isn't much slower and it's alot cheaper. 9600 would be fun, but i swear you'll regret it after a couple months ... or maybe not.

You mean 128-bit memory bus, not GPU.

I run a 9600XT overclocked to 585/700 and it whips a 9500p to hell, even lacking 4 pipes. The high core clock really helps.

[SoberAnalyst]

might i add, CPU matters most with emulation. if you're really into emulation and getting the biggest bang for your buck (most performance for the least money), i would recommend a 330 Celeron D at .90 micron CPU ... it runs 2.66Ghz and with a cheap (but good) fan, you can overclock it to 3.8Ghz ... go ahead and price the CPU in your own country.

P.S. not the 2.8Ghz Celeron D CPU ... cannot overclock as well as the cheaper and slower 2.66Ghz Celeron D

[Greywolf67]

I have no idea why there is the impression that anything less then a 9600 is the way to go. I have a Power Color Radeon 9200 ( powered by ATI not built by ATI ).

From what I have found the only game I have had issue with was Mario Sunshine. Now mind you the 9200 has 128MB DDR ram and I added my own fan to it.

[cooliscool]

VRAM size means really squat for emulation; moreso graphics core features/speed. The 9200 does not support PS2.0, which Dolphin uses, so you'll not get the best out of it with that card.

Not to mention that adding your fan also doesn't change a thing about the card itself - it still sucks ass. :P

[Greywolf67]

VRAM size means really squat for emulation; moreso graphics core features/speed. The 9200 does not support PS2.0, which Dolphin uses, so you'll not get the best out of it with that card.

Not to mention that adding your fan also doesn't change a thing about the card itself - it still sucks ass. :P

Look I will admit the Power Color Radeon may not be the very best around, but suck ass it does not.

It out does most if not all of the GeForce cards I have had. It seems to have no issue with the pause live TV feature in Media Center.....something GeForce seems to cause it's owners to switch to ATI ( Both built by and powered by ).

When I went shopping the PowerColor for price was the best deal out there. Plus I don't mind having a Lamborghini for a shell and a Chrysler under the hood. If it gets the job done it's all good.

In the long run I guess I will have to upgrade the card to an ATI AIW when the frame rate comes up more, but that will be some time in the future.......not to far off in the future I hope.

[SoberAnalyst]

Not to mention that adding your fan also doesn't change a thing about the card itself - it still sucks ass. :P

lol ... it had to be said

[Greywolf67]

Not to mention that adding your fan also doesn't change a thing about the card itself

A fan does not change a clock speed, nor does make it better, however the heat from running Need4Speed and Enter the Matrix can cause a card to blink out.

Something my old GeForce did when it was in the Dell case.

Why the hate dude?

It would seem to me you would be better served to advise people to stick with what they have till a play version is released. Don't get me wrong but 1 - 5 frames at this stage do not mean go spend hard earned dollars right away.

If your in the market now for a new card fine go for it, get the best deal you can on top of the line.

If your a beta tester sure you need good equipment to test with, however I am not so lucky and the Teaser will do untill the Emu gods smile down on me, so the 9200 is good enough as a demo.

By the way I fired up the teaser and my friend just about loaded his pants up to see a gamecube game run on PC.....in fact his words were to the efect that the graphics were sweet ( edited the cuss words out ).

[cooliscool]

No hate whatsoever. ;) Notice the smilie in my post.

Although I was 'joking' the 9200 really isn't a performance card and doesn't really need active cooling, unless you're overclocking it. :)

[SoberAnalyst]

yah, greywolf67 ... it's fun to be mean because it's not personal anyway ... so it comes off as always being funny. we'd all be good, if we said what was on our mind even if it hurt (in forums) ... :D

P.S. when you said "stick with what they have till a play version is released", you're right ... i agree with you that the Dolphin sucks and what with it going slow due to hardware not being faster and what with the bugs and all. you could have used less cusses though (i read between the lines)

[cooliscool]

Excuse me, did you just say Dolphin sucked? You sir need to reconsider that.

[Clements]

The 9200 is really a budget card, and lacks DX9 features that are required by Dolphin and also used in Direct64 (although DX8 works with Ti cards, 9200 IIRC does not).

It is about as fast as a £30 GeForceMX 440 (my old card) with only DX8.1 features, making the faster DX9 GeForceFX 5200 a slightly better choice for use with emulators (although pretty useless for DX9 PC gaming) at a similar price.

With the budget GeForce 6200 being nearly as fast as a 9600 Pro, the 9200 is now kind of old tech.

[cooliscool]

Direct64 works on 8500 class (DX8 class Radeons, like the 9200) since Catalyst 4.10.

[Greywolf67]

i agree with you that the Dolphin sucks

I in no way at any time would imply nor try to hint that Doldhin sucks.
I think it's an outstanding Emu that will end up being an Emu Grandfather along the lines of Snes9x. It's going to be standard issue in 10 years when were looking back at the games we played.

My intent was to say that until Dolphin is let out as a close to full frame rate Emu why should I upgrade to a top of the line ATI ( for me that means I have to sell The 9200SE and my TV Wonder VE with Remote). The Teaser is a great way to demo what is in the future, and at this time I have only seen 1 game that the 9200 has issue with.

I am more then sure the Dolphin Team will go beyond set goals before they retire. They just need time.