R600, G80, quad-core...

[WaRiOz]

Warning: noob questions.

First, we know that our computers isn't too fast to run most games at high fps (like 60). My quesion is, with these new GPU/CPU, 8800GTX for example being as quick as 2 x X1950XTX Crossfire, and with quad-core CPUs, can we expect a kind of "revolution" (games like SSMB running at 60fps, for example)?

And another question, Dolphin is DX9 isn't It? With these new DX10 GPU and Vista, will It be hard to "go" to DX10?

Just curious, sorry to bother.

Thanks

 

[Toasty]

At present AFAIK, there are no Gamecube emulators with multi-threaded cores, so having multiple processors will not currently offer any major benefit. From what I've heard, most decent graphics cards out now are perfectly capable of handling a Gamecube's level of graphics, so I don't think the new ones will be of much help. Sorry to burst your bubble. The two main things that would give tangible speed increases are faster processors and optimizing Gamecube emulator code (perhaps to take advantage of multiple processors, if possible). Those of us who don't engineer CPUs and who don't write emulators will just have to sit back and wait.

 

[WaRiOz]

Thanks for replying.

So graphics cards = ok, CPU = the problem.

DirectX 10 will increase game performance by as much as six to eight times. Much of that will be accomplished with smarter resource management, improving API and driver efficiencies, and moving more work from the CPU to the GPU. "The entire API and pipeline have been redesigned from the ground-up to maximize performance, and minimize CPU and bandwidth overhead," according to Microsoft. Furthermore, "The idea behind D3D10 is to maximize what the GPU can do without CPU interaction, and when the CPU is needed it’s a fast, streamlined, pipeline-able operation." Giving the GPU more efficient ways to write and access data will reduce CPU overhead costs by keeping more of the work on the video card.

Hopefully this will be a good improvement.

 

[Toasty]

Bare in mind that emulation of the Gamecube's CPU (which AFAIK is the most time-consuming aspect of Gamecube emulation, but correct me if I'm wrong) cannot be offloaded onto the GPU.

 

[Doomulation]

No, theoretically, it could. With DX10, the GPU becomes more and more efficient at crunching math and general instructions things. If it can be done practically, I don't know.
The GC GPU was like a card between the GF3 and GF4, I believe... but the point is, the GC didn't need to handle such high resolutions.

Also, remember that DX10 is Vista-only and Vista adds extra overhead to gaming, so it won't be much of a help. Microsoft said themselves that games could be 10-20% slower than XP.
More CPU cores would be out best bet I believe. And the fact that the emulator must get multi-threaded, which isn't all that easy.

 

[Toasty]

Okay, well, I don't think it could be done very practically then. But who knows, I could easily be wrong (and it would be neat if I am).