Looking for a new laptop

[Greg Gorman-1304225]

Hey, I'm looking for a new laptop for around 400. (Preferably under 400, but a tad above is alright)
I really am a fan of the 14 inch form factor, but 15.6 is alright if it is light. The one I am looking at is this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314516&cm_re=travelmate_14-_-34-314-516-_-Product

Is there one with better specs that isn't too chunky? And also, could this laptop emulate gamecube games without much lag? Thanks!

 

[Greg Gorman-1304225]

At the pricepoint that would be a good pick 😉

Would it be able to emulate GameCube/N64 games without lag ;o?

N64 yes; Gamecube no.

If you turned down the graphics a bit, could it pull off "decent" performance?

And if not, what's the cheapest laptop that could pull it off?

Hmm actually it might depend on what game you are playing... I tried using an emulator for my pc with a 9800GTX+ for the GC game Naruto Clash of Ninja, and even on normal settings it lagged..

My brother has the i3 3210m and it stuggled on the same game. That was the only game I tested before I decided to uninstall... There are videos of less intense gc games running well on a laptop with Intel HD 3000.

N64 on the other hand ran very well with 16X AA, so I can imagine on Intel HD it will work well on normal settings.

If you wanted to emulate GC games on a laptop you would need to look into getting a laptop with a good dedicated graphics card, but those can get expensive.

Here's a video of what GC games will run like on the laptop you currently selected:

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUSZvmtwnvw"][/video]

Hm, what about these games?

Super Smash Bros Melee
Kirby Air Ride
Paper Mario: The thousand year door

Also, what about this laptop?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1J21AZ6504

and this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314561

Both of them are not only more expensive than the third laptop you had in a few posts above, but are also less powerful. The CPU and igpu are weaker than the cheaper $379 laptop with the A8.

For the games you listed, really I'm not too sure about those. My brother has a laptop with an i3 and Intel HD 3000, so I could test the games out on that tomorrow if you'd like.

If you could, that would be phenomenal! You are one of the most helpful people I've met.

No problem! I just downloaded a n64 emulator a few days back, and was probably going to get the GC emu again anyways. I'll give you an update tomorrow

Sweet! Btw, is there any laptops that you would know of that are a bit over 400, but are worth the extra cash?

I doubt it, but I'll look into it. So far this seems like your best choice:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312828&cm_re=amd_a8-_-34-312-828-_-Product


*last post for today

I talked to the head developer, and he said intel was the best option. We chose this one,
http://www.officemax.com/technology/computers/laptop-computers/product-prod5670412
Since it's haswell, and the i5 has turbo boost

 

[Greg Gorman-1304225]

At the pricepoint that would be a good pick 😉

Would it be able to emulate GameCube/N64 games without lag ;o?

N64 yes; Gamecube no.

If you turned down the graphics a bit, could it pull off "decent" performance?

And if not, what's the cheapest laptop that could pull it off?

Hmm actually it might depend on what game you are playing... I tried using an emulator for my pc with a 9800GTX+ for the GC game Naruto Clash of Ninja, and even on normal settings it lagged..

My brother has the i3 3210m and it stuggled on the same game. That was the only game I tested before I decided to uninstall... There are videos of less intense gc games running well on a laptop with Intel HD 3000.

N64 on the other hand ran very well with 16X AA, so I can imagine on Intel HD it will work well on normal settings.

If you wanted to emulate GC games on a laptop you would need to look into getting a laptop with a good dedicated graphics card, but those can get expensive.

Here's a video of what GC games will run like on the laptop you currently selected:

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUSZvmtwnvw"][/video]

Hm, what about these games?

Super Smash Bros Melee
Kirby Air Ride
Paper Mario: The thousand year door

Also, what about this laptop?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1J21AZ6504

and this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314561

Both of them are not only more expensive than the third laptop you had in a few posts above, but are also less powerful. The CPU and igpu are weaker than the cheaper $379 laptop with the A8.

For the games you listed, really I'm not too sure about those. My brother has a laptop with an i3 and Intel HD 3000, so I could test the games out on that tomorrow if you'd like.

herro?

 

[RazerZ]

At the pricepoint that would be a good pick 😉

Would it be able to emulate GameCube/N64 games without lag ;o?

N64 yes; Gamecube no.

If you turned down the graphics a bit, could it pull off "decent" performance?

And if not, what's the cheapest laptop that could pull it off?

Hmm actually it might depend on what game you are playing... I tried using an emulator for my pc with a 9800GTX+ for the GC game Naruto Clash of Ninja, and even on normal settings it lagged..

My brother has the i3 3210m and it stuggled on the same game. That was the only game I tested before I decided to uninstall... There are videos of less intense gc games running well on a laptop with Intel HD 3000.

N64 on the other hand ran very well with 16X AA, so I can imagine on Intel HD it will work well on normal settings.

If you wanted to emulate GC games on a laptop you would need to look into getting a laptop with a good dedicated graphics card, but those can get expensive.

Here's a video of what GC games will run like on the laptop you currently selected:

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUSZvmtwnvw"][/video]

Hm, what about these games?

Super Smash Bros Melee
Kirby Air Ride
Paper Mario: The thousand year door

Also, what about this laptop?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1J21AZ6504

and this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314561

Both of them are not only more expensive than the third laptop you had in a few posts above, but are also less powerful. The CPU and igpu are weaker than the cheaper $379 laptop with the A8.

For the games you listed, really I'm not too sure about those. My brother has a laptop with an i3 and Intel HD 3000, so I could test the games out on that tomorrow if you'd like.

herro?

Just got a hold of his laptop. Gameplay will be up in maybe 20 mins.

 

[Greg Gorman-1304225]

At the pricepoint that would be a good pick 😉

Would it be able to emulate GameCube/N64 games without lag ;o?

N64 yes; Gamecube no.

If you turned down the graphics a bit, could it pull off "decent" performance?

And if not, what's the cheapest laptop that could pull it off?

Hmm actually it might depend on what game you are playing... I tried using an emulator for my pc with a 9800GTX+ for the GC game Naruto Clash of Ninja, and even on normal settings it lagged..

My brother has the i3 3210m and it stuggled on the same game. That was the only game I tested before I decided to uninstall... There are videos of less intense gc games running well on a laptop with Intel HD 3000.

N64 on the other hand ran very well with 16X AA, so I can imagine on Intel HD it will work well on normal settings.

If you wanted to emulate GC games on a laptop you would need to look into getting a laptop with a good dedicated graphics card, but those can get expensive.

Here's a video of what GC games will run like on the laptop you currently selected:

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUSZvmtwnvw"][/video]

Hm, what about these games?

Super Smash Bros Melee
Kirby Air Ride
Paper Mario: The thousand year door

Also, what about this laptop?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1J21AZ6504

and this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314561

Both of them are not only more expensive than the third laptop you had in a few posts above, but are also less powerful. The CPU and igpu are weaker than the cheaper $379 laptop with the A8.

For the games you listed, really I'm not too sure about those. My brother has a laptop with an i3 and Intel HD 3000, so I could test the games out on that tomorrow if you'd like.

herro?

Just got a hold of his laptop. Gameplay will be up in maybe 20 mins.

Alright, ty! Btw, what do you think of this?
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-E5-521G-60BX-15-6-Inch-Midnight/dp/B00K2O4TB0
Has an A6, which I know the other one had an A8 but that had a generation 5xxx, and this one has a 6xxx. Also, it has like a dedicated card. (R5 m240) And it also has 1 GB dedicated to graphics. Is it actually decent, or is it just eyecandy?

 

[RazerZ]

At the pricepoint that would be a good pick 😉

Would it be able to emulate GameCube/N64 games without lag ;o?

N64 yes; Gamecube no.

If you turned down the graphics a bit, could it pull off "decent" performance?

And if not, what's the cheapest laptop that could pull it off?

Hmm actually it might depend on what game you are playing... I tried using an emulator for my pc with a 9800GTX+ for the GC game Naruto Clash of Ninja, and even on normal settings it lagged..

My brother has the i3 3210m and it stuggled on the same game. That was the only game I tested before I decided to uninstall... There are videos of less intense gc games running well on a laptop with Intel HD 3000.

N64 on the other hand ran very well with 16X AA, so I can imagine on Intel HD it will work well on normal settings.

If you wanted to emulate GC games on a laptop you would need to look into getting a laptop with a good dedicated graphics card, but those can get expensive.

Here's a video of what GC games will run like on the laptop you currently selected:

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUSZvmtwnvw"][/video]

Hm, what about these games?

Super Smash Bros Melee
Kirby Air Ride
Paper Mario: The thousand year door

Also, what about this laptop?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1J21AZ6504

and this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314561

Both of them are not only more expensive than the third laptop you had in a few posts above, but are also less powerful. The CPU and igpu are weaker than the cheaper $379 laptop with the A8.

For the games you listed, really I'm not too sure about those. My brother has a laptop with an i3 and Intel HD 3000, so I could test the games out on that tomorrow if you'd like.

herro?

Just got a hold of his laptop. Gameplay will be up in maybe 20 mins.

Alright, ty! Btw, what do you think of this?
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-E5-521G-60BX-15-6-Inch-Midnight/dp/B00K2O4TB0
Has an A6, which I know the other one had an A8 but that had a generation 5xxx, and this one has a 6xxx. Also, it has like a dedicated card. (R5 m240) And it also has 1 GB dedicated to graphics. Is it actually decent, or is it just eyecandy?

Took me a while to find benchmarks, but actually the A8 from the other laptop has a better graphics card, and it should be faster too. The A6 is meant for general use and apparently that laptop has an 8hr battery. No decent laptop will have such a large battery life without sacrificing performance.

Just tested SSBM on the GC emu and it ran fairly well with a fps around 45 during fights. Right now I'm testing the other two games. The laptop I'm on doesn't have a screen capture device, so it might take longer than expected to upload actual gameplay.

 

[Greg Gorman-1304225]

At the pricepoint that would be a good pick 😉

Would it be able to emulate GameCube/N64 games without lag ;o?

N64 yes; Gamecube no.

If you turned down the graphics a bit, could it pull off "decent" performance?

And if not, what's the cheapest laptop that could pull it off?

Hmm actually it might depend on what game you are playing... I tried using an emulator for my pc with a 9800GTX+ for the GC game Naruto Clash of Ninja, and even on normal settings it lagged..

My brother has the i3 3210m and it stuggled on the same game. That was the only game I tested before I decided to uninstall... There are videos of less intense gc games running well on a laptop with Intel HD 3000.

N64 on the other hand ran very well with 16X AA, so I can imagine on Intel HD it will work well on normal settings.

If you wanted to emulate GC games on a laptop you would need to look into getting a laptop with a good dedicated graphics card, but those can get expensive.

Here's a video of what GC games will run like on the laptop you currently selected:

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUSZvmtwnvw"][/video]

Hm, what about these games?

Super Smash Bros Melee
Kirby Air Ride
Paper Mario: The thousand year door

Also, what about this laptop?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1J21AZ6504

and this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314561

Both of them are not only more expensive than the third laptop you had in a few posts above, but are also less powerful. The CPU and igpu are weaker than the cheaper $379 laptop with the A8.

For the games you listed, really I'm not too sure about those. My brother has a laptop with an i3 and Intel HD 3000, so I could test the games out on that tomorrow if you'd like.

herro?

Just got a hold of his laptop. Gameplay will be up in maybe 20 mins.

Alright, ty! Btw, what do you think of this?
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-E5-521G-60BX-15-6-Inch-Midnight/dp/B00K2O4TB0
Has an A6, which I know the other one had an A8 but that had a generation 5xxx, and this one has a 6xxx. Also, it has like a dedicated card. (R5 m240) And it also has 1 GB dedicated to graphics. Is it actually decent, or is it just eyecandy?

Took me a while to find benchmarks, but actually the A8 from the other laptop has a better graphics card, and it should be faster too. The A6 is meant for general use and apparently that laptop has an 8hr battery. No decent laptop will have such a large battery life without sacrificing performance.

Just tested SSBM on the GC emu and it ran fairly well with a fps around 45 during fights. Right now I'm testing the other two games. The laptop I'm on doesn't have a screen capture device, so it might take longer than expected to upload actual gameplay.

Sounds awesome! Like I said I talked with one of the developers, and Intel is better for dolphin. So we picked out this laptop: http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/NX.MKBAA.007
This one is haswell, and since it's an i5 it has turbo boost. 45 fps is really good, and this one is better so It will run with higher fps, so 45+ fps sounds amazing!

PS: What are the specs of this laptop? I can't find the post where you said it

PSS: Even though they are an older gen, can't older i5s outperform the new haswell i5? Not sure

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/laptop.html
According to this one, the i5-3230M is better then the i5-4200u, so should I get this instead?

http://www.amazon.com/HP-2000-2d89nr-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Licorice/dp/B00HKF1I6S/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1403063530&sr=1-3

 

[RazerZ]

At the pricepoint that would be a good pick 😉

Would it be able to emulate GameCube/N64 games without lag ;o?

N64 yes; Gamecube no.

If you turned down the graphics a bit, could it pull off "decent" performance?

And if not, what's the cheapest laptop that could pull it off?

Hmm actually it might depend on what game you are playing... I tried using an emulator for my pc with a 9800GTX+ for the GC game Naruto Clash of Ninja, and even on normal settings it lagged..

My brother has the i3 3210m and it stuggled on the same game. That was the only game I tested before I decided to uninstall... There are videos of less intense gc games running well on a laptop with Intel HD 3000.

N64 on the other hand ran very well with 16X AA, so I can imagine on Intel HD it will work well on normal settings.

If you wanted to emulate GC games on a laptop you would need to look into getting a laptop with a good dedicated graphics card, but those can get expensive.

Here's a video of what GC games will run like on the laptop you currently selected:

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUSZvmtwnvw"][/video]

Hm, what about these games?

Super Smash Bros Melee
Kirby Air Ride
Paper Mario: The thousand year door

Also, what about this laptop?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1J21AZ6504

and this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314561

Both of them are not only more expensive than the third laptop you had in a few posts above, but are also less powerful. The CPU and igpu are weaker than the cheaper $379 laptop with the A8.

For the games you listed, really I'm not too sure about those. My brother has a laptop with an i3 and Intel HD 3000, so I could test the games out on that tomorrow if you'd like.

herro?

Just got a hold of his laptop. Gameplay will be up in maybe 20 mins.

Alright, ty! Btw, what do you think of this?
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-E5-521G-60BX-15-6-Inch-Midnight/dp/B00K2O4TB0
Has an A6, which I know the other one had an A8 but that had a generation 5xxx, and this one has a 6xxx. Also, it has like a dedicated card. (R5 m240) And it also has 1 GB dedicated to graphics. Is it actually decent, or is it just eyecandy?

Took me a while to find benchmarks, but actually the A8 from the other laptop has a better graphics card, and it should be faster too. The A6 is meant for general use and apparently that laptop has an 8hr battery. No decent laptop will have such a large battery life without sacrificing performance.

Just tested SSBM on the GC emu and it ran fairly well with a fps around 45 during fights. Right now I'm testing the other two games. The laptop I'm on doesn't have a screen capture device, so it might take longer than expected to upload actual gameplay.

Sounds awesome! Like I said I talked with one of the developers, and Intel is better for dolphin. So we picked out this laptop: http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/NX.MKBAA.007
This one is haswell, and since it's an i5 it has turbo boost. 45 fps is really good, and this one is better so It will run with higher fps, so 45+ fps sounds amazing!

Get the AMD A8 5500M. According to this comparison it's better performance wise in all sections, but uses a bit more power.

Ask the dev what he think's of this :

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-4200U-vs-AMD-A8-5500


Just finished testing Paper Mario and it ran at 60fps during 2d battles, but ran around 42fps when your moving around in the 3D world.

 

[Greg Gorman-1304225]

At the pricepoint that would be a good pick 😉

Would it be able to emulate GameCube/N64 games without lag ;o?

N64 yes; Gamecube no.

If you turned down the graphics a bit, could it pull off "decent" performance?

And if not, what's the cheapest laptop that could pull it off?

Hmm actually it might depend on what game you are playing... I tried using an emulator for my pc with a 9800GTX+ for the GC game Naruto Clash of Ninja, and even on normal settings it lagged..

My brother has the i3 3210m and it stuggled on the same game. That was the only game I tested before I decided to uninstall... There are videos of less intense gc games running well on a laptop with Intel HD 3000.

N64 on the other hand ran very well with 16X AA, so I can imagine on Intel HD it will work well on normal settings.

If you wanted to emulate GC games on a laptop you would need to look into getting a laptop with a good dedicated graphics card, but those can get expensive.

Here's a video of what GC games will run like on the laptop you currently selected:

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUSZvmtwnvw"][/video]

Hm, what about these games?

Super Smash Bros Melee
Kirby Air Ride
Paper Mario: The thousand year door

Also, what about this laptop?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1J21AZ6504

and this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314561

Both of them are not only more expensive than the third laptop you had in a few posts above, but are also less powerful. The CPU and igpu are weaker than the cheaper $379 laptop with the A8.

For the games you listed, really I'm not too sure about those. My brother has a laptop with an i3 and Intel HD 3000, so I could test the games out on that tomorrow if you'd like.

herro?

Just got a hold of his laptop. Gameplay will be up in maybe 20 mins.

Alright, ty! Btw, what do you think of this?
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-E5-521G-60BX-15-6-Inch-Midnight/dp/B00K2O4TB0
Has an A6, which I know the other one had an A8 but that had a generation 5xxx, and this one has a 6xxx. Also, it has like a dedicated card. (R5 m240) And it also has 1 GB dedicated to graphics. Is it actually decent, or is it just eyecandy?

Took me a while to find benchmarks, but actually the A8 from the other laptop has a better graphics card, and it should be faster too. The A6 is meant for general use and apparently that laptop has an 8hr battery. No decent laptop will have such a large battery life without sacrificing performance.

Just tested SSBM on the GC emu and it ran fairly well with a fps around 45 during fights. Right now I'm testing the other two games. The laptop I'm on doesn't have a screen capture device, so it might take longer than expected to upload actual gameplay.

Sounds awesome! Like I said I talked with one of the developers, and Intel is better for dolphin. So we picked out this laptop: http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/NX.MKBAA.007
This one is haswell, and since it's an i5 it has turbo boost. 45 fps is really good, and this one is better so It will run with higher fps, so 45+ fps sounds amazing!

Get the AMD A8 5500M. According to this comparison it's better performance wise in all sections, but uses a bit more power.

Ask the dev what he think's of this :

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-4200U-vs-AMD-A8-5500


Just finished testing Paper Mario and it ran at 60fps during 2d battles, but ran around 42fps when your moving around in the 3D world.

ye I agree the better choice is the AMD, but apparently for emulation the intel is better. Since it's not like most games, it depends on other factors he was saying. Apparently AMD has a really low IPC, so dolphin wise it's a bad choice. But at the same time, he also says AMD gpus are better then Intel graphics... So idk

 

[RazerZ]

At the pricepoint that would be a good pick 😉

Would it be able to emulate GameCube/N64 games without lag ;o?

N64 yes; Gamecube no.

If you turned down the graphics a bit, could it pull off "decent" performance?

And if not, what's the cheapest laptop that could pull it off?

Hmm actually it might depend on what game you are playing... I tried using an emulator for my pc with a 9800GTX+ for the GC game Naruto Clash of Ninja, and even on normal settings it lagged..

My brother has the i3 3210m and it stuggled on the same game. That was the only game I tested before I decided to uninstall... There are videos of less intense gc games running well on a laptop with Intel HD 3000.

N64 on the other hand ran very well with 16X AA, so I can imagine on Intel HD it will work well on normal settings.

If you wanted to emulate GC games on a laptop you would need to look into getting a laptop with a good dedicated graphics card, but those can get expensive.

Here's a video of what GC games will run like on the laptop you currently selected:

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUSZvmtwnvw"][/video]

Hm, what about these games?

Super Smash Bros Melee
Kirby Air Ride
Paper Mario: The thousand year door

Also, what about this laptop?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1J21AZ6504

and this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314561

Both of them are not only more expensive than the third laptop you had in a few posts above, but are also less powerful. The CPU and igpu are weaker than the cheaper $379 laptop with the A8.

For the games you listed, really I'm not too sure about those. My brother has a laptop with an i3 and Intel HD 3000, so I could test the games out on that tomorrow if you'd like.

herro?

Just got a hold of his laptop. Gameplay will be up in maybe 20 mins.

Alright, ty! Btw, what do you think of this?
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-E5-521G-60BX-15-6-Inch-Midnight/dp/B00K2O4TB0
Has an A6, which I know the other one had an A8 but that had a generation 5xxx, and this one has a 6xxx. Also, it has like a dedicated card. (R5 m240) And it also has 1 GB dedicated to graphics. Is it actually decent, or is it just eyecandy?

Took me a while to find benchmarks, but actually the A8 from the other laptop has a better graphics card, and it should be faster too. The A6 is meant for general use and apparently that laptop has an 8hr battery. No decent laptop will have such a large battery life without sacrificing performance.

Just tested SSBM on the GC emu and it ran fairly well with a fps around 45 during fights. Right now I'm testing the other two games. The laptop I'm on doesn't have a screen capture device, so it might take longer than expected to upload actual gameplay.

Sounds awesome! Like I said I talked with one of the developers, and Intel is better for dolphin. So we picked out this laptop: http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/NX.MKBAA.007
This one is haswell, and since it's an i5 it has turbo boost. 45 fps is really good, and this one is better so It will run with higher fps, so 45+ fps sounds amazing!

Get the AMD A8 5500M. According to this comparison it's better performance wise in all sections, but uses a bit more power.

Ask the dev what he think's of this :

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-4200U-vs-AMD-A8-5500


Just finished testing Paper Mario and it ran at 60fps during 2d battles, but ran around 42fps when your moving around in the 3D world.

ye I agree the better choice is the AMD, but apparently for emulation the intel is better. Since it's not like most games, it depends on other factors he was saying. Apparently AMD has a really low IPC, so dolphin wise it's a bad choice. But at the same time, he also says AMD gpus are better then Intel graphics... So idk

He has a good point. If emulators are the only games you play go with the i5, it has a stronger single core performance. This also means it will be faster for general computer tasks.

If you play more pc games than emus go with the A8.

Recording the gameplay now and I should be done in ten minutes.. Apparently the fps was locked when I first played brawl to 60fps, so just now I unlocked it and played the kirby game at around 100-120fps. The recording tool I'm using eats 13-17fps.

 

[Greg Gorman-1304225]

At the pricepoint that would be a good pick 😉

Would it be able to emulate GameCube/N64 games without lag ;o?

N64 yes; Gamecube no.

If you turned down the graphics a bit, could it pull off "decent" performance?

And if not, what's the cheapest laptop that could pull it off?

Hmm actually it might depend on what game you are playing... I tried using an emulator for my pc with a 9800GTX+ for the GC game Naruto Clash of Ninja, and even on normal settings it lagged..

My brother has the i3 3210m and it stuggled on the same game. That was the only game I tested before I decided to uninstall... There are videos of less intense gc games running well on a laptop with Intel HD 3000.

N64 on the other hand ran very well with 16X AA, so I can imagine on Intel HD it will work well on normal settings.

If you wanted to emulate GC games on a laptop you would need to look into getting a laptop with a good dedicated graphics card, but those can get expensive.

Here's a video of what GC games will run like on the laptop you currently selected:

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUSZvmtwnvw"][/video]

Hm, what about these games?

Super Smash Bros Melee
Kirby Air Ride
Paper Mario: The thousand year door

Also, what about this laptop?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1J21AZ6504

and this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314561

Both of them are not only more expensive than the third laptop you had in a few posts above, but are also less powerful. The CPU and igpu are weaker than the cheaper $379 laptop with the A8.

For the games you listed, really I'm not too sure about those. My brother has a laptop with an i3 and Intel HD 3000, so I could test the games out on that tomorrow if you'd like.

herro?

Just got a hold of his laptop. Gameplay will be up in maybe 20 mins.

Alright, ty! Btw, what do you think of this?
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-E5-521G-60BX-15-6-Inch-Midnight/dp/B00K2O4TB0
Has an A6, which I know the other one had an A8 but that had a generation 5xxx, and this one has a 6xxx. Also, it has like a dedicated card. (R5 m240) And it also has 1 GB dedicated to graphics. Is it actually decent, or is it just eyecandy?

Took me a while to find benchmarks, but actually the A8 from the other laptop has a better graphics card, and it should be faster too. The A6 is meant for general use and apparently that laptop has an 8hr battery. No decent laptop will have such a large battery life without sacrificing performance.

Just tested SSBM on the GC emu and it ran fairly well with a fps around 45 during fights. Right now I'm testing the other two games. The laptop I'm on doesn't have a screen capture device, so it might take longer than expected to upload actual gameplay.

Sounds awesome! Like I said I talked with one of the developers, and Intel is better for dolphin. So we picked out this laptop: http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/NX.MKBAA.007
This one is haswell, and since it's an i5 it has turbo boost. 45 fps is really good, and this one is better so It will run with higher fps, so 45+ fps sounds amazing!

Get the AMD A8 5500M. According to this comparison it's better performance wise in all sections, but uses a bit more power.

Ask the dev what he think's of this :

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-4200U-vs-AMD-A8-5500


Just finished testing Paper Mario and it ran at 60fps during 2d battles, but ran around 42fps when your moving around in the 3D world.

ye I agree the better choice is the AMD, but apparently for emulation the intel is better. Since it's not like most games, it depends on other factors he was saying. Apparently AMD has a really low IPC, so dolphin wise it's a bad choice. But at the same time, he also says AMD gpus are better then Intel graphics... So idk

He has a good point. If emulators are the only games you play go with the i5, it has a stronger single core performance. This also means it will be faster for general computer tasks.

If you play more pc games than emus go with the A8.

Recording the gameplay now and I should be done in ten minutes.. Apparently the fps was locked when I first played brawl to 60fps, so just now I unlocked it and played the kirby game at around 100-120fps. The recording tool I'm using eats 13-17fps.

sweet! I talked once again with the developer, and he said something about single core performance.
http://tinyurl.com/luf9wzl
This has an i3, but for dolphin the i5 has no advantages. But, this is i3 has Intel 4460 instead of 4400, so it's a bit better.

 

[RazerZ]

At the pricepoint that would be a good pick 😉

Would it be able to emulate GameCube/N64 games without lag ;o?

N64 yes; Gamecube no.

If you turned down the graphics a bit, could it pull off "decent" performance?

And if not, what's the cheapest laptop that could pull it off?

Hmm actually it might depend on what game you are playing... I tried using an emulator for my pc with a 9800GTX+ for the GC game Naruto Clash of Ninja, and even on normal settings it lagged..

My brother has the i3 3210m and it stuggled on the same game. That was the only game I tested before I decided to uninstall... There are videos of less intense gc games running well on a laptop with Intel HD 3000.

N64 on the other hand ran very well with 16X AA, so I can imagine on Intel HD it will work well on normal settings.

If you wanted to emulate GC games on a laptop you would need to look into getting a laptop with a good dedicated graphics card, but those can get expensive.

Here's a video of what GC games will run like on the laptop you currently selected:

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUSZvmtwnvw"][/video]

Hm, what about these games?

Super Smash Bros Melee
Kirby Air Ride
Paper Mario: The thousand year door

Also, what about this laptop?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1J21AZ6504

and this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314561

Both of them are not only more expensive than the third laptop you had in a few posts above, but are also less powerful. The CPU and igpu are weaker than the cheaper $379 laptop with the A8.

For the games you listed, really I'm not too sure about those. My brother has a laptop with an i3 and Intel HD 3000, so I could test the games out on that tomorrow if you'd like.

herro?

Just got a hold of his laptop. Gameplay will be up in maybe 20 mins.

Alright, ty! Btw, what do you think of this?
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-E5-521G-60BX-15-6-Inch-Midnight/dp/B00K2O4TB0
Has an A6, which I know the other one had an A8 but that had a generation 5xxx, and this one has a 6xxx. Also, it has like a dedicated card. (R5 m240) And it also has 1 GB dedicated to graphics. Is it actually decent, or is it just eyecandy?

Took me a while to find benchmarks, but actually the A8 from the other laptop has a better graphics card, and it should be faster too. The A6 is meant for general use and apparently that laptop has an 8hr battery. No decent laptop will have such a large battery life without sacrificing performance.

Just tested SSBM on the GC emu and it ran fairly well with a fps around 45 during fights. Right now I'm testing the other two games. The laptop I'm on doesn't have a screen capture device, so it might take longer than expected to upload actual gameplay.

Sounds awesome! Like I said I talked with one of the developers, and Intel is better for dolphin. So we picked out this laptop: http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/NX.MKBAA.007
This one is haswell, and since it's an i5 it has turbo boost. 45 fps is really good, and this one is better so It will run with higher fps, so 45+ fps sounds amazing!

Get the AMD A8 5500M. According to this comparison it's better performance wise in all sections, but uses a bit more power.

Ask the dev what he think's of this :

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-4200U-vs-AMD-A8-5500


Just finished testing Paper Mario and it ran at 60fps during 2d battles, but ran around 42fps when your moving around in the 3D world.

ye I agree the better choice is the AMD, but apparently for emulation the intel is better. Since it's not like most games, it depends on other factors he was saying. Apparently AMD has a really low IPC, so dolphin wise it's a bad choice. But at the same time, he also says AMD gpus are better then Intel graphics... So idk

He has a good point. If emulators are the only games you play go with the i5, it has a stronger single core performance. This also means it will be faster for general computer tasks.

If you play more pc games than emus go with the A8.

Recording the gameplay now and I should be done in ten minutes.. Apparently the fps was locked when I first played brawl to 60fps, so just now I unlocked it and played the kirby game at around 100-120fps. The recording tool I'm using eats 13-17fps.

=
sweet! I talked once again with the developer, and he said something about single core performance.
http://tinyurl.com/luf9wzl
This has an i3, but for dolphin the i5 has no advantages. But, this is i3 has Intel 4460 instead of 4400, so it's a bit better.

Good choice.

Just finished recording all three gameplays and somehow a four minute clip turned out to be around 700mb which takes four hours to upload just one clip to youtube. Sorry but it looks like I'll have to cancel the uploads.

But I will tell you that all three games ran very well ( locked fps to 120, where as before it was 60). Brawl and Paper Mario now both run around 57+ fps on the lowest settings and it's run in a window. The Kirby game ran from 100-120 fps.

 

[Icaraeus]

My 1080p videos that are 20 minutes long take up only a few hundred mb after compression (uncompressed they're close to 100GB). The reason file size is huge is because you're recording at 120fps to upload to youtube. I personally record at 60fps so that my games don't drop to 30fps. Youtube only recognises 30 fps so you're getting 4x higher file size for the same quality.

 

[RazerZ]

My 1080p videos that are 20 minutes long take up only a few hundred mb after compression (uncompressed they're close to 100GB). The reason file size is huge is because you're recording at 120fps to upload to youtube. I personally record at 60fps so that my games don't drop to 30fps. Youtube only recognises 30 fps so you're getting 4x higher file size for the same quality.

Ah thanks for the tip. This was the first time I've ever recorded any gameplay.

@OP, will get back to you with the vids tomorrow.

.

 

[Greg Gorman-1304225]

My 1080p videos that are 20 minutes long take up only a few hundred mb after compression (uncompressed they're close to 100GB). The reason file size is huge is because you're recording at 120fps to upload to youtube. I personally record at 60fps so that my games don't drop to 30fps. Youtube only recognises 30 fps so you're getting 4x higher file size for the same quality.

Ah thanks for the tip. This was the first time I've ever recorded any gameplay.

@OP, will get back to you with the vids tomorrow.

.

Alright, ty. It's very kind of you to spend all this time making these videos! It means a lot

 

[Greg Gorman-1304225]

My 1080p videos that are 20 minutes long take up only a few hundred mb after compression (uncompressed they're close to 100GB). The reason file size is huge is because you're recording at 120fps to upload to youtube. I personally record at 60fps so that my games don't drop to 30fps. Youtube only recognises 30 fps so you're getting 4x higher file size for the same quality.

Ah thanks for the tip. This was the first time I've ever recorded any gameplay.

@OP, will get back to you with the vids tomorrow.

.

yo, wat do you think of this?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834131802
It is 30 bucks more, but instead of 4GB of ram it has 8GB, and a 1TB drive instead of 500GB. Also, the battery is way better!

 

[RazerZ]

My 1080p videos that are 20 minutes long take up only a few hundred mb after compression (uncompressed they're close to 100GB). The reason file size is huge is because you're recording at 120fps to upload to youtube. I personally record at 60fps so that my games don't drop to 30fps. Youtube only recognises 30 fps so you're getting 4x higher file size for the same quality.

Ah thanks for the tip. This was the first time I've ever recorded any gameplay.

@OP, will get back to you with the vids tomorrow.

.

yo, wat do you think of this?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834131802
It is 30 bucks more, but instead of 4GB of ram it has 8GB, and a 1TB drive instead of 500GB. Also, the battery is way better!

You probably won't need the 8GB of ram, but the 1TB HDD is nice for the price. I'll try and get the vids up soon.

 

[RazerZ]

Alright I think I'm about done recording. Check out the videos here. The tool I was using to record videos was uninstalled by my brother so I decided to record the screen with my 4s. Bad idea. The videos look great and are in HD, but they take forever to upload to youtube. So I had to go into windows movie maker, trim it, and save it in 240p 🙁

If you see any lag in the videos thats due to the conversion. You can tell ( hopefully be able to read) the actual fps on the videos.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtgG0wpjMbHR3DmPBfzH4vg

 

[Greg Gorman-1304225]

Alright I think I'm about done recording. Check out the videos here. The tool I was using to record videos was uninstalled by my brother so I decided to record the screen with my 4s. Bad idea. The videos look great and are in HD, but they take forever to upload to youtube. So I had to go into windows movie maker, trim it, and save it in 240p 🙁

If you see any lag in the videos thats due to the conversion. You can tell ( hopefully be able to read) the actual fps on the videos.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtgG0wpjMbHR3DmPBfzH4vg

Thanks so much! It means a lot Btw, what are the specs of the laptop? And also, what settings did you use? (So I can toggle them to the same thing)

 

[RazerZ]

Alright I think I'm about done recording. Check out the videos here. The tool I was using to record videos was uninstalled by my brother so I decided to record the screen with my 4s. Bad idea. The videos look great and are in HD, but they take forever to upload to youtube. So I had to go into windows movie maker, trim it, and save it in 240p 🙁

If you see any lag in the videos thats due to the conversion. You can tell ( hopefully be able to read) the actual fps on the videos.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtgG0wpjMbHR3DmPBfzH4vg

Thanks so much! It means a lot Btw, what are the specs of the laptop? And also, what settings did you use? (So I can toggle them to the same thing)

No problem. The settings I used were all low and I used DX9 to render it. It also ran in windowed mode.

Here are the laptop specs:

Windows 8 (64-bit); Microsoft Office Starter 2010, Norton Internet Security (60 Day Trial)
Intel Core i3-2370M Processor (2.4GHz)
320GB HDD with 5400 RPM
4GB (2GB + 2GB) with DDR3
15.6 LED HD Matte Display, 16.10 Ratio, 1367 x 768 Resolutin, 220 nits Brightness

 

[Greg Gorman-1304225]

Alright I think I'm about done recording. Check out the videos here. The tool I was using to record videos was uninstalled by my brother so I decided to record the screen with my 4s. Bad idea. The videos look great and are in HD, but they take forever to upload to youtube. So I had to go into windows movie maker, trim it, and save it in 240p 🙁

If you see any lag in the videos thats due to the conversion. You can tell ( hopefully be able to read) the actual fps on the videos.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtgG0wpjMbHR3DmPBfzH4vg

Thanks so much! It means a lot Btw, what are the specs of the laptop? And also, what settings did you use? (So I can toggle them to the same thing)

No problem. The settings I used were all low and I used DX9 to render it. It also ran in windowed mode.

Here are the laptop specs:

Windows 8 (64-bit); Microsoft Office Starter 2010, Norton Internet Security (60 Day Trial)
Intel Core i3-2370M Processor (2.4GHz)
320GB HDD with 5400 RPM
4GB (2GB + 2GB) with DDR3
15.6 LED HD Matte Display, 16.10 Ratio, 1367 x 768 Resolutin, 220 nits Brightness

Alright, thanks! Wat do you think of this one?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=34-313-719