How to choose a graphics card?

[Andiboy332]

Hi guys, I have a HP DC7800 Convertible Minitower: 4GB DDR2 RAM, Core 2 Duo E8300, and integrated Intel 256MB graphics, I want to play some games like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and other Dolphin emulator games, I want to buy a graphics card that's under $100 and can play at 100% speed dolphin emulator games for the GameCube and Wii, I've seen the GeForce 8800GT but I don't know if my computer supports it. Please suggest me a graphic card that's compatible for my pc and supports these dolphin games at 100% speed. Thank you,

 

[NightAntilli]

For emulation, you need a very powerful CPU. Your Core 2 Duo E8300 would not be enough to emulate GameCube and Wii games at the speed you want, and upgrading your graphics card won't help much if your CPU is bottlenecking. You will not be getting anywhere for under $100 dollars, since you'll need to upgrade at least your motherboard and CPU, aside from getting a graphics card.

 

[dovah-chan]

For Dolphin you'll need more than just a good graphics card - you'll need a good CPU as well. Lately I've actually been playing Sonic Colors on Dolphin and even with my computer I can't run the game on Dolphin ver. 4.0.2 with 4X MSAA and at 1080p, I think it's because of the 14.7 drivers not being supported fully yet.

Anyways you'll probably want an R7 260. But to get a better GPU you'll need a better power supply - and I don't think your tower can support the size of the GPU or PSU anyway. I'm not quite sure what to tell you.

 

[Andiboy332]

Do you think guys the 8800GT would fit well, because I wont be playing these games at HD, just1280 x 1024.

 

[dovah-chan]

The 8800GT is a very antiquated card and isn't very well supported with dolphin. It also no longer has official driver support from nvidia so it wouldn't get any updates that increases your performance. It would be preferable to purchase a new GPU.

 

[Andiboy332]

Is there any GPU that is supported well with dolphin that's under $100, and would fit my pc without any upgrade because I wont be playing Wii games, I'll play just GameCube ganes at 1280 x 1024 resolution? Thank you guya for helping me out