Configuration Guide

Dolphin has two performance related configuration windows: Dolphin configuration and Graphics settings, in addition to applying settings per game through game properties. Dolphin is a very demanding program, so configuring Dolphin the right way is very important to run games smoothly.

System Requirements
Every game has different requirements, some games may require a powerful computer while some other games may not. Generally, these are the minimum recommended requirements for Dolphin.


 * OS
 * 64-bit edition of Windows (7 SP1 or higher)
 * Linux
 * macOS (10.10 Yosemite or higher)

Windows Vista SP2 and unix-like systems other than Linux are not officially supported but might work.


 * Processor - A CPU with SSE2 support. A modern CPU (3 GHz and Dual Core, not older than 2008) is highly recommended. Getting a better CPU in single threaded performance can alleviate the imminent emulation speed loss.
 * Graphics - A reasonably modern graphics card (Direct3D 10.0 / OpenGL 3.0). A graphics card that supports Direct3D 11 / OpenGL 4.4 is recommended. Getting a more powerful graphics card can sustain emulation speed while raising some graphics settings for HD gameplay.

Dolphin Configuration
Dolphin is shipped with default settings for the most optimal performance, you do not usually need to change anything on your first time Dolphin setup.

Enable Dual Core
Provides a significant speedup on modern systems. Recommended on most games, though may cause issues like crashing or graphic issues on some games. Refer this page for a list of games that require disabling Dual Core.

CPU Emulator Engine
There are currently four CPU Emulator Engines, the recommended one is JIT Recompiler which is the fastest engine and the recommended on almost all games. The others being...


 * JITIL Recompiler - Slower than JIT, required only for Poképark series.
 * Cached Interpreter - Very slow, not recommended.
 * Interpreter - Slowest engine, it runs slow doesn't matter how powerful is your PC, not recommended.

Audio
DSP HLE is the fastest DSP Emulator Engine. It is very reliable, and only a few games still have problems with it. See DSP LLE for more details. OpenAL is faster backend. Recommended on almost all games.

Graphics Settings
These settings will improve emulation compatibility and/or enhance quality for HD gameplay in exchange of PC performance.

General
Depending of the game and the graphics card: OpenGL or Direct3D 11 in backend setting will offer better performance. Vulkan and Direct3D 12 are still in experimental phase and they are still not recommended.

Fullscreen Resolution changes monitor resolution during fullscreen. No performance difference except influencing the "Auto" options in Internal Resolution settings. V-Sync helps prevent screen tearing.

Enhancements and Hacks

 * Internal Resolution - The real visual difference. "Auto - (Multiple of 640x528)" is recommended. If emulation suffers from slowdowns when going to fullscreen, change it to "1x Native (640x528)", and go up from there until you can find the highest setting without slowdown.
 * Skip EFB Access from CPU - Provides a speed boost. However it provides this boost at the expense of emulation accuracy, breaking some games and removing effects. It's off by default for greater emulation accuracy.
 * Ignore Format Changes - The vast majority of games don't care about this, and it provides a small boost. However a small number of games hate this setting. It's enabled by default.
 * Store EFB Copies to Texture Only - Enabled by default. Disable it only when running a game that requires it.
 * Fast Depth Calculation - Uses a less accurate method of calculating depth values. Gives a small speedup, but can cause flickering textures.
 * Disable Bounding Box - Don't emulate bounding box calculation, which is only required for a limited set of games, mostly Paper Mario games.
 * Vertex Rounding - Rounding 2D vertices to whole pixels, fixes graphical glitches seen in several games at higher internal resolutions.