It is undeniable MacOS M1 hardware gives a serious kick.
As the developers have shown, the emulator on M1 can render 8,94 frames per watt of power, while the Intel MacBook Pro renders 1,38 frames per watt. What is even more impressive, however, is the energy efficiency of the ARM architecture.
Still, the results were better than most Intel Macs. Things aren't perfect yet, as there are still things to implement in the ARM version of Dolphin.
Using Super Smash Bros as an example again, the game runs at 120 fps with the native version of Dolphin on the Mac M1. In other games like Star Wards Rogue Squadron II, the performance difference was even more noticeable: only 16 fps on the Intel MacBook Pro versus 49 fps on the Mac M1 with Rosetta 2.īut what about running the emulator in native mode? Since Dolphin Emulator relies on JIT compilation, recompiling it for the M1 and 64-bit ARM architecture was much more complicated - but not impossible. Most games performed well and overall performance was better than a 2018 MacBook Pro with an Intel Core i7 processor.ĭolphin on the Intel MacBook Pro can run Super Smash Bros at 71 fps, while the Mac M1 runs the same game at 79 fps.
Apple Silicon form.Įven with the fact that applications running through the Rosetta 2 do not reach the maximum performance provided by the M1 chip, the results have been quite impressive. First, the team has already successfully run several games using Dolphin Emulator on M1 Macs with only the Rosetta 2 translation layer, which allows users to run applications compiled for Intel processors on the platform. Now, the first tests shared by the developers of Dolphin show that it works twice as fast on M1 as on some Intel Macs.Įmulating games from older consoles like GameCube and Wii might seem easy, but the process is quite complex and requires good hardware. Since the introduction of the first Macs with M1 last year, the team behind Dolphin - which is a popular Nintendo GameCube and Wii emulator - has been working on support for the M1 Macs. A must-have for Nintendo fans and game lovers everywhere.Apple's M1 chip has been around for a while now and at this point we all know it performs amazingly well in different situations. And it's constantly updated, so if you have trouble one day, just try again the next. Of course, it's best to use an ordinary game controller for almost every game.ĭolphin is the ultimate Wii and Gamecube emulator.
You can also configure the Wii controllers however you want, even connecting the Wiimote to your PC (if you have an adapter).
Setting up Dolphin can be a bit difficult, since there are a lot of options available that improve the performance but worsen the graphic quality. This is because the Wii hardware has a capacity that's quite inferior to modern graphics cards, and this can make all the difference in games with high definition (yes, Wii in HD). The best part of the emulator is that, in most cases (or at least if your computer is relatively new), the graphics will be even better than they are on the original consoles.
With it, you can play virtually any game from the Nintendo catalog with no problems. Dolphin is the best emulator for Nintendo Wii and Gamecube currently available.