Graphics Settings

Dolphin provides extensive graphics configuration options to balance performance and visual quality. This guide covers all graphics settings available in the emulator.

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Accessing Graphics Settings

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General Settings

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Video Backend

Dolphin supports multiple rendering backends:

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Adapter

Select which GPU to use for rendering (if you have multiple graphics cards).

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Aspect Ratio

Choose how the game display is presented:

• Auto: Automatically detect 4:3 or 16:9 based on game settings
• Force 16:9: Widescreen mode (may cause stretching in some games)
• Force 4:3: Standard aspect ratio
• Stretch to Window: Fill the entire window
• Custom: Set custom aspect ratio

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V-Sync

Enable vertical synchronization to eliminate screen tearing:

• On: Syncs to display refresh rate (may cause input lag)
• Off: Maximum performance but may cause tearing

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Display Resolution

Configure fullscreen display settings and window resolution.

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Enhancements

Improve visual quality beyond original hardware capabilities.

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Internal Resolution

Increase rendering resolution for sharper graphics:

• Auto (Window Size): Match window resolution
• 1x Native (640x528): Original GameCube resolution
• 2x Native (1280x1056): 2x resolution
• 3x Native (1920x1584): 3x resolution
• 4x Native (2560x2112): 4x resolution
• 5x Native - 8x Native: Higher resolutions for powerful GPUs

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Anti-Aliasing (MSAA)

Smooth jagged edges:

• None: No anti-aliasing
• 2x MSAA: Light smoothing
• 4x MSAA: Moderate smoothing
• 8x MSAA: Heavy smoothing (performance intensive)

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SSAA (Supersampling)

Render at higher resolution then downsample for superior quality (very GPU intensive).

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Anisotropic Filtering

Improve texture quality at oblique angles:

• 1x: Default (no filtering)
• 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x: Increasing quality levels

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Texture Filtering

Force texture filtering modes:

• Default: Use game’s filtering
• Nearest Neighbor: Sharp pixels (retro look)
• Linear: Smooth textures

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Output Resampling

Improve scaling when displaying at non-native resolutions:

• Default: Simple bilinear
• Bilinear: Smooth scaling
• Bicubic (B-Spline): Sharp with minimal ringing
• Bicubic (Mitchell-Netravali): Balanced
• Bicubic (Catmull-Rom): Sharp
• Sharp Bilinear: Preserve pixel art
• Area Sampling: High quality downscaling

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Post-Processing Effects

Apply shader-based post-processing:

• Click [Select] to choose from available shaders
• Options include CRT simulation, color correction, bloom, etc.

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Color Correction

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Color Space Correction

• Correct Color Space: Convert between color spaces for accurate colors
• Game Color Space: NTSC, PAL, or NTSC-J

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Gamma Correction

• Correct Gamma: Enable gamma correction
• Game Gamma: Set source gamma (2.2 - 2.8)
• Display Gamma: Set target gamma (2.2 - 2.4)

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HDR Output

Enable High Dynamic Range output for compatible displays:

• Paper White Nits: Set brightness level (80-500 nits)

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Hacks

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EFB Copies

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Skip EFB Copy to RAM

Avoid CPU copy of embedded framebuffer:

• Enabled: Better performance
• Disabled: More accurate (required for some effects)

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Store EFB Copies to Texture Only

Store framebuffer copies in VRAM instead of RAM:

• Improves performance
• May break some effects

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Texture Cache

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Accuracy

Set texture cache accuracy:

• Fast: Best performance, may have glitches
• Middle: Balanced
• Safe: Slowest but most accurate

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External Frame Buffer (EFB)

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Store EFB Access from CPU

• Enabled: Accurate CPU EFB access (slower)
• Disabled: Faster but may cause missing effects

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Ignore Format Changes

Ignore EFB format changes:

• Improves performance
• May cause visual issues in some games

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XFB (External Frame Buffer)

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Immediate XFB

Render XFB immediately without buffering:

• Reduces latency
• May cause performance issues

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Other Hacks

• Fast Depth Calculation: Faster but less accurate depth calculations
• Disable Bounding Box: Disable bounding box emulation (breaks some games)
• Vertex Rounding: Fix vertex position rounding (required for some games)
• Fast Texture Sampling: Faster texture sampling (may reduce quality)

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Advanced Settings

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Shader Compilation

Control how shaders are compiled:

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Performance Options

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Backend Multithreading

Enable multithreaded GPU command submission:

• Improves performance on most systems
• Recommended to keep enabled

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Shader Cache

Cache compiled shaders to reduce stuttering:

• Shaders compile once and are saved
• Reused on subsequent runs

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Wait for Shaders Before Starting

Compile all shaders before starting the game:

• Eliminates shader compilation stuttering
• Causes delay at game start

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Utility

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Dump Textures

Export textures from games:

• Textures saved to dump folder
• Useful for creating texture packs

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Load Custom Textures

Replace game textures with high-resolution versions:

• Place textures in Load/Textures/[GameID]/ folder
• Significantly improves visual quality

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Prefetch Custom Textures

Load custom textures into RAM at startup:

• Reduces stuttering with custom textures
• Requires more RAM

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Debugging

• Enable Wireframe: Show polygon wireframes
• Show Statistics: Display rendering statistics
• Enable Validation Layer: Check for API usage errors (Vulkan only)
• Dump EFB Target: Export EFB to images
• Dump XFB Target: Export XFB to images

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Per-Game Graphics Settings

Override graphics settings for specific games:

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Graphics Mods

Dolphin supports graphics mods that can:

• Increase texture resolution
• Fix visual bugs
• Add widescreen support
• Improve lighting and effects

Manage graphics mods in Graphics > Graphics Mods or per-game properties.

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Recommended Settings

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For Best Performance

• Backend: Vulkan or D3D12
• Internal Resolution: 2x-3x Native
• Skip EFB Copy to RAM: Enabled
• Shader Compilation: Asynchronous (Ubershaders)
• Backend Multithreading: Enabled

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For Best Quality

• Backend: Vulkan
• Internal Resolution: 4x-6x Native
• MSAA: 4x or 8x
• Anisotropic Filtering: 16x
• EFB to RAM: Disabled
• XFB: Virtual or Real
• Shader Compilation: Synchronous (Ubershaders)