Dumb graphics question

[trasharmdsister12]

Things are pretty nuanced when it comes to emulation performance.

For the first question I would ask which i7 and which i5? If they're from the last 8 years you should be fine. Dolphin (Wii/GC emulator) recommends 4 cores. Though Wii and Gamecube are old and don't have all that powerful CPUs, emulation requires a lot more CPU performance than the original device, especially single-threaded performance. What that means is that even if your CPU has multiple cores to run logic on, the emulator will heavily rely on 1-2 cores that will dictate your performance.

Regarding the graphics card, the 3050M will be more powerful than the 1050 Ti in a desktop (~ 1.1-5x depending on the scenario). For a bit of additional information, laptop (mobile) and desktop versions of GPUs are different so a 3050 in a desktop will be a fair bit more powerful than a 3050 in a laptop. I'd say any GPU mid-range from 2017 and beyond should be completely fine.

Of course all this also depends on how you want to emulate. If you want to increase the resolution and add additional mods to the games (better textures, etc.) then your hardware requirements would go up from what Dolphin recommends.