AMD Sempron 3000 too slow for Mame?

[bramk]

Hi guys,

I started building a mame cabinet and have a question before I replace the hardware next week.
Yestereday i powered on the PC for the first time configured with the J-PAC etc. But to my surprise running mame was a disaster! The games like time-pilot, bagman etc are way too slow.

Is the hardware too weak? AMD Sempron 3000

If you like to follow the progress there is a blog at http://videocoin.blogspot.com

[Grimoz]

Need a bit more information, how much RAM, onboard video or external card, operating system?

[notroubleclubber]

Doubt it's the processor as basic games will run on a pentium 3 fine

[bramk]

Thank you for the reply, was enough to make me think about the onboard video.
I have added an 64MB agp card found in the attic and that was enough to increase the performance.
TimePilot, Bagman, Donkey Kong etc. running as they should, great!

Think the onboard video takes a large part of the processor capacity. never thought of that.
Not sure how the more advanced games will hold., I'll test tonight.

runs on XP, 1024MB, 64MB video

[Grimoz]

Your onboard video would have been taking a large chunk of your RAM as onboards dont have there own memory whereas external cards do. Not sure how well you will go with higher end games but most of the games in mame should run fine on what you have now.

[equlizer]

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX32364%28ME%29.aspx

That is what im using with 4gig of ram and no problems.

it has onboard everything, including cpu

[bramk]

equlizer: looks like a bit more advanced setup compared to this dismantled 2006 Packard Bell budget system 

Yesterday I replaced the 64mb card with a 256mb card, makes no difference. The processor time peaks a 100% in Tekken3. Think it's pushing the sempron to it's limits.

It's ok now, the cabinet is for my 3 year old son and I don't want him to play the fight games etc.  The classics run perfectly.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

If you find any games that you want to run that your Sempron can't pull off, you can probably drop this chip in as a direct replacement:
http://www.codemicro.com/store/product/Amd-(advanced-Micr-axda3200dkv4e-Refurbished.php

It's slightly faster, and should be the single fastest chip you can run on that board.

[rjpe]

Check if this CPU does 64 bit and use XP 64.
I have my cabinet with a AMD Sempron 3000+, 2 GB RAM and an ATI HD 3600 AGP 512MB, running XP64, Maximus Arcade, mame64 and Soft15Khz.
I've tried XP32 first, and it compensates using XP64, much more faster emulation.
Almost all games run with a good performance.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

None of the Socket A processors are 64bit capable.

[rjpe]

mine is Socket 754.