Best CPU/GPU combo for groovymame?

[blackmoor]

After playing with my setup, 2800+ AMD I noticed some of the games make audio lag or worse ( outrun, audio lag AND picture lag). So i was thinking of updating the best available motherboard,ram and cpu and with calamity driver compatible ATI card.

Which would you recommend? CPU, RAM (does size matter, 2G vs 4G) and latest ATI card that calamitys driver works on.

[krick]

I would recommend a minimum of a Core2Duo at 3GHz or possibly a Core i3 or i5 (not sure about speeds).  Regardless of what you get, stay with Intel as MAME performs way better on Intel CPUs.

RAM doesn't matter that much, but since ram is pretty cheap, I'd go with a minimum of 4GB (2 x 2GB), or even 8GB (2x4GB) to give you some room in the future, or if you end up using the computer for something non-MAME.  There isn't a huge price difference between 4GB and 8GB these days, but if money's tight, go with 4GB.

The latest ATI card would be something in the Radeon HD 4xxx series.  For a MAME cabinet, I'd stick with fanless cards, personally.   But if you're looking for speed, I think the fastest 4xxx card is the HD 4890 (which is not likely to be fanless).

If you're going to run Windows, you should really plan on using Windows XP 64-bit Edition if at all possible.  It's simply the best Windows OS for GroovyMAME.  There are no known issues with XP (as compared to Vista or Win 7) and 64-bit is a must.  Some games benchmark 30% faster or more on a 64-bit OS.