3D games slow- any settings I could try changing?

[breathsavers]

I've been reading a lot of threads on slowdown in 3D games and realize that I probably just need a faster computer... I'm using a Pentium 4 with a Radeon X300, 4 gigs of RAM. Just wondering if there were any settings in GroovyMAME that I could try changing to get 3D games running faster. Almost any 3D graphics are rending games unplayable with lag.

[adder]

i have a very similar setup to you for my mame machine and cannot run 3d games at full speed/smoothly either. if you want to fix that, you would need a more modern faster cpu

ps. for some games (probably not 3d ones, i havnt tried though), you can try underclocking within mame to get them to run at full speed. a good example is 'arkanoid returns'. i get slowdown during the intro sequence for that game unless within mame i underclock the motorola maincpu to 50% (it works because mame has to emulate that cpu at 100% speed, even though 'arkanoid returns' doesnt need the full power of that motorola cpu in order to run at 100%)

some people say you may run into gameplay problems doing this but i havnt had any problems myself so far playing this game (eg. lost speed/smoothness, or sound issues)

how to do it:

set cheat 1 set in your mame.ini
load 'arkanoid returns', go into the mame config menu, then into the slider controls submenu, and set Overclock CPU: maincpu to 50%

[breathsavers]

Thanks for your tip. I really only wanted to run older arcade games, but there are some 3D ones that I would enjoy. I might just have to upgrade soon, although I just got everything working and don't want to muck things up again so quickly!

[adder]

yea i dont plan to upgrade myself as i dont play the 3d games i prefer eighties games and the odd nineties one, which i can run fine using my p4 3.4ghz cedar mill (one of the last p4's made.. now dirt cheap on ebay)

if i feel like some 3d action i just use my ps2 or dreamcast instead

[breathsavers]

Anyone? Anything to try?

[Calamity]

Hi breathsavers,

A P4 is an underpowered CPU to emulate hardly any 3D game in MAME. The only setting that may improve performance a little bit is -triplebuffer, however it won't be enough. Even a Core2Duo is underpowered. I've usually payed very little attention to 3D games because of this, I've just started seeing some of these games running fine on a Core i7.

[breathsavers]

Good to know, thanks Calamity.