Ok what type of video card?

[Howard_Casto]

So I know Supermodel has trouble with ati cards..... and my knowledge of NVidia stuff is non-existent. 

So what would be good?  Keep in mind this is for emulation.  About the most powerful thing I would want to run is Dolphin and Supermodel. 

[Brian74]

I was using a Nvidia 550 ti in my racing cab. My stand up has a Nvidia gtx 770.

[BadMouth]

I have no experience with ati, at least not in the past 10 or 15 years. 

IIRC, Bart was running a 460 when developing supermodel and was happy with the performance.

You might want to get some recommendations based on Demul too.  The Naomi 2 stuff isn't going to run perfect no matter what, but Crazy Taxi is a hoot.

Nvidia nomenclature:

First digit is the series (higher is newer.  newer cards usually outperform older ones of the same grade)
Next two digits is the grade (higher is more powerful.  A 780 is more powerful than a 760)
GTX used to mean slightly booster performance over the standard model, but now they all say GTX.
Ti = hopped up version that has more shaders, cores, etc.

I wouldn't know what to recommend because I'm still on the last of the old generation cards. 
I have 9800GTs in my stand up cab and both driving PCs.
They just dropped the last digit and started over again with the naming convention.

The only issues I've ever had with NVidia cards is sometimes I'll update the drivers and some random emulator will run like crap afterward.
I just roll back the driver, but sometimes updating the driver and discovering the issue are separated by enough time that I forget it as a possible cause.

The one good thing about the Nvidia cards is they allow you full control with different settings for individual .exes
That's helpful with some of the taito type x stuff and games that don't give you many options.

[Howard_Casto]

I'm sure when I start trying to run the heavy 3d stuff it'll bog down but I actually fired up dolphin blue on the pc I got and it ran 100% with the onboard video.... so my guess is demul doesn't need much. 

Obviously mame also runs fine without one, unless I try to turn on hlsl...then I get a decent frame drop.

Dolphin ran at around 20% but I know it's HEAVILY dependent on the video card.  I mainly want it on there for f-zero. 

Supermodel runs at around 50% atm.  I'm hoping a video card helps, if not I'll have to over-clock this bad boy. 

I'm not looking to spend a lot, because I'm cheap.    The video card I've currently got in my good pc is a 50 dollar special I got a few years back..... handles most emulators just fine.  Hmm... maybe I need to see if it's causing errors on supermodel... I could use this one and buy a new one for this pc. 

The main thing is, I can look at a ati card on sale and know if it's a good deal or not, with NVidia I don't have a clue.

[SegaOutrun]

ive got two set ups. one has nvidia 550ti and the other has a way overclocked ati 7850 (ive also got a 7950 coming at the end of the week). Any game in particular you want to play?

Supermodel plays fine at native with my 550ti. My 7850 play demul at 2x for 95% of the games. when overclocked, the hiccups in crazy taxi almost complete disappear. Hopefully when the 7950 arrives, they will no longer be noticeable.

If you are in the market for a cheap used gpu (and other pc parts), I recommend Reddit.com/r/Hardwareswap

550ti go for $50 shipped, 7850 for about $80 and 7950 for $120+. I just upgrade my entire arcade pc this month with parts from there. I got an i5-2500k (OC to 4.5ghz) and nice Mobo for $160 total (I can now play Battle Gear 3 on the PS2 emu at 1080p with zero hacks at 60fps and its beautiful) and the 7950 coming on friday for $120.

The ati cards are going to be cheaper than their comparable nvidia cards because the bitcoin market is hitting a wall and people are selling off like crazy to recoup their money.

btw, im pretty sure dolphin is cpu powered like pcsx2. I could only get about 40 fps on fzero with 7850. I havent tried it with new setup, although it should be smooth as hell with my new cpu

[vandale]

A 9600gt or 9800gt runs supermodel at full speed with a 2.6ghz core2duo and 2gb ram. Don't be sucked into buying the best hardware, 8 core CPU and enough ram to run a supercomputer to get performance from supermodel.

If you want full frame rate with sanfransisco rush in mame, then buy the fastest CPU you can find.

Cheers

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah I mentioned it in everything else, but I found this site arrow direct.... got a core 2 duo 3.0ghz for 80 bucks, windows 7 included.  If for some reason I did need a i5 or what have you, they have those as well, they just cost a little more. 

My research pointed to what you are saying... supermodel doesn't need all that much.  I could give two poots about rush.  I played it in the arcades, and never cared for it... Atari should have remained buried at that point.  There is a decent pc port if I ever changed my mind.

SegaOutrun:  Funny you should mention pcsx2, because I got significantly higher frame rates from it compared to dolphin.  I fired up Metal Slug 3d... it was almost 100%.

I need to OC this thing regardless.  Believe it or not the internetz say this particular processor/mb combo can be over-clocked to 4ghz!

What are the supposed graphical errors in supermodel from running ATI cards?  I fired up Daytona 2 last night, one of the ones that's supposed to have the problems and other than some of the car textures not showing up (which I thought was a general emulation bug atm) I didn't see any. 

My other concern is power consumption.  This little guy is a business desktop, not a tower, so I can't fit a full-sized power supply in it.  So one of these monster cards probably isn't the best solution.... I doubt it'd even fit in the case. 

[MrThunderwing]

I've also got two set ups: My main Pc is (as previously mentioned in the DEMUL thread) a core i5-2310 @2.90GHz, 8 Gb RAM with an Nvidia GeForce GT530 -1GB and my secondary one is an AMD Athlon Dual Core Processor @2.6GHz 5050e, with 4.0 Gb RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT (dunno how much RAM this GPU has). Both are running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. My i5 can run Supermodel full-speed with no problems and likewise most games in Pcsx2 and Dolphin. My dual core PC can't manage Supermodel at full speed, but it can get fairly close to it in some games, like Star Wars Trilogy Arcade (oddly, Daytona 2 seems to run faster than Scud Race on it, which is weird as I thought D2 was a graphically more intensive game). The new WIP Supermodel 0.3 builds (the latest being SVN version 270) have definitely added a speed boost to the Dual Core machine. Nik Henson, Bart's Supermodel co-author, tweaked the graphics engine a bit to improve performance on less powerful PCs. With regards to the problems with ATI cards, I believe the problems only occurred when people had updated their graphics card drivers. There was a whole huuuge thread dedicated to it over on the Supermodel Forum:

http://www.supermodel3.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=324

FYI Howard, the performance of F-Zero in Dolphin seems to have got worse for me with the newer builds. I could play it more-or-less with the resolution upscaled to about x4, with only some minor frame rate drops, mainly when there were a lot of ships on the track. This was using the now relatively ancient Dolphin build r7690M. In the latest 3.5 and 4.0 builds however, the frame rate hovers between 25-45fps with noticeably stuttery audio. There is an in-game option to enable dual core mode (the default is single core) for a significant speed boost, but it makes the game very unstable and prone to crashing frequently. It's worth giving the newer builds a try though, as you can use Dolphin's in built option to utilise Gecko codes (think Action Replay) to access all kinds of cool stuff, such as and the , that lets you play on all the story mode tracks as if they were just regular tracks, complete with additional CPU opponents and whatever vehicle you want to use. If you're struggling speed-wise though, it may well be worth your while tracking down some earlier builds. And the special Tri-force builds for Mario Kart Arcade GP2.

If you're a fan of futuristic racers I would wholeheartedly recommend checking out the latest version of PPSSPP (Sony PSP) emulator and tracking down Wipeout Pulse and Wipeout Pure. Graphically, Wipeout Pulse blow pretty much every other PSP racer out of the water. Upscaled to x4 normal resolution it looks almost PS3 quality - it really is that good. Best of all, you don't need a beast of a PC to get it running full speed, it plays just fine on my Dual Core PC. Don't just take my word for how good Wipeout looks though, check it out:

Wipeout Pulse - Vertica White (PPSSPP 0.9.

Wipeout Pulse - Vostok Reef White (PPSSP 0.9.

Ridge Racer 2 is also pretty F'n special. I'd almost go so far as to say it's one of, if not THE, best Ridge Racer games ever released. Again, upscaled it probably looks almost on a par with Ridge Racer 7 on the PS3.

[Howard_Casto]

Ok so I've been playing around a bit just to get an idea of where to go.  I tried supermodel on this machine which has an ati card and there simply aren't any of the errors they were talking about.  So either it's fixed or this particular card works fine.  So I might just get a better card for my main pc and use this as a hand-me-down to the dual core system. 

Just some benchmarks for a completely unaccelerated core 2 duo 3.0 ghz:

Mame:

Crusin USA and it's sequels as well as the older 2d games all run 100% at both 1280x1024 and their native resolutions. 

NOTE:  Do NOT enable frameskipping with the Crusin games!!!  Even if your machine is capable of running them 100%, it'll slow them down and make gameplay choppy!!!

Virtua Racing.... 100%

Ridge Racer 2.... runs at about 90%  with frameskipping enabled it runs smoothly with zero audio stuttering.

SF Rush.... runs at about 80% in game.... even with frameskipping the audio is too skippy to be playable. 


Super Model:

Most racers run at a puny 20fps... but keep in mind no vid card yet.  2d stuff runs at 60 fps.

Dolphin:

With tweaking on the latest version I can get 20 fps in-game which will actually jump to 40 or even 50 fps depending upon the track.  If you can get the emulator up to 30 fps, the audio stops skipping fyi. 

Outrun 2k6:  Runs 100% even without a video card, assuming you turn off anti-aliasing.  Someone could make a really cheap lan party with that game. 

Pcsx2:  About 80%, but I just had metal slug 3d to try... I'll throw an outrun 2 iso on there when I get a chance. 

Model 2:  Haven't tried it yet, but since it take even less resources than mame I'm assuming it'll do well. 

[Howard_Casto]

What about a 8400 gs?  They seem to be pretty prevalent and are available in low profile. 

[Howard_Casto]

Eh my cheapness won out again. 

I ordered this POS:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=14-131-338

It's not great by any means but believe it or not it's actually a step up from the vid card I've got on my desktop and it runs Mortal Kombat and most of the emulators we've been talking about just fine. 

The things got a 20 dollar rebate so I'm thinking for 10 bucks I'll give it a try and if it isn't powerful enough it'll still be good enough for me to get started building my rig until they put something better on sale. 

I'm trying to save as much of my money as possible for a better wheel. 

[Howard_Casto]

Ok the card came in and it's indeed crap but just good enough to do what I need it to. 

To the curious:

SF IV:  Game now runs with medium settings.

PCSX2:  Some games run full speed... unfortunately outrun 2 sp is not one of these games... chokes at around 25 fps.

Dolphin:  I'm still having issues but I think it has more to do with the emulator than anything else...  F-zero jumps anywhere from 30 fps to 60 fps in game.... usually when I'm in front it maxes out. 

MAME:  Believe it or not there is some improvement!  I get around 5fps more on those cusp games, which is great because now they are playable... even SF Rush (which I hate.). 

Supermodel:  I think I've got something configured wrong.  At native resolution I get a rock solid 60fps on all games... when I try to up the res to HD things slow down.  Does supermodel even have a frameskip option?

Demul:  Well if I can get a Naomi racer to boot I'll get back to you (*grumbles*)

Outrun 2k6:  Lol that ran without any video card... seriously the game is old. 

I'm going to put MKKE on there tomorrow just for benchmarking purposes... anything else I should try?

[SegaOutrun]

i cant get outrun sp2 on pcsx2 to run at 60fps with an i5 at 4.5ghz so dont feel bad. All other racers had no issue on pcsx2, its only sp2 that still give me issues. If it wasnt a 100* degrees outside i would go test out f-zero, i havent played since the upgrade.

What issue are you running into demul? ive messed with it so much that i think im an expert now.

btw you will get better performance running sfiv on the taito emulator. it requires less than the PC port.

[wp34]

I'd be curious about NFL Blitz.  I'm building a Blitz cabinet with my son and have been thinking about getting one of those Core 2 Duos you found.

Ok the card came in and it's indeed crap but just good enough to do what I need it to. 

To the curious:

SF IV:  Game now runs with medium settings.

PCSX2:  Some games run full speed... unfortunately outrun 2 sp is not one of these games... chokes at around 25 fps.

Dolphin:  I'm still having issues but I think it has more to do with the emulator than anything else...  F-zero jumps anywhere from 30 fps to 60 fps in game.... usually when I'm in front it maxes out. 

MAME:  Believe it or not there is some improvement!  I get around 5fps more on those cusp games, which is great because now they are playable... even SF Rush (which I hate.). 

Supermodel:  I think I've got something configured wrong.  At native resolution I get a rock solid 60fps on all games... when I try to up the res to HD things slow down.  Does supermodel even have a frameskip option?

Demul:  Well if I can get a Naomi racer to boot I'll get back to you (*grumbles*)

Outrun 2k6:  Lol that ran without any video card... seriously the game is old. 

I'm going to put MKKE on there tomorrow just for benchmarking purposes... anything else I should try?

[Howard_Casto]

Just tried blitz.  Much like Gauntlet DL, in medium res mode it skips just a tad... runs at around 95% percent in a few instances.  Imho this is close enough, no need to half the resolution, BUT if you switch to 15khz monitor mode it runs 100%

I'll get back to you on demul SegaOutrun

[Howard_Casto]

Ok in terms of the racing games I got both King of Truckers and crazy taxi to run.  King of Truckers was barely playable... too slow.  Crazy taxi did fine but the audio sounded like satanic messages it was so slow... I don't have a clue why the game would run fine but the audio would slow down. 

Initial D and Ferrari challenge, the two games I actually wanted to play, won't load. Demul dumps generic errors at me. 

[Fursphere]

Not that it'll help you much at this point.  But I run a Nvidia GTX 460 v2 in my racing cabinet.  I play just about everything on it just fine.   Originally it has a 8800 GT and it was not happy.

My main PC has a GTX 660 Ti, and it only really kicks in when I play high end FPS games. 

gpureview.com is a good place to compare cards.   

[Howard_Casto]

Eh I don't think the card is the cause with a lot of this, rather the processor.  Thankfully I don't want to run anything super demanding. 

One thing I should note is I haven't fully over-clocked the video card yet.  Every single HD Radeon I've bought can be over-clocked by at least 40%.  I'm at about 35% atm.  The only thing I'm annoyed with is dolphin.... F-zero and Mario Kart would have been nice to have. 

Btw... it seems that MSAA slows down this card considerably... I turned that off and I could get 60fps with everything else set on high in SF IV Arcade. 

I wish I could find hacked bios for this particular MB so I could over-clock it.  Every OC site I've read says this particular dual core can be over-clocked dramatically with no extra cooling. 

[wp34]

Thanks Howard.   [

quote author=Howard_Casto link=topic=140212.msg1452666#msg1452666 date=1406251577]
Just tried blitz.  Much like Gauntlet DL, in medium res mode it skips just a tad... runs at around 95% percent in a few instances.  Imho this is close enough, no need to half the resolution, BUT if you switch to 15khz monitor mode it runs 100%

I'll get back to you on demul SegaOutrun
[/quote]

[BadMouth]

On the Nvidia cards, you get a noticeable bump by setting it to single monitor performance mode in the NVidia software.
(On the older ones like the 9800 anyway.  I have no experience with the new ones)

[Malenko]

Just tried blitz.  Much like Gauntlet DL, in medium res mode it skips just a tad... runs at around 95% percent in a few instances.

Give the emulated (NullDC) dreamcast versions a try.

[Jitterdoomer]

Can you run Modern Warfare 3 on that graphic card which in Multiplayer, it has lag spikes because there are a lot of people playing it. Campaign has some lag spikes like in Paris Mission where you go down to the sewers where you chase Volk.

[Howard_Casto]

Sorry I can't hear you over the death moans of the FPS, which died around the time quake 3 was released. 

[Malenko]

Sorry I can't hear you over the death moans of the FPS, which died around the time Diakatana was released. 

[MrThunderwing]

The only thing I'm annoyed with is dolphin.... F-zero and Mario Kart would have been nice to have. 

Dude, you should have a go at tracking down an older Dolphin build (pre 3.5) and see if you get better performance from it. Also, Mario Kart Arcade GP 2, the Triforce arcade game you need the special Triforce builds of Dolphin to run, is far less demanding to run than the Wii version of Mario Kart. You might find you can run it at a half decent rate.

[Howard_Casto]

I thought triforce was merged into dolphin?

I need to get ahold of mkart gp though

[Howard_Casto]

Ok so I tried dolphin 3.0, not on the racing pc but on my main one and .....  it also doesn't work but has totally different issues?

Before I could actually get around 40-50fps, but the audio would stutter really bad.  In 3.0 the audio works fine, and the game is fast enough to be playable, but it maxes out at around 30fps, and maybe it's just me but the game feels slower, so I'm not sure if it's skipping frames or not.  Also at certain points the rendering will just stop for a second and then start again... super annoying. 

[SegaOutrun]

for Mario GP2 you want to used dolphin Tri force 3.0-694 build. only gp2 works and u need to use the AR code in the thread to insert coins

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=133561.0

For Fzero, I finally had time to test it and it plays smoothly on my setup using the latest Dolphin 4.0-2258. There's is tiny dips when menus transition but its a solid 60fps during the races where it matters. I also found a new updated AR code that unlocks more stuff than the one I originally posted in the thread above. This new code has an AX title screen(yay!) and some other AX specific stuff.




Edit:btw the new AX AR code was added to thread above as well