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| Just curious about building dedicated Mame PC |
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| SpatzST:
I heard somewhere that Mame only utilizes two cores in your processor and runs most of the emulation through the cpu, not the graphics card. Would this mean you only need a powerful i3 and no graphics card? (dual core hyperthreaded) as opposed to an i5 or i7? Though I suppose having the extra power for windows and what have you may be necessary. What kind of power is necessary for running CHD games like Blitz. My current laptop from 2011, running an i7 (not sure which generation that is), seems to give some audio lag in blitz, but that may just be the emulator. Basically, whats the best computer I would need to at minimum run all mame games. thanks |
| dkersten:
I would still go with an i5, just because as a dual core cpu it is far better than an i3. Yes, from what I understand mame and other emulators only use 2 cores, although if you have other processes running in the background, your OS might take advantage of more cores so having a 4 core CPU is not completely going to waste. While mame doesn't really take advantage of any GPU power, other emulators do, and sometimes in a big way. So if you are only after playing mame games, stick with a decent 2 core cpu. If you want to be able to play games that mame can't run (or can't run well) that emulators like Demul or Model 2 can run, then you better have a decent GPU. |
| SpatzST:
Ok, thanks! So i'd really just need, motherboard, cpu/fan, harddrive, power supply and ram. |
| Diet_Pepsi:
You can't go wrong with an i5 (quad core). There are some titles that will use the extra cores (blitz, gauntlet legends, etc). However, these titles are few and far between, so you are not really giving up much by sticking with a dual core processor. Also, I have read that Haswell cores are a significant improvement over previous generations so a dual core may be able to run those intensive titles just fine. Intel has just released an unlocked dual core processor (pentium g3258) which is very interesting. The one piece of advice that I can offer is that hyper threading does not benefit mame in any significant way. So if you are strictly looking for a mame pc, and want to buy new hardware, buy a pentium over an i3, and an i5 over an i7. Spending the extra cash on hyper threading will not benefit your mame rig. |
| SpatzST:
Good to know, thanks |
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