The "What PC do I need to run MAME?" Official FAQ

[Sephroth57]

So you want to run MAME in a cabinet and youre not sure if you should get a bargain mid level PC or dish out for the supreme PC of the month. Well I will try to cover most questions and concerns people will have about choosing a PC, based on my personal experience and that of others I've read throughout the forums.

First, you will need to decide a couple things. Will this PC be only for MAME arcade use? Will you only be playing classic or older type games? Do you want the flexibility to play newer games as MAME supports them? And also, will you use this for more then MAME, such as other console emulators or actual PC games?

Here are a few setups based on each situation I think would work well.

Disclaimer: These specs are not written in stone and are merely guidelines to base your PC purchases on. Also if youre making up a PC from old parts you will have to improvise and you dont need to have these exact numbers.  This is mainly for the average person on a mid level budget, with exception to the A-Type PC.



A-Type  -  All MAME + PC games

In this setup youre basicly building the best computer you possibly can within your budget. Lets start with the motherboard and processor, this is the core of your computer and you don't want to skimp on it. I recommend a Athlon 2700 XP or better processor. I choose Athlon over pentium because their cost vs their performance is clearly better then Pentiums. Get that with a motherboard with a couple PCI slots, a AGP 8x, and some USB 2.0s with a 333mhz bus speed and you cant go wrong.

RAM always helps high end PC gaming, 512MB DDR RAM will be enough for most high end PC games. And if you have the extra money 1GB RAM would be optimal.

The size hard drive you want to buy is really a matter of preference. As a minimum a 40-60GB HD should be used. They are cheap now and can hold a full MAME collection and keep many games installed with room to spare.

You will want a high level video card as they affect PC graphics immensely (not MAME graphics) . Geforce4 and Geforce FX cards are relatively cheap now, about 130$ and 180$ respectively. for their high end models and offer a good low cost/high preformance ratio. Radeon is the other solution which are a bit more costly but have slighty higher framerates on graphic intensive games.

A DVD/CD ROM is also useful if you get your rom updates from burners in the mail, or if you download the roms on your main home PC and transfer them over. If you have a home network you could also add a network card in place of a CD/DVD drive and send the files from your main PC.

A-Type Typical Specs
Athlon 2700 XP +
512 DDR RAM +
40GB HD +
High end Geforce or Radeon card
Sound Blaster or Onboard sound card
DVD/CD ROM  -or-  network card



B-Type - Pure MAME PC

This PC type will play every game in MAME just about, except for the newest CHD games which can barely be played on the best computers out.


Processing power is key for a setup in which you plan to range from classics to the most currently supported games. Your processor tries to emulate each component on the original game board and therefore does not use much hardware acceleration besides processor if any at all. You want to get the highest processor in your price range, Athlon XP is preferred right now due to it's affordable price and nice speeds compared to equally priced pentiums. Athlon XP 2000 or better would be suitable for this.

RAM is not a main component for a MAME setup, 256MB RAM should be sufficient for most games

A 40GB harddrive will be plenty for a MAME only PC. It can hold the current MAME collection almost twice over so you will be good on space for a while. Although new games coming out in .chd format take a lot more space then normal zipped roms. I would reccomend a 60GB as the price difference is so little and you get so much more.

A DVD/CD ROM is also useful if you get your rom updates from burners in the mail, or if you download the roms on your main home PC and transfer them over. If you have a home network you could also add a network card in place of a CD/DVD drive and send the files from your main PC.

Your videocard is hardly important compared to the A-Type PC. MAME uses barely any hardware acceleration if any at all. A 8MB Rage ATI videocard is as cheap as you can go and will work just as good as a geforce. Although depending on what your display will be you might want to invest in a Radeon 9000 64MB as they have S-Video outputs for TV use and are only about 50$.


B-Type  Typical Specs -
Athlon XP 2000 +
256 MB RAM +
40GB HD +
8MB Video Card minimum (if using a TV Radeon 9000 64MB)
Generic Soundcard or onboard
DVD/CD ROM  -or-  Network Card



C-Type   The low end MAME machine

You want a machine to play the classics along with some 80s-90s era games. These machines are much cheaper and could even be obtained for free as most people have no use for outdated computers when they upgrade. This type of computer is designed to run roughly 90% of MAME games without problems. You might get slowdown on some newer fighting or 3d games. Most CHD games will probably not run too well.


C-Type Basic Specs  -(thanks to Tiger-Heli for this info)

Duron, Athlon or XP 850-1.0 Ghz,
128-256M Ram
20G HD
4M PCI Vid Card (doesn't really matter)
On-Board Sound



D-Type  - Bare Minimum - Classic MAME only

This is desgined for playing old games, Pacman, Galaga, Space Invaders, etc. You should use MAME version R36B12 or earlier (before alpha blending was added).


D-Type Basic Specs  -(thanks to Tiger-Heli for this info)

Pentium 200 MMX
64M Ram
10G HD
4M PCI Vid Card (or on-board)
On-board sound


Good sources for finding parts/PCs.

www.ebay.com
www.pricewatch.com
www.newegg.com
www.portatech.com


If you still have questions about certain setups post in this thread and I will try to help you.

[Tilzs]

You might want to change GigaHertz to GigaByte.

I don't think you need a 3d card for a dedicated mame machine, but I guess I don't play the brand newest games so I could be wrong.

As of right now really don't need 60 GB of HD for a dedicated mame machine.

If you have a home network, a network card might be the better solution for a deicated machine rather than a cd/dvd. That way you don't need to break out the keyboard

[Sephroth57]

ah yeah that was a error for the RAM ill change that. as far as the HD space goes i really belive in a large HD. if you have been playing any of the new .chd format games they are extremely large, I have about 15GB of HD taken up by like 5 chd format games. and these are going to keep coming out so you dont want to need to upgrade if you just bought a PC for this purpose not long ago.

also I plan to add an options kind of section at the end like you said people that might want to switch CD/DVD rom for a network if they happen to have that but i know a lot of people dont have networks going to their cabinets so i put that as the main option. Its not done yet like I said but I think its a good start

[SirPeale]

BeatMania 4th Mix doesn't take up 4.9G of space unless you uncompress the CHD image, and then it wouldn't run.

[Sephroth57]

well then mine is messed up cause it takes up 5 gigs and it runs....

[BLACK KNIGHT]

I agree with the NIC idea...it's much easier.  Also I heard that just some 8meg video card was the only thing necessary for MAME.  I plan on testing this as early as this weekend.  I currently have a 64 Geforce4 MX440se that I plan to swap out for an old 8 meg AGP card I found and seeing if it makes any difference in games.  I'll post my findings if I'm able to try it this weekend.  Also I just got a copy of MAME .77 burned on DVD from a guy on the net and loading everything to my HDD only took 20 Gigs.

[Tiger-Heli]

Suggestion - The only difference in your charts between type A and Type B is RAM and Vid Card and Sound card., also will be confusing having Type B as a better system then A , which is better than C.

Recommend Type A - All MAME GAMES and PC GAMES also - List your current Type B computer here.

Type B - Rename as - Most modern MAME GAMES - put your Type A computer here, but change -

Processor - drop to XP2200 - There are maybe one or two games at most that won't play on a 2200 and will on a 2700.  Blitz needs a 4 Ghz, regardless.

HD - drop to 60Gb + (People can buy larger, but this is sufficient.

Vid Card - Drop to TNT2 (like you said, doesn't really matter.

Type C Recommendations - Up to Afterburner, 19XX, etc.

Duron, Athlon or XP 850-1.0 Ghz,
128-256M Ram
20G HD
4M PCI Vid Card (doesn't really matter)
On-Board Sound

Type D Recommendation - Bare Minimum - 80's games like PacMan, Galaga, etc.  (Preferably use MAME R36B12  or previous (before alpha blending)).

Pentium 200 MMX
64M Ram
20G HD
4M PCI Vid Card (or on-board)
On-board sound

I have personally used configs C and D, so this is pretty accurate

[Sephroth57]

20GB including all the chds? well i guess mine is messed up Ill make those changes in the specs. Also about the 8MB videocard that is the minimum i believe, their price range is what like 10$? i think old geforce2 are only like 20 now i could be wrong but I will list that also. I plan to make this more extensive this is just a quick writeup i did at work when i was bored. Its not sticky worthy yet but I will try to encompass everyones suggestions and make it better.

thanks for the constructive replys, keep them coming =)

[Tiger-Heli]

20GB including all the chds? well i guess mine is messed up Ill make those changes in the specs. Also about the 8MB videocard that is the minimum i believe, their price range is what like 10$? i think old geforce2 are only like 20 now i could be wrong but I will list that also. I plan to make this more extensive this is just a quick writeup i did at work when i was bored. Its not sticky worthy yet but I will try to encompass everyones suggestions and make it better.

thanks for the constructive replys, keep them coming =)

MAME is NOT video intensive.  I use a 16M TNT2 with a Duron 850.  I had a 4M PCI (Rendition) in it before.  Afterburner was slightly faster with the TNT2, but nothing to write home about.

[Sephroth57]

ah thanks for the low end specs, i was gonna ask around for those as I havent gotten around to making my classic mame setups yet

[Tilzs]

I can see why you would suggest a bigger HD just to prevent people from upgradeing but if one is writting a FAQ i don't think you should say you NEED a 60GB HD when at the time you can really get by with a 40GB. Yes there little difference in price between the two now days, but I think it should be noted on what is requried and what is suggested.

I'd also probably make a note on processor, only a smaller % of the games require the faster processor.

If I'm a noob I want to know what is the min to run something or almost everything. I don't want to read a FAQ on how I need this, and that, go out and buy it and find out later I could have saved a much of money that does the job just as well but for a lot less money.

[Brad Lee]

About the video cards..

While it's true that the latest and greatest geforce or radeon wont make a large difference over a cheaper vid card, one thing you might not get if you go too cheap is no TV-out

My setup falls into the 'mostly mame classics + other emulators' category. Its a P3, 700mhz, 512ram, 20gb drive, with a Radeon AIW 7500.  I'm going to a TV via the regular RCA jack(not s-video) and it looks great on mame, esp at the low resolutions to avoid scaling.

THese cards can be found for about 50-75 on ebay, depending on which model it is. Radeons without the AIW may be a few bucks cheaper, and they still ahve great looking TV out. Im sure the other cards(nvidia et al) have good looking tv out but I havent used em so I cant make any recommendations

I recently added Sega Genesis support, and just for kicks I got out my real sega as well, ran it thru the same TV. The picture quality(including color, brightness, tearing, sharpness, etc) is virtually identical between the 2.

[Sephroth57]

made a bunch of revisions. added the classic setups with Tiger-Heli's info.

[IceCold]

Maybe you should add a Vantage setup aswell.  This classic setup requires barely any computing power.  I know I can run it full speed easily on a Pentium 100, I can probably test it with a 386 20mhz if you want me to try.

[AlanS17]

I've found that alot of onboard video cards don't support alot of video modes properly even for the oldest games. Most PCI or AGP cards (including the cheap ones) don't have this problem, though.

[paigeoliver]

Frankly, all those numbers are overkill. If you think you need that stuff, then you really haven't been around Mame long enough. Most of the games that are in Mame now, were in it years ago (especially the ones that anyone actually cares about), and they were largely running full speed before your type C system was even available.

That type C Basic specs system will run pretty much every title in mame, with less than 2 dozen exceptions (out of 4000 games, which makes that more than 99 percent).

Recent testing with a Celeron 400 (with 64 MB Ram, Windows 98 SE, and Mame .55) showed that it ran everything (non-analog) in Mame full speed with only a couple of exceptions (the stuff on Mortal Kombat hardware and  Asteroids). I just did an install for as cabinet using this exact setup. We tested all sorts of games, and got 60/60 (or 40/40, or 57/57 or whatever), on everything we tested except for the aforementioned games.

My Pentium 200 (Win 95, 32 Ram), seems to run all the "classic" stuff (Pac, Rally-X, etc), full speed, no matter which mame version you use on it. Although hitting F10 shows that the older versions are almost and order of magnitude faster.

My 100 mhz laptop (486) can even run a bunch of the classic games fullspeed, even with windows running in the background.

There are really only two types of Mame systems.

The 4-way system

This is the only one I am going to assign a solid number to. If your only controls consist of a 4-way joystick and buttons, then the magic number is 300 mhz. Ram really doesn't matter in this setup. If you want to bump back a BUNCH of Mame versions then you can go down to a 200 mhz, or even a pentium 100.

The OTHER system

You can't really put a number on this, it is almost an analog thing. It is a sliding scale of cost vs. performance. Basically, it all really comes down to the stuff on Mortal Kombat hardware. If you HAVE to play that stuff, then you better throw down for a GHZ+ computer. If you can let those couple of games slide (I mean, come on, we are talking a couple of totally unoriginal games that have perfect Snes ports anyway), then you can get by with almost anything.

Other notes

I cannot stress enough how much faster older versions of Mame are. If you are having speed problems with your favorite game, then drop back 5 Mame versions, and see if it is running full speed. Lather, rinse, repeat. Most of the good games and the ones that anyone actually cares about were in Mame a LONG time ago. I haven't done a lot of solid framerate benchmarking, but Mame .55 seems to be able to run the games roughly 2-3 times as fast as my current version of Mame (which is at least 3 versions behind).

The hard drive games

I mean, really who cares? I look at these things and I see three types of games; complete junk, specialty controls games, and complete junk games that also have special  controls. If you are on ANY sort of budget for your machine, and you are worried about supporting these games, then I think you might have priority problems.

The actual answer to the question

You need a 100 mhz computer to "run mame". As you increase in speed from there you will add the ability to run many more games with each 50 mhz bump in processor speed up to about 400 mhz. At 400 mhz you are cabable of running well over 90 percent of the games in Mame (assuming you are willing to experiment with different Mame versions). 400 mhz is really the price to performance sweet spot for Mame. The next 3000 mhz adds VERY LITTLE. Each 100 mhz or so bump in processor speed over 400 adds a game, maybe two (MANY of which are analog anyway).

[Tiger-Heli]

I've found that alot of onboard video cards don't support alot of video modes properly even for the oldest games. Most PCI or AGP cards (including the cheap ones) don't have this problem, though.

I wouldn't think this would be a problem with hardware stretching, but I haven't tried it.

[Tiger-Heli]

Good comments, Paige.

Frankly, all those numbers are overkill.
That type C Basic specs system will run pretty much every title in mame, with less than 2 dozen exceptions (out of 4000 games, which makes that more than 99 percent).

Type C (Duron 850) was listed b/c that's what I have.  (And they're now around $25 if we're looking at buying rather than using off the shelf.).  I agree it could be dropped down to the 400 Mhz level.

And as you said, the really tough games in MAME can be played on a much less capable machine using a SNES or N64 emulator and port.

[BLACK KNIGHT]

Okay I tested the video cards this weekend.  I have downgraded my XP1600+ PC with 256megs of Ram and a Geforce4 MX440se to a pathetic 8meg AGP SIS card.  I've tried a couple of classics like Galaga, and I've tried 10 Yard Fight and found no difference.  I've also tried Ultimate MK3 and Area 51 and again I've found no difference so I am staying with the 8 meg AGP card.  I did lose TV-out but since I'm using a monitor in my cabinet that isn't a big deal for me.

Secondly, I'm upgrading the hard drive to a 40gig so that I can fit Windows XP and everything on the MAME DVDs on one hard drive.  Since it'll be a dedicated MAME machine.

[Sephroth57]

Paige, although some of your arguements are true and I will probably lower some specs a little, your main emphasis is that no one cares about new games you can run classics on a hampster why have anything better.

about HD games you said "The hard drive games

I mean, really who cares? I look at these things and I see three types of games; complete junk, specialty controls games, and complete junk games that also have special  controls."

IMO HD games are awesome and I love how some actual good graphics games are becoming playable and that MAME is supporting them. Your opinions are very biased and although at least half of people into MAME like it for the old stuff, theres the new generation thats in it for the games that they grew up with. I grew up playing street fighter, MK 1, etc so these are my Pac-Man, Galaga , etc.

[Tiger-Heli]

IMO HD games are awesome and I love how some actual good graphics games are becoming playable and that MAME is supporting them. Your opinions are very biased and although at least half of people into MAME like it for the old stuff, theres the new generation thats in it for the games that they grew up with. I grew up playing street fighter, MK 1, etc so these are my Pac-Man, Galaga , etc.

Okay, let me try to stake out some middle ground here, since I see both sides of the issue.  I grew up on PacMan and Galaga, but I think Cal Speed and SF Rush are awesome and I'm glad to see them coming to MAME.

Where I agree with Paige is that these games are basically unplayable on a Athlon 64 3200 with 1Gig of Ram and a 9800 Pro with 256M graphics.  So if you can't play these games on the fastest PC, but you can play anything else on a P400, why recommend something faster -  (That's a huge oversimplification, but you get the idea.).

I would love to play the arcade ports of SF Rush, etc. but it will be two or three years before the computer hardware will do it.  In the meantime, my Duron 850 does fine for 99% of the other MAME games, and plays the N64 ports of those games, so why upgrade.

[Sephroth57]

well yeah even with the best computers some games are still unplayable but most HD games are. Personally id get the best setup just so i could play beatmania and KI 2. and you cant just look at the current list and base your purchase off that Im trying to think ahead so when Gauntlet Legends comes out (just an example) im not like damn I love that game now i need to upgrade.

[Tiger-Heli]

well yeah even with the best computers some games are still unplayable but most HD games are. Personally id get the best setup just so i could play beatmania and KI 2. and you cant just look at the current list and base your purchase off that Im trying to think ahead so when Gauntlet Legends comes out (just an example) im not like damn I love that game now i need to upgrade.

What was mentioned early on, but never resolved, is:

Is this a "This is what you should buy thread?" or a "This is what you need?" thread.

Example, the Duron 850 is $29, but an XP2200 is only $57, so if I'm BUYING, I'd get the XP2200.  But if someone had a Pentium II 400 that they were GIVING away, that would run 90% of the games, so that would be acceptable.

See where I'm going . . .

[eightbit]

Example, the Duron 850 is $29, but an XP2200 is only $57, so if I'm BUYING, I'd get the XP2200.  But if someone had a Pentium II 400 that they were GIVING away, that would run 90% of the games, so that would be acceptable.

Not a good comparison, the mobo and memory for the duron 850 is going to be signifcantly cheaper than for the xp2200.  When the difference is $28 its easy to say go with the faster one but if that difference turns out to be $100 or $200 then it really is significant.

Why is this thread sticky anyway? Its full of conflicts, misinformation and opinions that aren't based on facts but rather on speculation.

[Tiger-Heli]

Example, the Duron 850 is $29, but an XP2200 is only $57, so if I'm BUYING, I'd get the XP2200.  But if someone had a Pentium II 400 that they were GIVING away, that would run 90% of the games, so that would be acceptable.

Not a good comparison, the mobo and memory for the duron 850 is going to be signifcantly cheaper than for the xp2200.  When the difference is $28 its easy to say go with the faster one but if that difference turns out to be $100 or $200 then it really is significant.

Actually, that's not true.  I got a 256M stick of Kingston value PC2700 DDR (166 FSB) free with rebate from OfficeMax.  That will work on the XP2200.  (Can't get much cheaper than free.)  Most DDR is PC2700, nowadays.  In SDR, PC133 is usually LESS expensive than PC100 nowadays.  Same with motherboards.  You probably need a KT266 board for the XP2200 (needs 133 FSB), but these are among the cheapest boards to buy now.  The boards that would support a Duron and NOT an XP2200 are more expensive b/c they are limited production now.

Why is this thread sticky anyway? Its full of conflicts, misinformation and opinions that aren't based on facts but rather on speculation.

The idea was that there would be a consensus and then the thread would be updated.  This question gets asked a lot of the main forum.

[Sephroth57]

thank you tiger-heli for those clarifications.  Also its not like Im dictating what people have to buy, your PC build is really just relavent to what games you want to play and your budget. which is different for everyone so obviously there can be no strict guidelines. If you feel something is presented wrong add in why and what you think i should add. As Tiger-Heli did to help the low end PCs

[hulkster]

hmmm, well after reading all this, it got me interested in the amd processors.  ive always used pentium's but i saw on newegg.com that you can get a xp2200 for $67!!  so im new to amd, what motherboard is best for these processors, and im guessing they use the same type of ram (ddr, etc.)

the reason im saying this, is cuz the only pc game that im really wanting to play is golden tee pc, will an xp2200 with a fair amount of ram and a radeon 7500 graphics card run golden tee smoothly?

[paigeoliver]

hmmm, well after reading all this, it got me interested in the amd processors.  ive always used pentium's but i saw on newegg.com that you can get a xp2200 for $67!!  so im new to amd, what motherboard is best for these processors, and im guessing they use the same type of ram (ddr, etc.)

the reason im saying this, is cuz the only pc game that im really wanting to play is golden tee pc, will an xp2200 with a fair amount of ram and a radeon 7500 graphics card run golden tee smoothly?

Overkill

Dude, Golden Tee PC came out like 6 years ago. Here are the system requirements.

Win 95
16 MB RAM
1X CD-ROM drive
486DX/133 MHz
640x480 (256 colors, or more, required)

So, yes, I am betting an Athlon 2200 could run this game smoothly, since that is roughly 20 times the minimum specs. Also, it isn't even going to use your fancy video card, so don't bother.

[hulkster]

hmmm, well after reading all this, it got me interested in the amd processors.  ive always used pentium's but i saw on newegg.com that you can get a xp2200 for $67!!  so im new to amd, what motherboard is best for these processors, and im guessing they use the same type of ram (ddr, etc.)

the reason im saying this, is cuz the only pc game that im really wanting to play is golden tee pc, will an xp2200 with a fair amount of ram and a radeon 7500 graphics card run golden tee smoothly?

Overkill

Dude, Golden Tee PC came out like 6 years ago. Here are the system requirements.
Win 95
16 MB RAM
1X CD-ROM drive
486DX/133 MHz
640x480 (256 colors, or more, required)

So, yes, I am betting an Athlon 2200 could run this game smoothly, since that is roughly 20 times the minimum specs. Also, it isn't even going to use your fancy video card, so don't bother.

whoa, take it easy there bud, im sorry im not "johnny-arcade" like yourself...please forgive my ignorance on the system requirements of golden tee!  what was i thinking!

okay all joking aside thanks for the advice.  the reason i was getting this better pc is because my current setup is lagging when i play games like double dragon with 2 players, and the sound is garbled.  granted the lag and obviously the sound could be due just to my sound card, but still.  its a pentium 3 1.1ghz with 512 SDRAM and radeon 7500.  i was just thinking of upgrading.  so im guessing i dont need to?

[paigeoliver]

If Double Dragon is lagging on that system then it is because of a configuration problem, or perhaps a sound card issue. I was playing Double Dragon in mame a loooooong time ago on my 300 mhz K6. Do you have onboard sound? Are you using a USB input solution for your controls? Do you have other software running in the background? What resolution are you running at? What is your sound set at (try bumping it down to 22 khz).

[hulkster]

well i tried messing with the sound config in the ini files (i think thats what it was...text file anyway) and that helped a little, but it was still messing up.  i mean it was a crappy card im pretty sure.  and im pretty sure no programs were running in the background, but i could be wrong.  well regardless, im trying to sell this cab, and build another, so i would need another system which is why i was asking these questions.

[eightbit]

okay all joking aside thanks for the advice.  the reason i was getting this better pc is because my current setup is lagging when i play games like double dragon with 2 players, and the sound is garbled.  granted the lag and obviously the sound could be due just to my sound card, but still.  its a pentium 3 1.1ghz with 512 SDRAM and radeon 7500.  i was just thinking of upgrading.  so im guessing i dont need to?

The real arcade double dragon lagged pretty bad sometimes with lots of action on the screen. Its just a really good emulation is all.

[Wade]

Opinions on which games a person wants to play really shouldn't even be in this thread... that would be completely different thread...

Here's a little benchmark info.  While I agree with Paige on most things related to this issue I have bounced on the floor of Mame-capable PC's before and have found some problems with low ends PC's.

The setup:
Pentium 133mhz
Some RAM, it was probably 16M or possibly 32M?
ISA Creative SB 16
1 meg PCI video card

Mame 0.36 ran all the classics I tried fairly well.  Classics meaning about 25 typical popular early 80's games.  BUT NOT PERFECTLY.  Moon Patrol and BurgerTime would slow down sometimes when music was playing.  Atari System 2 games like Paperboy, 720, Super Sprint were too slow to play properly.

Mame 0.6X (the most current at the time) had more difficulty playing some of these same games.

Another setup:
AMD K6/2 500mhz
32M RAM
ISA Creative SB 16
1 meg PCI video card

Mame 0.6X couldn't run Atari System 2 games full speed either!! (Paper, SSprint, 720).  The older early 80's classics I ran all played full speed.  Mame 0.36 or so ran these Atari games full speed.  This is the setup I'm currently using on a cocktail Mame project.

*** Hard drives ***

I also think hard drive space shouldn't even be listed, I used a 4G on my main, fast Mame cabinet and never used more than 1 gig of it.  Later it died so I had to switch to a 13G because it is all I had, but I'm not using 12G of it.  It all depends on what games you want on the system.  Specify the space it takes to load every single ROM/chd for a given Mame version but don't include all the screen caps, front ends, movies, etc. because none of that is a necessary part of running Mame.

Wade

[Raider]

I got CarnEvil at 55-65% on a centrino 1.3! A 2.4 Centrino may run all MAME games fullspeed.

Anyone have one to test?

[Howard_Casto]

Just a footnote about the specs for the class A....

that should read "almost all mame and pc"

I have an xp 2600 barton running at the faster 2700 (333mhz) bus speed about 5-10 percent of the games still won't run, most notably the crusin series, carnevil and the other high end 3d games.  Even ki2 looses a frame or two.  

I really doubt that another 100 mhz and a slightly larger processor cache would be enough to get these games playable.  

I don't think that there is a type A system that can be built when it comes to cost practicality.  A newer 3+ gig system with a gig of ram MIGHT be able to get it done, but with the slowness of the drivers I really doubt it.  

[paigeoliver]

Just a footnote about the specs for the class A....

that should read "almost all mame and pc"

I have an xp 2600 barton running at the faster 2700 (333mhz) bus speed about 5-10 percent of the games still won't run, most notably the crusin series, carnevil and the other high end 3d games.  Even ki2 looses a frame or two.  

I really doubt that another 100 mhz and a slightly larger processor cache would be enough to get these games playable.  

I don't think that there is a type A system that can be built when it comes to cost practicality.  A newer 3+ gig system with a gig of ram MIGHT be able to get it done, but with the slowness of the drivers I really doubt it.  

Howard, you should really brush up on what percentages are, and what 5 or 10 percent of 4000 games really is. 5 percent is 200 games, and 10 percent is 400 games.

Can you name 400 games that won't run full speed on that processor?

I would actually be impressed if you can name 40 of them.

[Howard_Casto]

Actually yes I can... my percentages were accurate....  out of the current mame build there are approx 375 drivers that are not complete (used to be test drivers) or have "hacked" sections of code causing them to run very slow.  Then there approx 25 more games that although they are fully playable, the emulation is unoptimized and is far too slow to run on any normal system.

However I'm not going to list them all because I don't have that kind of time.  

Anyway, quit nit-picking and look at my point.  Type A does not exist because there isn't a system commonly available that will play all runnable mame games at full speed.  

[paigeoliver]

Well, what are these magic games? I will admit that I do not have the hard drive games, nor do I plan on getting them for a long time.


I will assume that ALL that hard drive games are too slow, since I cannot play them to check for myself. Although apparently the Bemani hard drive games run just fine, even on "slower" systems (which also seems to be almost half the hard drive games).

Checking a rom site it appears that there are 18 CHD games. If that is wrong, then please correct me, as I just trusted the first source I found.

The absolute fastest computer I have access to for testing purposes is my Athlon 1200.

From playing on that I can add the following to that list.

Prop Cycle
The Cruisin Series (are these CHD? I can't recall).

Stun Runner is not ALWAYS 100 percent, and there are a couple of polygon games that I can't recall the names too that are also not always 100 percent, but they are darn close on my 1200, and should run full speed on something else.

If every one of those games has one clone, then we are up to 40 games, which is like one percent, not 5 or 10, and is almost exclusively hard drive games.

Now I admit, I have not played EVERYTHING in Mame, but I have played most of them. Everything pre 89 runs full speed as far as I know (although depending on version, the color vector games sometimes need a good system).

As far as post 90 games. The majority of them fall under the following categories.

CPS 1 - Runs full speed.
CPS2 - Full speed.
90s Midway hardware (needs a bit of power if you want to use a newer Mame version, but it does run full speed).
Neo Geo - Full speed.
Taito F3 - Full speed.
Jaleco Megasystem 32 - Full speed
Psikyo - Full speed (but many still had other issues last time I checked).
Kaneko hardware - Full speed.
Mahjong games - Not a platform, but everyone I have ever tried has ran full speed.

I probably missed a major hardware platform in there somewhere, but you get the point, the major non-chd hardware platforms from the 90s are running full speed.

If you can find more than 2 (or even one, just find one) pre 89 game that won't run full speed on modern hardware, then let me know, until then, we are ruling that they are all full speed. That right there is 75 percent of the games in Mame (maybe more?)


That leaves 18 CHD games (say 36 with clones), 3 odd versions of Cruisin, and Prop Cycle. Which makes 40.

The reason I am nitpicking is BECAUSE of the common misinformation that 5-10 percent of the games won't run full speed on anything. In reality it is well under 1 percent (as some of the hard drive games WILL run full speed, just not on my comp), and almost exclusively hard drive games.

I am going to start a thread in the software forum to get a definitive list of the games that won't run full speed on current hardware. I have a feeling it is going to be short.

[Howard_Casto]

You can start a list, but why bother?  My information is accurate.... simply type mame.exe -gamelist

all games listed with the "Not working" status have incomplete drivers or drivers that are too unoptimized to be deemed playable.  That list will come up to well over 300... add on the slower harddrive games which have been technically upgraded to playable status but are still too slow and the slew of namco 3d games that are too slow and the number is more like 400.  

I do know what I'm talking about, don't argue with me.  

I read your comments above about how you haven't tried every single game.  Guess what?  I have.. I try each and every new game upon a new release to help find bugs for the mametesters and to get new info for controls.dat.  project.  I don't see how you have the right to argue against me when I am more qualified to answer than you are.  

Getting back to THE POINT which you STILL aren't getting.  Class A is deemed as being able to run ALL mame games.  That is impossible, and it always will be.  Even if ONE game isn't playable then that isn't ALL now is it?  Just because YOU wouldn't want to play a game doesn't mean that the game is wiped from existance.  

I hate to be rude, but you keep dancing around the real matter with split hairs and such.  

Your opinions one what is worthy of being played are irrelevant to the thread.  This is about what you need to play the games regardless of weather a person actually wants to play.  

But regarding this thread... I don't think that pc games should be lumped in with mame games.   They are totally different animals.  If your specs are enough to run your favorite modern pc game then they will obviously be enough to run mame well. The two aren't related... you make sure it can run the pc game and mame is an afterthought.  Alternatively, even new pc games can run on veyr very slow systems if you turn the effects off...  I've yet to see a game that doesn't have the minimum req. on the box at something like 5-600mhz with 256 megs of ram.

Getting back to mame:...
Heck I could run about 88% of the games on my old athlon 900 mhz with 512 megs of ram.  Considering 10% are "permenantly" unplayable on any system I would say that's pretty good.  I would reccomend about a 1.2 gig processor with 512 megs of ram soley because windows will run better... mame itself has little or nothing to do with the equation.  

Which gets back to something eightbit brought up... that's opinion.  What will actually run at what speeds is a fact... but what specifically to reccomend based on "what mamers will want"  is far too opinionated.  This thread needs closed / un-stickied with two new threads......

"What are the minimum requirements to run these mame games", in which a person posts a game and people respond stating the fps they get with their system (and specs of course), and  a similar thread just for pc games.  

Then the info could be looked over and compiled into something useful, like a cut-off point of when a processor is too slow to run game xyz (no pun intended)  or how much ram is need for said game so that mame doesn't give an out of memory error (never happens anymore.)

[paigeoliver]

Ok, howard, it appears we are talking about two different things. I am talking about the speed of the games that actually work, and you are talking about the "not-working" games. I have never even bothered to mess with the "not-working" games, because they "DON'T WORK".

As far as what is going on inside the drivers, I could really care less. What I care about is that the games that are listed as working, do in fact work, and what those can run on.

My main arguement, is, and always has been. that all the pre 90 games will run on just about any P2 era computer, and just about any p3 will run all the major 90s hardware platforms, and thus you don't need a 2 GHZ computer for Mame.