MAME 0.163 and onward performance drop?

[fleskebacon]

I've run many versions of MAME the last years, and I've never had any performance issues on my Core Duo 2. From 0.163 and onward though, some games won't run at 100% speed any more, as far as I can see because the cpu is maxed...

Kung Fu Master is one of these that I've noticed so far. Arkanoid Returns as well.

I've rolled back to 0.162, which is the last version that runs everything smoothly here.

Any settings or anything else I can do to get the newer versions to run better? I've tried falling back to the default mame.ini, still the same issues.

[Haze]

The IREM analog sound board was emulated at that point, it gives drums etc. in several IREM games

but is significantly slower.

that can't be avoided, it's the cost of progress.  Kung Fu Master still has the circuits, so they still need to be emulated, but I don't think it ever uses them.

That isn't some overall slowdown of MAME tho, it's slowdown of a specific driver where progress has been made.

Can't think of any real reason why Arkanoid Returns would have slowed down significantly, BUT I do see the slowdown and will look into it.

[Haze]

ok, performance in Arkanoid Returns should be improved again in the next release.

[fleskebacon]

The performance drop in Arkanoid Returns might have come in an even earlier version, on second thought. It ran at 100% when I last tested it, but that might have been an even older version than 0.162.

But I'm pretty sure that the "sound emulation isn't 100%" warning and the dramatic performance drop in Kung Fu Master came with 0.163. The new sound emulation explains that. Thanks. Looks like I'm stuck with 0.162 until I get some new hardware then.....