Which Graphics Card should I get?

[jmcginley]

I've seen a few posts about people having some troubles with the Radeon HD 48xx cards and needing to make some adjustments. I'd like everything to be as smooth as possible while still making sure I have enough power to handle any MAME game I might want to try out. What would you recommend?

A couple other things I was wondering:

• At what point does the heat / power supply become an issue? I've seen this mentioned a lot about 4890 cards.
• Would 512mb be enough or should I look for 1gb? Or does it even matter?

[R-Typer]

If you want only 2d games I say go for silent HD4350. If you want some 3d games like Tekken or Soul Edge I say go for HD4850.

Personally I use a gigabyte silent HD4850 with 1gb and everything works flawlessly, never had or heard anyone having issues with 4850.

4870 gives way too much heat and noise as well as 4890 and performance boost in regard to 4850 is not worth it. 1gb or 512mb doesn't matter at all.

[jmcginley]

Thanks for the info. I wasn't able to locate any silent HD 4850s, but would this work?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ATI-Radeon-HD-4850-1-GB-DDR3-PCI-Express-HDMI-VGA-DVI-/181805542865?hash=item2a54746dd1:g:YHsAAOSwMmBVqEko

[Calamity]

Incredibly we still have this confusion today. The video card power does NOT matter at all for MAME, everything: 2D 3D is rendered through the CPU.

It only makes sense to spend money on a 47xx/48xx card if you intend to run emulators that use the 3D hardware (not MAME) or MAME + HLSL (not the case).

The cheapest 4350 is usually the best election.

[jmcginley]

Ok got it, thank you for the clarification. The only thing other than MAME will be NES/SNES/SEGA.

Can I get your seal of approval on this before I buy it? I see it has a VGA, and appears to be silent. I'm hoping I'm not overlooking anything else that may be needed.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-ATI-Radeon-HD4350-EAH4350-Silent-DI-512MD2-LP-512MB-PCIe-Vid-Card-GPU2027-/331687822222?hash=item4d3a22838e:g:CR0AAOSw9mFWJ~5h#viTabs_0

[Calamity]

Yes, I have the exact same card. Make sure to get a DVI->VGA adapter because you'll need to use the DVI output.

[jmcginley]

Great! I'll definitely get it then so I can bug you with all my questions when I'm setting it up 

[jmcginley]

Calamity, could you explain to me a little more about using the DVI output? Or point me to where I can read about it? I'm still a little unclear on exactly what I need to do to get my PC hooked up to my arcade monitor. Thanks in advance

[Sledge]

Calamity, could you explain to me a little more about using the DVI output? Or point me to where I can read about it? I'm still a little unclear on exactly what I need to do to get my PC hooked up to my arcade monitor. Thanks in advance

You need to use your DVI output on the card and use one of these to connect to the J-PAC:

Make sure you get the DVI-I adaptor! Not the DVI-D.

[jmcginley]

Thanks for the info. Does that mean I have to use a JPac. Everything I'm reading that talks about how to connect a PC to an arcade monitor talks about using a JPac. Is there another option? I'm just really confused and it hasn't clicked for me yet on exactly how to do this.

[Sledge]

If your cabinet is just a standard Jamma setup then yes you'll need a J-Pac or similar.

You plug the jpac into the harness.. and plug your PC into the Jpac.. simples

[jmcginley]

What would I do if I don't have a Jamma setup? All I've got is a monitor in an empty cabinet. Should I buy a Jamma board?

[Sledge]

What would I do if I don't have a Jamma setup? All I've got is a monitor in an empty cabinet. Should I buy a Jamma board?

someone else with more knowledge might give a better idea..

But you might look at wiring it up with a Jamma harness.. (beyond my abilities/knowledge)
you don't need a board if you're putting mame in it..

[Calamity]

What would I do if I don't have a Jamma setup? All I've got is a monitor in an empty cabinet. Should I buy a Jamma board?

Hi jmcginley,

The first thing you have to figure out is the type of connection your monitor is using. Most standard arcade monitors have an RGB cable going into its chassis, that ends on a jamma harness on the other side. But some "modern" arcade monitors have a normal VGA connector. The j-pac is only meant to interface the first ones. For VGA monitors you don't need any interface.

As for the DVI adapter, is simply a passthrough dongle that allows connecting an VGA cable to the DVI output on your video card. Once you have that VGA cable going out from your card, you plug it either in the j-pac or in the actual monitor, depending on the case.

[keilmillerjr]

I found this thread very helpful in clearing up some things I overlooked for my build.

[jmcginley]

Thank you for the clarification, Calamity. It seems I do have one of the newer monitors with a VGA connector (It's a Wells Gardner D9200). So far I haven't been able to get the VGA to work. The monitor just came in the cabinet that I bought and I've never actually seen it work before. It does power on and I can get it to recognize there is something plugged in. It just doesn't display a picture. I'll look into that more.

[trick72]

I have a ati HD4800 series card working fine. However, I also run demul in my cabinet at 15khz. The new version of this emulator only supports directx 11. And the HD4800 series do not support directx 11 

It seems only more recent AMD/ATI cards support that (HD5000 and recent). But I have read that these are not working with crt_emudriver as for as I know.

Does anyone know if there are directx11 compatible graphics cards working with crt_emudriver/groovymame?
Thanks
Patrick

[DudeRegular]

Calamity mentioned newer amd cards may be supported at some point but no timeline was given.

[haynor666]

I think ATI 4350 is the best option for groovymame and Calamity ATI drivers. It's even fast enough to run Taito Type X games and most of Taito Type X2 games as well. I personally use Asus 4350 with VGA port straight from PCB. I have also low profile version but due to VGA port being put on cable rathen than straight from PCB picture is a bit unclear with ghosting. If You are planning 2 monitor setup stick with standard sized cards.