Need advice - CRT/ArcadeVGA

[rbbauer00]

My arcade project has taken a turn I wasn't expecting when I started buying parts.  This has left me with problems running front-end video and newer games.  I need advice on how to proceed.

I started out with plans to build a cab from scratch (or rehab an empty cab), put in an LCD and a modern CPU to handle all my pc gaming from retro to modern.  I built the CPU first, including a GTX960, which does fine for my needs.  I got hyperspin up and running and all was well.  When I started searching for cabinets, I found a konami 4-player cab in good strutural shape, but needed some repair and all new artwork.  It also included a CRT in very good shape to my surprise.  This is where things go downhill.

I thought the easy solution would be the arcade VGA.  After more troubleshooting than I expected, It looks great while running mame.  The problem is that the videos on the front end are slow to load and I get terrible slowdown on even the NES emulator.  I then tried soft 15khz but I don't have an EDID dongle so I couldn't go any further.

So here is my crossroad:
     -I could keep the arcade vga, build/repurpose a low end cpu for the cabinet and move my new cpu to the entertainment center.  This would likely require me to choose a less flashy front end (at least remove the videos)

[buttersoft]

Firstly, an EDID dongle won't work to get 15kHz from any Nvidia card made after about 2004, Quadro's excepted. There's a lot of misinformation about this out there - can i ask where you heard it?

Secondly, slowdown is probably in your overhead somewhere. Any core2duo should run 2D MAME games fine, until you start using HLSL options or other visual effects that aren't wanted on a CRT anyway. Can you get the task manager up and look at what's hogging your CPU? The video card you use makes almost zero difference to straight video playback, and none at all to MAME/MESS. I'm using core2duo's playing 1080@60p videos (to a 480i screen) in my frontend and loading games without issues. The vids load up inside a half second without fail. The ArcadeVGA should not be causing this problem.

Are you using GroovyMAME? GM is great for CRT's, and has as subforum in the list at the top of this page. It might require you to go through a bit more setup though

[DeLuSioNal29]

+1 on GroovyMAME, but if I'm not mistaken that requires you swapping out the Nvidia video card with an ATI brand that's supported.  The good news is that it works with older and cheaper ATI cards.

DeL