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Author Topic: Picking a PC  (Read 15405 times)

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morton

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Picking a PC
« on: September 26, 2018, 09:07:31 am »
I am wanting to try out GroovyMame, but am having trouble ascertaining what exactly I need to be looking for in a PC. My plan is to run it in a cab on 15khz with a JPAC and games upto about the early 2000s at most. Nothing too crazy. Some builds are quite expensive, and know that I can get by using something more modest if I don't ask too much of it. I have seen people suggest pre built PCs like a Dell Optiplex i5 and so on, but am not sure what the requirements for GroovyMame even are. Any help would be appreciated, I am a noob - currently a Pi user.

donluca

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2018, 10:07:17 am »
Try getting an old Pentium G3258 and overclock it and you'll run everything that MAME currently supports, besides some of the more modern 3D midway games.

And, of course, a Radeon card.
On a scale of fakeness, from more genuine to more fake, we'd have:

1.- Plastic plants (cf. Fake Plastic Trees)
2.- Inflatable dolls
3.- Arcade cabinets with LCD monitors

keilmillerjr

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2018, 11:46:40 am »
Processor requirements I believe would be no different than mame.

I have an i3 2100 and it runs things like blitz and gauntdl well over 100%. I choose an i-series processor to help keep the computer up to date longer. Apple has been dropping support for intel core series.

Video cards need to be crt emudriver compatible. I am currently running an hd5450. Mame uses mostly processor for graphics, so a “shlttier” video card is fine. However, steam gameplay results can vary because of this. Need to know if you want mame only or other games too to determine what video card you should choose.

Ram doesn’t need to be high.

Choose an ssd to improve boot times and make it seem more authentic. Hiding windows helps in authenticity feeling too. I use win 10 1607 enterprise and easily completely hide win UI. Some use windows 7. Some use xp - but your dealing with an old unsupported platform.

morton

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2018, 08:12:10 am »
It sounds like I can get away with an old Dell Optiplex or something like that. An i3 or i5 with about 3.0ghz would suffice? I am ordering a Jpac and am going to go with SSD for sure.

If I like shmups a lot, would I be needing something better or faster to play any 2000's games?

Zebidee

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #4 on: September 30, 2018, 04:00:40 pm »
Core2duo or i3 or better running Windows 7 or Win 10 would be best/easiest. You can use Win XP but then you're limited as the latest versions of CRT_emudriver don't support XP. Similarly you may have issues with drivers and running other post-2014 applications on XP.

Having said all that, I'm currently using XP 64bit on core2duo HP ex-desktops with 2GB ram and 64MB Radeon X1050 graphics cards, and they run fine 100% on every vertical game I've tried so far except "Brave Blade", which is a 3D game (runs at about 95% normal speed). I suspect that the main limitation with Brave Blade is the low-spec graphics card.
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Sledge

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #5 on: September 30, 2018, 09:24:13 pm »
I use a Dell Optiplex 9010 or something like that :)
Low Profile GPU...
perfection!

keilmillerjr

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #6 on: October 01, 2018, 06:55:25 am »
It sounds like I can get away with an old Dell Optiplex or something like that. An i3 or i5 with about 3.0ghz would suffice? I am ordering a Jpac and am going to go with SSD for sure.

If I like shmups a lot, would I be needing something better or faster to play any 2000's games?

Yes. Your choice is a good one. Will perform and save money. Makes me think I should have gone that route.

morton

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #7 on: October 27, 2018, 11:12:30 am »
I am now wondering if the SFF cases can take a Radeon HD Card capable of allowing me 15khz refresh, or if I need to find a full sized case... Anyone know much about this?

JDFan

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #8 on: October 27, 2018, 11:30:52 am »
I am now wondering if the SFF cases can take a Radeon HD Card capable of allowing me 15khz refresh, or if I need to find a full sized case... Anyone know much about this?

IF you can not find a half height card that suits your needs - you can always remove the pieces from the case and mount them in the arcade so that you could use any card rather than be limited to half height !

Zebidee

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #9 on: October 27, 2018, 04:31:23 pm »
I am now wondering if the SFF cases can take a Radeon HD Card capable of allowing me 15khz refresh, or if I need to find a full sized case... Anyone know much about this?

There are plenty of SFF graphics cards out there. Keep in mind that the graphics card doesn't need to be fancy, just compatible.

These days, the challenge might be finding a graphics card that isn't too power-hungry. Just because there is a spare slot and it fits is not the only consideration. SFF PCs usually have specialised, smaller power supplies that are only capable of 200-250W or so. Easy to overload that with an over-spec card, even easier if you remove the case and ignore SFF size restrictions.

Use this excellent online tool for calculating your PCs estimated power usage and appropriate power supplies:
http://www.powersupplycalculator.net/
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morton

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #10 on: October 30, 2018, 09:32:02 am »
Thanks for the tips!

Finding a good used PC and a Video card isn't as easy as some say given my location. Used comps are rare, moreso than old video cards... grr!

schmerzkaufen

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #11 on: October 30, 2018, 10:14:10 am »
Amazon have tons of old and new, refurbished, and used CPUs and GPUs.
I know they're evil but it's such a gold mine for even obsolete hardware and gadgets I can't help but mention.
Of course they don't cover every country in the world either...

In any case I think your Radeon card needs to be compatible with CRT_emudrivers, and feature either VGA or DVI-I output.

JDFan

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #12 on: October 30, 2018, 10:56:21 am »
Thanks for the tips!

Finding a good used PC and a Video card isn't as easy as some say given my location. Used comps are rare, moreso than old video cards... grr!

WHere are you located ? THere are lots of businesses out there that sell off lease products that are returned after their lease is up from a business and they upgrade to other new systems.

FOr example ArrowDirect.com has many different ones for around $50 Shipped in the US. ( THey do ship international and have warehouses etc. in several countries but not sure what they charge then) - including this one with a C2D 3.0 Ghz. 320Gb HDD WIth Win10 pro license included. ( $61 - 20% with Code extra20 = $48.80 + TAX if you live in a state they charge tax in ) ( https://www.arrowdirect.com/lenovo-thinkcentre-m58p-3-0ghz-c2d-4gb-320gb-dvdrw-win-10-pro-64-sff-computer-b/ )
« Last Edit: October 30, 2018, 11:06:28 am by JDFan »

alex2005

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #13 on: October 30, 2018, 11:11:19 am »
I use Windows 7 x64 on an i5 4690 with an HD 7750 (1Gb) plus 8Gb DDR3 RAM.
SSD 120Gb for Windows, and an extra 4Tb for roms frontend etc. And an Aimtrak lightgun.

With it can play anything (PS3 emulators and lower) and no issues with MAME, redream or Pc games (SF4, SFxTekken, HOD3, DragonBall FighterZ etc).

Hope that helps (never tried on a lower spec Pc but probably there are tons with similar performance)

planexcvs

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #14 on: October 30, 2018, 09:50:46 pm »
I use a i3-7100 4.1GHz and Radeon HD 7770 with 8GB DDR4 RAM on Windows 7 with a 256GB SSD.

It plays everything that is currently playable on MAME.

If you want to stick with Windows 7, Skylake board with a Skylake or Kaby Lake Processor (lack of Kaby Lake support is not an issue) should suffice.

schmerzkaufen

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #15 on: October 31, 2018, 04:43:18 am »
The entry 'i' family desktop i3 have become monsters, the latest are even quad-core and pretty much on par with my i5-4690k (stock voltages) both in single thread and overall.

Sticking to dual core though, the current Pentium G 'Gold' series provide just as much STP for cheaper and with lower power consumption.

The glorious G3258 of previous generations isn't available anymore (or rare stock at ridiculous prices) but those newer 'G' almost make up for it IMO.

cools

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #16 on: October 31, 2018, 07:44:49 am »
Information like this is always appreciated. I'm half tempted to set up something in the Arcade Otaku Wiki listing "recommended" OS + CPU + GPU combinations for running CRT_EmuDriver + an ATOM-15 patched card (the latter I personally consider essential for CRT usage)

pubjoe

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #17 on: November 04, 2018, 09:56:00 am »
I don’t use the Atom 15 patch due to bios compatibility.  I ‘shouldn’t’ need it these days but it’s such a pain if I ever do.  I remember you mentioning a motherboard model with a bios that supports 640x480.  I wonder how many others do.

These needlessly graphical modern bioses look like bundled Windows software and themes from 1999, they’re utterly ridiculous.

The glorious G3258 of previous generations isn't available anymore (or rare stock at ridiculous prices) but those newer 'G' almost make up for it IMO.
A second hand G3258 is about £25.  A compatible motherboard is another £25.  Folken’s thread with a hypothetical $1000 budget makes me wonder.  Can throwing money actually improve on the above at all?  I’m assuming any upgrade over this would at best be an increasing few hundred for each 10th of a frame less input lag.

donluca

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #18 on: November 04, 2018, 01:32:01 pm »
It wouldn't. An overclocked to 4.8Ghz G3258 will still be the better option for (Groovy)MAME.
On a scale of fakeness, from more genuine to more fake, we'd have:

1.- Plastic plants (cf. Fake Plastic Trees)
2.- Inflatable dolls
3.- Arcade cabinets with LCD monitors

keilmillerjr

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #19 on: November 04, 2018, 02:44:59 pm »
I don’t use atom15 at all. I don’t foresee myself needing it in the future. If I did, I could connect a monitor to onboard video I would assume? Is there something I am missing? It’s just a two second fuzz that only occurs once in a great while because I have it set on fast startup.

schmerzkaufen

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #20 on: November 04, 2018, 03:13:39 pm »
The cheapest used G3258 I can find is 85€ and I've seen them go higher, then an entry-level mobo that's compatible with the right drivers for OC'ing it proprely (mandatory or you'll barely make it beyond 4GHz) like an MSI H81 E33 is nowhere to be found these days, at least not in my area of the net.

Maybe there's a considerable after-market for PC parts in some countries but not everywhere...

Compared performance;
G4560 @   69€ gives you 3.5GHz, STP 1987
G5400 @   85€ gives you 3.7GHz, STP 2204
G5500 @   99€ gives you 3.8GHz, STP 2186
G5600 @ 119€ gives you 3.9GHz, STP 2266

I'd like to say these Pentiums are eaily available but stocks are low everywhere too, the difference is they're new in box if that matters.

Maybe some of the previous years i3 - which are quite similar - are still around I have to look.
edit: the i3-7100 3.9GHz STP 2227 is at +/- 160€ where I live (it's OC-able apprently if I refer to planexcvs's post)

The G5400 STP is about the same as my i5-4690k at stock speed (STP 2237), I'd love to tell what the latter can do with only that but it's different in that its turbo mode pushes it to 3.9GHz, and I don't know which games in MAME 'trigger' the turbo (or fail to). some day I will monitor it during play.

I remember the G3258 at its stock speed of 3.2GHz was already very capable ingame too (STP 2135), if that was indeed the case anyway the G4560 and G5400 still look like decent alternatives with entry level mobos (minding the prices I get here and assuming it's for someone who is not after crazy OC'ing)

All the Intel CPUs we mention are very similar in single thread performance at stock or cruise speed, all around 2000~2200 STP, which is already great for MAME.
It's the steps up that are bit of a black box, afaik we don't have large "turbo and OC" STP databases for reference.
IMHO it all comes down to what we wish to emulate, and it's good to keep in mind GM needs a little more room for frame_delay, also on the gpu side.
But really what's so exciting in MAME's library that it requires considerable processing power? I wonder sometimes if OC'ing my i5 for MAME would be worth the trouble (rather right now I need more GPU juice)
« Last Edit: November 04, 2018, 03:41:02 pm by schmerzkaufen »

krick

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #21 on: November 04, 2018, 10:50:09 pm »
If you're going to build a new system to run MAME the best CPU choice right now is this one for $170 on Amazon...

Intel Core i3-8350K Coffee Lake Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1151
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0759FWJDK

It's already clocked at 4.0GHz so you don't need an expensive motherboard capable of overclocking.  The stock speed is respectable.  Though, since it's an unlocked "K" processor, you could certainly try to overclock it if you desire.
Hantarex Polo 15KHz
Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 2GB (GCN)
GroovyMAME 0.197.017h_d3d9ex
CRT Emudriver & CRT Tools 2.0 beta 13 (Crimson 16.2.1 for GCN cards)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel Core i7-4790K @ 4.8GHz
ASUS Z87M-PLUS Motherboard

schmerzkaufen

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #22 on: November 05, 2018, 04:26:45 am »
It's the best processor of the year period. I mean you don't buy that monster just for playing MAME, that'd be a waste! ^^

PS: damn why is everything cheaper in the US, best price here is 197€ ($224)

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #23 on: November 05, 2018, 04:41:25 am »
It's the best processor of the year period. I mean you don't buy that monster just for playing MAME, that'd be a waste! ^^

Why? Why people subconsciously link emulation to cheapness?
Important note: posts reporting GM issues without a log will be IGNORED.
Steps to create a log:
 - From command line, run: groovymame.exe -v romname >romname.txt
 - Attach resulting romname.txt file to your post, instead of pasting it.

CRT Emudriver, VMMaker & Arcade OSD downloads, documentation and discussion:  Eiusdemmodi

schmerzkaufen

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #24 on: November 05, 2018, 04:55:07 am »
Me? no way! but I mean there's so much you can do with that CPU...

Years ago I've bought an i5-4690k with emulation in mind, but no way I was going to use that bad boy only for that.  :P
« Last Edit: November 05, 2018, 04:56:40 am by schmerzkaufen »

keilmillerjr

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #25 on: November 05, 2018, 05:58:51 am »
It's the best processor of the year period. I mean you don't buy that monster just for playing MAME, that'd be a waste! ^^

Why? Why people subconsciously link emulation to cheapness?

Balance. I opted to go cheap in cpu and gpu because they still overperform with MAME. It enabled me to spend money on things like an ssd to make it boot in 11 seconds, a tiny case that’s easily removable for service, etc. When you want to play modern video games, my setup fails. So I guess it depends what your looking for.

pubjoe

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #26 on: November 05, 2018, 05:18:40 pm »
The cheapest used G3258 I can find is 85€ and I've seen them go higher, then an entry-level mobo that's  countries but not everywhere...

Strange.  G3258s are consistently £25-£30 on ebay UK.  There were several sold on each of the last few weeks.  Funnily enough yesterday I forgot to bid on a full system that included a G3258.  I just wanted to take a replacement part from the case.  It sold for £38.

If need be I’d act as a free middle man, if you couldn’t get someone to ship.

It's the best processor of the year period. I mean you don't buy that monster just for playing MAME, that'd be a waste! ^^

Why? Why people subconsciously link emulation to cheapness?

Personally I value emulation very highly and I would run a power sucking beast if I had to.  But I’m under the impression that many features on a modern CPU aren’t very useful.  Also, Mame performance is either fantastic or terrible depending on the game.  It seems sensible to me to run a cheap low powered system (and being old, I find it hard to consider my g3258 + HD7750 + SSD to be low powered by any stretch) as it does what I want efficiently, and with a pico psu.

Also it’s cooped up in an arcade cabinet.
« Last Edit: November 05, 2018, 05:39:46 pm by pubjoe »

cools

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #27 on: November 06, 2018, 05:50:06 am »
I don’t use the Atom 15 patch due to bios compatibility.  I ‘shouldn’t’ need it these days but it’s such a pain if I ever do.  I remember you mentioning a motherboard model with a bios that supports 640x480.  I wonder how many others do.

These needlessly graphical modern bioses look like bundled Windows software and themes from 1999, they’re utterly ridiculous.

Depends on setup. With an incompatible BIOS you likely can't view it on a 15kHz screen even unpatched, so you've got to hook up an external monitor. If your motherboard has onboard video, you can use that to configure an incompatible BIOS (assuming you pull the PC out of the cabinet first). When it is all compatible it's marvellous, getting the boot screens up in 15/24/31kHz is great.

It's the best processor of the year period. I mean you don't buy that monster just for playing MAME, that'd be a waste! ^^

Why? Why people subconsciously link emulation to cheapness?

Brings to mind the other thread about old versions. For nearly 2 decades people have been recycling old hardware with hacky emulators that work well enough to play a huge amount of games. It's only recently there's been a real drive for accurate, low latency emulation. A cheap PC to play lots of classics is still perfectly viable.

I'm on the other end of the scale. My modern hardware is inside my cabinets, and my daily laptop is ancient.  ;D

donluca

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #28 on: November 06, 2018, 11:10:33 am »
Why? Why people subconsciously link emulation to cheapness?

It's not about cheapness, MAME is a very strange beast. Over the years it has made huge improvements on the accuracy side of things while clearly and openly stating that optimization is never considered while developing and refining the drivers.
This ended up with a software which requires huge amount of power in order to properly run certain games (without even taking stuff like frame_delay into consideration) but, at the same time, it's unable to take advantage of modern CPUs full power (ie: it still runs on a single core).

This means that what you actually want to run all MAME's games at 100% speed is very specific hardware: you don't need a powerful graphic card, hell, even an old Radeon 9000 would be enough, and you don't need a super powerful processor like an Intel Core i9, but rather a CPU which is able to reach very high clock frequencies on a single core.

That's the story of how a ~50€ G3258 overclocked to 5Ghz completely smashes 1000€ Core i7 processors.

And that's a good thing. Really a good thing. You get to build a highly specialized machine for just one purpose without breaking the bank.

And, besides, there's nothing wrong with cheapness, as long as it works.
On a scale of fakeness, from more genuine to more fake, we'd have:

1.- Plastic plants (cf. Fake Plastic Trees)
2.- Inflatable dolls
3.- Arcade cabinets with LCD monitors

pubjoe

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #29 on: November 06, 2018, 12:45:58 pm »
Depends on setup. With an incompatible BIOS you likely can't view it on a 15kHz screen even unpatched, so you've got to hook up an external monitor. If your motherboard has onboard video, you can use that to configure an incompatible BIOS (assuming you pull the PC out of the cabinet first). When it is all compatible it's marvellous, getting the boot screens up in 15/24/31kHz is great.
Yeah, you can’t.  It’s the added step of disconnecting the graphics card when hooking up a spare monitor that I’m avoiding. It’s a small step I admit, but I’m already swearing by the time I’m dragging a monitor out and untangling the PC from the cab.

That said, it’s not something I’ve done for a long time since my Mame setup has been running nicely for ages now*.  Perhaps it’s time to go back to Atom 15.

*I can offer no help to your other thread about the sound warbles, except for a list of fifty things it might or might not be.  I went through so many possible causes for my intermiddent warbles.  In the end I don’t know why they came or why they went.  Every time I thought I fixed them they reoccurred.  I do think it was caused by disk access though.  I might have fixed them inadvertently by clearing a bloated windows cache or just freeing up disk space.  A network cable ‘seemed’ to make it worse at the time but it’s running now, online, and fine.   ???

I'm on the other end of the scale. My modern hardware is inside my cabinets, and my daily laptop is ancient.  ;D
Now you mention it, my desk computer is eight years old.  Emulation is the most demanding thing I ask from computers.  I just link whatever I can to cheapness.
« Last Edit: November 06, 2018, 01:05:05 pm by pubjoe »

schmerzkaufen

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #30 on: November 06, 2018, 01:11:18 pm »
I've just noticed something about the i3-8350K, it requires an expensive Intel Z370 Express mobo, while the previous gen i3-7350K (4.2GHz STP 2437) is socket 1151 which has a broader choice of cheaper mobos.
Not much of a price difference in the end, but for someone who doesn't want to bother overclocking the i3-7350K is a better choice (slightly more Hz and STP and more affordable mobos)

Of course the G3258 remains unbeatable for the money, if you're alright with used and ready to look for the right mobo withe the right drivers that is.
@donluca: not saying you give people false hopes but 5GHz is like around the absolute top the G3258 could reach on a select number of mobos in ideal conditions. I don't know if a used one on whatever also used 1150 mobo people can still find, will be really capable of.
I remember at the time that CPU was all the rage most OC reports talked about easly over 4GHz of course, then up to somewhere around 4.5GHz, but then you had to really push the voltages, which isn't exactly the best way to preserve a CPU especially if you used the stock fan like many did.
That's what bothers me with used G3258s, I know most of them have been OC'd as much as possible this way, and people since around a year or two have been selling theirs for switching to something stronger at stock and cib.
If, really if, the purpose of a new PC is to emulate the more demanding games in MAME and play them comfortably, frankly I'd go like these people with something fresh, already super strong on stock and expanding also very far but without the same strain and age as a used G3258.
Yes, of course that'll be much more expensive.  :P

@pubjoe: thanks for your offer but I'm alright, yes I can see some from eBay too, although with the shipping cost the difference isn't much vs. a used from amazon.
Also I've had too many bad experiences buying used stuff from eBay, these days I avoid that and stick to new or refursbished from a select number of stores.
« Last Edit: November 06, 2018, 01:19:10 pm by schmerzkaufen »

krick

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #31 on: November 06, 2018, 01:53:56 pm »
Over the years it has made huge improvements on the accuracy side of things while clearly and openly stating that optimization is never considered while developing and refining the drivers.

This is absolutely not true.  Optimization is always a concern.  In particular, Ryan Holtz frequently commits performance optimizations.  MAME developers avoid overly aggressive optimizations that can make the code more confusing, break emulation, and create inaccurate behavior as compared to real hardware.  The bottom line is that they won't go out of their way and waste their time trying to increase performance on dumpster-level PC hardware from 10 years ago.  If a game runs 200% on current hardware, that's good enough.  You're welcome to learn to program and submit your own optimizations.  There may be some low-hanging fruit that's been overlooked.

it's unable to take advantage of modern CPUs full power (ie: it still runs on a single core).

This is also untrue.  There are several drivers in MAME that take advantage of multiple cores.  I ran some benchmarks a while back and these games (there are others) were 15-27% faster on a quad-core CPU vs a dual core CPU...

blitz
gauntleg
gradius4
pinkswts
propcycl
slrasslt

The problem is that accurate emulation often requires extremely tight timing between various emulated CPUs, GPUs, and audio chips.  Sometimes, it's simply not possible to spread this work over multiple cores because the overhead of trying to keep everything synchronized eats up any gains you'd get by offloading the work to multiple cores.


you don't need a powerful graphic card, hell, even an old Radeon 9000 would be enough,

This is not completely true either.   On old cards, you may run into issues with low texture memory at higher resolutions.  You also can't run any HLSL effects on really old video cards.


...and you don't need a super powerful processor like an Intel Core i9, but rather a CPU which is able to reach very high clock frequencies on a single core.
That's the story of how a ~50€ G3258 overclocked to 5Ghz completely smashes 1000€ Core i7 processors.

This is only true on drivers that don't utilize multiple cores.  And I wouldn't say "smashes".  The performance can be comparable and when you consider the price difference, it's a total bargain.  Here's a thread with some benchmarks I did a while back comparing a G3258 to the i7-4790K both at 4.5GHz...

https://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Number=371718
Hantarex Polo 15KHz
Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 2GB (GCN)
GroovyMAME 0.197.017h_d3d9ex
CRT Emudriver & CRT Tools 2.0 beta 13 (Crimson 16.2.1 for GCN cards)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel Core i7-4790K @ 4.8GHz
ASUS Z87M-PLUS Motherboard

krick

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #32 on: November 06, 2018, 02:00:14 pm »
Depends on setup. With an incompatible BIOS you likely can't view it on a 15kHz screen even unpatched, so you've got to hook up an external monitor. If your motherboard has onboard video, you can use that to configure an incompatible BIOS (assuming you pull the PC out of the cabinet first). When it is all compatible it's marvellous, getting the boot screens up in 15/24/31kHz is great.
Yeah, you can’t.  It’s the added step of disconnecting the graphics card when hooking up a spare monitor that I’m avoiding. It’s a small step I admit, but I’m already swearing by the time I’m dragging a monitor out and untangling the PC from the cab.

I installed Atom-15 on my card and I while the splash screen displays correctly and I could go into the BIOS and see it on my arcade monitor, I could only see the upper left part of the screen so it was useless.

Basically, any motherboard with a UEFI BIOS is probably not going to work.
Hantarex Polo 15KHz
Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 2GB (GCN)
GroovyMAME 0.197.017h_d3d9ex
CRT Emudriver & CRT Tools 2.0 beta 13 (Crimson 16.2.1 for GCN cards)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel Core i7-4790K @ 4.8GHz
ASUS Z87M-PLUS Motherboard

donluca

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #33 on: November 07, 2018, 06:48:51 am »
@donluca: not saying you give people false hopes but 5GHz is like around the absolute top the G3258 could reach on a select number of mobos in ideal conditions.

I easily reached 5.2Ghz on single core my G3258 but it crashed on some occasion, so since there were no gains from 5 to 5.2, I decided to roll it back to a more relaxed 5Ghz. And I didn't even need to boost the voltages. Actually I managed to slightly lower the voltages on mine once I got it back to 5Ghz to run it cooler.
If I wanted to use both cores, I had to stay at 4.8Ghz, but there was no point since I only used it for GroovyMAME.
I used an Asrock Motherboard I paid 35€, so nothing astronomical.
Variance do exists, I've read of people having difficulties going beyond 4.2Ghz, so definitely keep that in mind, although most people happily reached 4.8Ghz without issues.

This is absolutely not true.  Optimization is always a concern.

This is absolutely and completely false. I (and many others) have reached several times to MAME devs asking for optimization on some drivers and they clearly told us that optimization is on the rock bottom of the list.
People always think of MAME as a way to play arcade games on their PCs. This is not the case. MAME is a preservation project aimed at discovering how this old hardware worked, documenting it in the most complete and in-depth way possible (just look at the source files, you'll be amazed at the amount of information you'll find). Games run because, of course, once documented you know how boards work and you're able to reproduce their behavior. MAME is a godsend to arcade operators and people who repair PCBs because thanks to the sheer amount of information in it they're able to troubleshoot and repair those old boards.
As such, optimization is never been an issue, because getting people to run the games on their devices has never been a priority, just a consequence.
It's only in recent times that some gentle soul decided to take a look at some of the drivers and do some optimization on them, but that's never been a priority.

Quote
This is also untrue.  There are several drivers in MAME that take advantage of multiple cores.  I ran some benchmarks a while back and these games (there are others) were 15-27% faster on a quad-core CPU vs a dual core CPU...

blitz
gauntleg
gradius4
pinkswts
propcycl
slrasslt

We are talking GroovyMAME here, and I'm pretty sure GM doesn't use multithreading on anything.
And, besides, MT on MAME is pretty broken. So yeah, it might speed up the emulation, but it will bring other issues along.
And Pink Sweets doesn't use it. Just the more modern and demanding 3D games.
But, again, we're talking GM here, and I'm pretty sure GM doesn't use MT at all.

Quote
This is not completely true either.   On old cards, you may run into issues with low texture memory at higher resolutions.  You also can't run any HLSL effects on really old video cards.

Again, we're talking GM which is mainly aimed at CRT users. But I'll give you that: There are people which are using GM on LCDs to take advantage of frame_delay, so that's partially true, although any modern low end graphic card will do the job.

Quote
This is only true on drivers that don't utilize multiple cores.  And I wouldn't say "smashes".  The performance can be comparable and when you consider the price difference, it's a total bargain.  Here's a thread with some benchmarks I did a while back comparing a G3258 to the i7-4790K both at 4.5GHz...

https://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Number=371718

Drivers that use multiple cores can be counted on one hand's fingers and, as said before, the MT implementation brings issues with it.
I said "smash" because even getting the same results, it's a 50€ vs a much more expensive processor.
EDIT: I'd also like to add that you could OC the G3258 without needing a third party cooler, which is a nice added bonus. Not sure you could reach those frequencies with your i7 with the stock cooler. I'd be really impressed if that was the case.
« Last Edit: November 07, 2018, 06:52:48 am by donluca »
On a scale of fakeness, from more genuine to more fake, we'd have:

1.- Plastic plants (cf. Fake Plastic Trees)
2.- Inflatable dolls
3.- Arcade cabinets with LCD monitors

Haze

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #34 on: November 07, 2018, 12:37:27 pm »
And Pink Sweets doesn't use it. Just the more modern and demanding 3D games.

A fair bit more than you realise uses threads.

Pink Sweets puts the video hardware emulation on a different thread because when I wrote that driver the CPU and video on the same thread was too much for any machine I owned.

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #35 on: November 07, 2018, 12:47:32 pm »
This is absolutely and completely false. I (and many others) have reached several times to MAME devs asking for optimization on some drivers and they clearly told us that optimization is on the rock bottom of the list.

Not true.  If there's low-hanging speed wins that don't compromise the emulation, we'll take them.  Case in point: Namco System 22/Super 22 (Time Crisis, Ridge Racer, Rave Racer, Prop Cycle, those kinds of games) got both dramatically better video emulation and dramatically faster in 0.203.  And it uses multiple cores!

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #36 on: November 07, 2018, 07:04:41 pm »
A fair bit more than you realise uses threads.

Pink Sweets puts the video hardware emulation on a different thread because when I wrote that driver the CPU and video on the same thread was too much for any machine I owned.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this happens only when you're using double buffering along with the multithread switch, which will defer all the rendering part to a separate thread, otherwise it will still use only one core, unless I missed something along the way.

Not true.  If there's low-hanging speed wins that don't compromise the emulation, we'll take them.  Case in point: Namco System 22/Super 22 (Time Crisis, Ridge Racer, Rave Racer, Prop Cycle, those kinds of games) got both dramatically better video emulation and dramatically faster in 0.203.  And it uses multiple cores!

Sure, after only, what is that, 13 years that the S22 driver had a breakthrough and got something working, someone gracefully thought about optimizing things. And thank god those were "low-hanging speed wins", otherwise I guess we would have waited another 10 years, when those optimization wouldn't have been necessary anymore because CPUs would have become much more powerful!  :woot

Sorry about the (maybe excessive) sarcasm, I was really amazed at the improvements done in the driver, but, as I stated, you can't really say that optimizing the drivers has been a priority in MAME. Now we're finally seeing some work done (CV1k driver is another great example of this), but for literally years we've been left with some drivers which were simply unusable, performance wise.
But that's fine, nothing wrong about it, at least on my part. It just makes me smile when people come and say that MAME has always had a focus on optimization.  ;D
« Last Edit: November 07, 2018, 07:13:32 pm by donluca »
On a scale of fakeness, from more genuine to more fake, we'd have:

1.- Plastic plants (cf. Fake Plastic Trees)
2.- Inflatable dolls
3.- Arcade cabinets with LCD monitors

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #37 on: November 07, 2018, 07:57:00 pm »
Another aspect which could improve with a well-advertised bounty system? It will come sooner or later.

schmerzkaufen

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #38 on: November 08, 2018, 04:11:21 am »
@donluca: Optimizations haven't made much of a difference for cv1k since the games run at funky speeds, that system is definitely not a great example.
Even underclocking approximations by hand benefit the games more, and makes more of them actually playable.
But without that I'd rather have correct ingame speeds and need a $1,500 monster processor to run them at 100%, than the current inaccurate emulation even if it could run on a toaster (you can already use DEmul for that anyway, it runs on toasters, doesn't solve the issue with cv1k at all)

Though for a different reason I'm with you about the ridiculous lenghts part, and no doubt in specific cases (such as extremely popular drivers that still have problematic issues for playing) that it's better to allow hacks and tweaks until that hypothetical full proper emulation becomes a thing, much better than leaving them unattended for years and decades anyway.
I've been thinking about a diff for allowing to save the CPU overclock/underclock slider settings again, since that's all we have but is currently a major pain to use.

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Re: Picking a PC
« Reply #39 on: November 08, 2018, 04:18:12 am »
I've been thinking about a diff for allowing to save the CPU overclock/underclock slider settings again, since that's all we have but is currently a major pain to use.

I'd like a fix that saves all of the sliders.