Is this PC any good for my project?

[LeedsFan]

I've been out of the Mame scene for a while but itching to get back into another project. I've decided, after much umming and ahhhing, to try out the Mame HLSL settings on a 32" 1080p LCD monitor. Not the most authentic set up I know... but reasonably cost effective for what looks like pretty decent payback with what I see of HLSL.

I have a PC box all ready to go with Mame.140 and Hyperspin already set up. I'd love to use this if possible. Don't mind upgrading the GPU or RAM if needed... just need advice on what it should be changed to. Really don't want to rebuild the whole box.

Specs:

WIN 7 64 bit 3GB RAM
Mame .140
E4500 Dual Core @ 2.20 GHz
ASUS EAH 5570  GPU

1080p monitor is fixed... has to be as cheapo a project as possible. Basically recycling stuff I have here and buy just what I need for good HLSL setup.

[JDFan]

For about $5 - $6 you could upgrade the CPU to a 3.0 Ghz e8400 or 3.16 GHz. e8500 CPU and get a bit more speed out of the system for better performance

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-E8400-Core2-Duo-3-0GHz-1333Mhz-6MB-Socket-775-Desktop-CPU-Processor-SLB9J/332718731122?hash=item4d7794ef72:g:52wAAOSwmT1bR~~R:rk:9:pf:0

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-CPU-Core-2-Duo-E8500-3-16GHz-6M-FSB1333-LGA-775/173579273805?epid=74064681&hash=item286a21864d:g:sGIAAOSwAJFa6mnN:rk:3:pf:1&frcectupt=true

Which should improve overall performance vs the 2.20Ghz. chip in there now ! ( Just verify your MOBO can run them)

[TOMMYGUN]

Processor is the most important part for Mame

[Howard_Casto]

Well not if you want to use hlsl…..  that feature depends greatly upon the video card.  You don't need anything super high end, but it does have to be capable of rendering complex shaders without slowdown. 

[Mike A]

It would be cheaper to track down a CRT, and it will look and play better.

[LeedsFan]

Well not if you want to use hlsl…..  that feature depends greatly upon the video card.  You don't need anything super high end, but it does have to be capable of rendering complex shaders without slowdown.

I take it my card is no good. What would you recommend? I can upgrade the processor to a 3.3 GHz Duo max and that won't cost much. This PC already plays all I want from Mame perfectly well but I understand HLSL will demand more.

[Howard_Casto]

Not much really.  It seems to depend more upon shader support than raw power so the best way to find out is to get ahold of the hardware (on a friends pc or whatever) and try it.  Understand that really demanding games (like the 3d games) probably won't run well with hlsl regardless of specs.  I've ran it well with R series amd cards, really old ones, and it still works but your mileage may vary. 


Long story short shop around and if it were me I wouldn't spend more than around 50 bucks on a card.  I would try the machine as-is first.  You might be surprised.

[schmerzkaufen]

I've decided, after much umming and ahhhing, to try out the Mame HLSL settings on a 32" 1080p LCD monitor. Not the most authentic set up I know... but reasonably cost effective for what looks like pretty decent payback with what I see of HLSL.

*snip*

1080p monitor is fixed... has to be as cheapo a project as possible. Basically recycling stuff I have here and buy just what I need for good HLSL setup.

As someone using HLSL on a 32" 1080p monitor often, my opinion is that HLSL is nice but...scales badly on that resolution. No matter what you do there's always a tiny bit of scaling artifacts (like uneven thickness of the scanlines visible on clear and solid color areas, creating patterns) and that even if you use integer scaling, which you can't really use with all the games anyway.
Same for the shadow mask or aperture grille, you can tell no matter which settings that it's difficult not to look a bit messy with only a 1080p monitor.
Honestly in MAME the CRT-geom shader available when you use BGFX, easily looks better than HLSL (too bad BGFX is still laggy and that saving settings is massive pain)

Currently I'm using the great ViewSonic monitor in my sig (+/-200 bucks), excellent quality and performance, most importantly it can run all games at their native refresh rates because it is compatible with CRT-Emudriver and the cards that support it, which following Calamity's guide for LCDs gives me variable refresh rate on a monitor that doesn't officially support it (not FreeSync nor G-Sync branded)

BUT I'm feeling I might have had better HLSL results with the 1440p version of that same monitor.
Though if I used such resolution and wanted the benefit of GroovyMAME's lag reduction on top of HLSL 'n stuff, I believe it'd take a reasonably powerful AMD graphics card.
Sure a WQHD 2560x1440 monitor is more in the 300 bucks range these days, and there's the cost of a decent mid-range GPU too...

No intent to push you to spend more here, just a warning of what to expect of HLSL on a 1080p monitor.
Sometimes I turn every scanlines and mask options off, and only use defocus x & y settings, which basically makes HLSL a great and precise custom smoothing filter, immensely better than the usual bilinear filter, in my eyes this feels better for playing than a messy CRT simulation.