HLSL using GPU or CPU?

[cjoli]

Hi, I am looking for a little insight into using HLSL in MAME, I have previously used MAME on arcade monitors but now I am looking to build a cocktail table MAME cab to mainly use for some head to head sports games, but this time I am going to be using a large 30" dell monitor and would like to use HLSL, but when I enable it the games run at a fraction of the speed to play, turn it off and they are fine. just trying to figure out if a new video card at it would it fix it or is it more reliant on the CPU?

Here is a rundown of what I am using just incase, its all stuff I had laying around so just trying to figure out if I can just get a new video card or if I have to get a new PC?

PC is a Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz, 4gig Ram, with and SSD HD and a fresh install of win 10 64bit
Current video card is a GeForce 210 with 1024MB DDDR3
latest version of MAME64

I am using the Cocktail mode in MAME that splits the screen into 2 images, everything plays fine without HLSL enabled so I was hoping that new video card would fix the issue but I didn't know how reliant the HLSL is on the GPU or is my CPU just not enough for this?

Also the native resolution for the monitor is 2560x1600 but I have also tried it at 1200x800 and its a little better but not much.

[Howard_Casto]

Well the short of it is it requires both.  You'll need a decently new video card just to run hlsl, but on the other hand games that struggle with hlsl enabled often play fine with it off so it's taking up cpu cycles as well.  What kind of games are we talking about here?  Any of the 3d stuff isn't going to run well with hlsl enabled, but most stuff up to the late 90's is going to play ok on a modest pc. 

I *think* your cpu is good enough, but I can't guarantee it.  Buy a video card with a good return policy... that's the easiest way to find out as sadly it's difficult to give benchmarks for mame. 

[cjoli]

Thanks for the reply, I am only going to be running a handful of games on this and I don't think any are 3d, things like tack and field, some neo geo sports games and a few others. This is going to be in a cocktail table using the built in MAME cocktail mode that kind of makes the monitor into 2 screens. I have tested on my Surface book 2 an my main desktop PC (both i7s with NVidia 1060s) which obviously run fine but I was trying to get away with using an old PC I had laying around but maybe its not enough for the HLSL. I will have to see if I have any other video cards laying around I can test but this is an old dell desktop that does not really have extra power cords for video card that require that.

[Howard_Casto]

There are adapters that you can buy to run video cards of of hdd power cables.  At least there are for the old 4 pin connectors... not sure about sata.

[cjoli]

thanks, yea I just ordered some yesterday to try one of the other cards, if that does not work I will have to look into getting another PC.