Most Optimized?

[FrizzleFried]

Anyone keep track of which versions of MAME are the most optimized for the more difficult games to run?  For example... Ray Crisis... I can play Ray Crisis at 100% through 99% of the game... there are a very few places that slow down slightly... I am using MAME .209... are there known builds that seem to play these CHD games better than others?   With the ability to have multiple emulators setup easily through Attract-Mode,  I don't see any reason why not to run specific MAME builds that may run a game or two more optimally...

This is common practice with the Pi3... and there is plenty of documentation as to which games play better on which builds of MAME (or FBA)... I guess my question comes down to... is there such documentation for the PC based builds of MAME?

[lilshawn]

as with everything that is still in development...most everytime you add/fix/optimize one thing, something else breaks/runs slower/stops working entirely.

this would be an never ending project.

[Laythe]

Optimized isn't really the right word for it, I don't think.  Faster is the right word.

Earlier versions tend to run things faster by being less correct.

Optimization in PC games is generally a process of making code run faster by doing less unnecessary work or by better utilizing the available hardware resources, because running smoothly is a goal.  Faster might be more optimal for our needs, but it's perpendicular to the stated aims of the MAME project, and sometimes actually contrary to it - we might call a 10x faster hack around something where you won't really notice a big difference more optimized, but from a preservation standpoint that's less optimized. 

I say this just to give credit where due - the MAME codebase is quite highly optimized, just not for what our use case would most like it to be tuned for.

Your question is totally valid, and I don't have an answer for it other than "experiment and see".

[FrizzleFried]

Oh,  I'm not casting any shade at MAME by any stretch... I'm actually thinking of the differences between actual MAME versions...

I found a MAME Benchmarking page which indicates which version of MAME runs at least a few of the games fastest... so at least that's a start.