How important is the graphics card for emulation?

[Tlos]

The computer I’m using is a Dell Optiplex 9010. I don’t plan on running PlayStation 3 games on it. Graphics cards have skyrocketed in price. So just wondering how important this is with newer computers playing games that are 25-40 years old. If I should get one, any suggestions?

[Howard_Casto]

You need a graphics card, windows can barely function at a decent framerate without some form of hardware acceleration.   That being said so long as you stick to mame you don't necessarily need anything super high end.   A $50-$75 card would probably be fine.

You also need to understand that emulation and regular pc gaming are NOT the same thing.   A 20 year old gamecube game will often need higher specs than a brand new AAA pc game.  Now in regards to mame processing power is far more important, but a video card is necessary and for emulators outside of mame that take advantage of hardware acceleration more, video card specs do count.

[bobbyb13]

The other bit to consider is what kind of display you want to output to.

If it will be a CRT (and if you are playing old arcade games, why use anything else?!  ) then you want to make sure the card you get has analog output via a VGA and/or DVI-I style connector.

If using an lcd is your goal then an HDMI output will suit.

[Howard_Casto]

Good points.   Also the resolution is a factor.   In terms of the emulators that take advantage of hardware acceleration pushing a 480p image is far less taxing than a 4k one.   Of course you'll rarely find emulated games that run higher than 480p but some emulators allow for up sampling or rendering 3d objects at a higher than native resolution.

[nitrogen_widget]

I can run most games on latest mame in retroarch as of march with one of these on  17" 1200x1000 without much trouble full screen with basic rpi shaders at 60fps.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Computer-Lab-International-CLI-Thin-Client-IA8600-IQW401256/223926621607?pageci=ba571cbf-7ef7-442a-bb1d-921ac029b834&redirect=mobile

3d arcade is a no and some cave games will run with an older core if it supports them.
Was really surprised actually.

I'm running a minimal Linux though that uses around 150mb after boot.

Same with a 15$ core2 pc from goodwill with a crap 8400 nvidea on Linux. Wouldn't put windows on it. Not much ram.
Mame mostly needs video to scale and apply sharers.

I can't vouch for n64. My kids didn't complain though.

Core2quad with a Radian 7700 HD handled dream cast just fine for me.

I have a Wii for GameCube stuff so I never tried dolphin on that system.

[Vocalitus]

The computer I’m using is a Dell Optiplex 9010. I don’t plan on running PlayStation 3 games on it. Graphics cards have skyrocketed in price. So just wondering how important this is with newer computers playing games that are 25-40 years old. If I should get one, any suggestions?

Not really, as others have mentioned,  it can depend on the platform or system you are trying to run the game from.

ETA Prime showcased a $15 Goodwill find with a R5 240 playing a plethora of games just fine at full speed. 



I managed to play a bunch of games on my i3 Lenovo M73. That has a HD4000 in it and can stream games from Xbox Game Pass just fine.

The R5 240 can be found for $12 on ebay.

 https://www.ebay.com/itm/143762626682?hash=item2178eb987a:g:PuoAAOSwKF9fc-af

With the new laws on gaming PCs in California, and the recent stupidity of graphic card prices, investing in old reliable hardware can be beneficial.

[Phreakwars]

On one of my arcade cabinets, I have it running on an old P4 with a GeForce FX 6200. You wanna talk old and outdated, there ya go. But still, it runs much much better then a Raspberry Pi. Now, you wouldn't think something that old would have much muscle, but you'd actually be pretty surprised to find out what an old GPU like that can do in even modern games. You wanna talk emulation, well MAME for it is nothing, haven't tested it on any harder to run emulators yet but I'm guessing results should be quite good. Mame system requirements have went up over the years sure, but like others said, it depends on the platform, and even with say Mame, what doesn't run on it is a much smaller number then what will. So with that being said, your best bet is look at the platform, or even specific game that is concerning and figuring out from there if what you have will work for you.

[danny_galaga]

If it has onboard graphics that will do. That's all I use. Only reason I got a card for my last mame rig was it was an arcade VGA to drive a crt

[leapinlew]

I'm using an i5 with onboard graphics - no complaints.

[Zebidee]

I'm running CRT_emulator/Groovymame 0.200 on a core2duo 3.0 Ghz machine running XP x64 with a low-profile Radeon X1050 64MB graphics card. Yes, that's right, just 64 megabytes of video RAM. It handles almost everything I ask of it except the 3D graphics stuff.

You don't need a fancy GPU, it just needs to work.

[Vocalitus]

I have a Thinkpad 560X 233mmx CPU with 64MB that plays Sparcade flawlessly in DOS. It has a Neomagic MagicGraph128XD with 2MB GPU.

Fired this up yesterday and it works just as it did 24 years ago!  I feel old now. 

Beat that.  (I also have a 386DLX somewhere in the garage) 

[Howard_Casto]

Folks don't take this the wrong way but don't recommend an integrated card if you haven't upgraded mame in 20 years or are running dos.   Don't get me wrong, I do that as well, but I answered the question asked assuming he wanted to run the latest build of mame and probably have a fairly recent front-end.   I'm not saying it's impossible to get away with just integrated graphics, but you've got to take into account how much of a hassle it'll be to get thing optimized.  If you are driving a crt sure, but just running windows 10 requires accelerated graphics if you don't want a jittery experience.   

[Osirus23]

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