MAME's effect on my computer resources...

[wackychimp]

Ok so I'm wondering if I can get by with 256MB RAM rather than 512MB and if I need a 1.2GHZ Athalon or a 1.6GHz.

I guess my real question is:

what does MAME need more of: CPU speed or RAM?

thanks!

[CthulhuLuke]

Ya know what's weird, I have a 333mhz celeron piece of crap right, but we got 256mb of SDRam and I'm running Memturbo to free up resources, I'm thinking not only does ram have something to do with it, but your video card has a big part to do with it.  Buy a video card that doesn't support 2d games, no 2d games, buy a card that has good 2d hardware, Mame will run no problem.
 BUT I'm thinkin anywhere in the range of 1ghz and 256 or 512 mb of ram, and you're computer's gonna run any game in MAME no problem, just don't get an off-brand "Powered By" video card, they might be cheaper, but in the end, that extra money for the "Built by" is definitely worth it.
    -CthulhuLuke

[rampy]

Hey cthulhlluke,

how is neogeo performance on your system with sound on?

I'm having a hell of a time getting TurfMasters to stay at a decent fps ( say 30/60 ) all the time... when you get on the green and theirs speech and multiple things things "wiping" on to the screen.. the sound stutters and and the auto frameskip ratchets way up (on a celeron 366@550 with 300 megs of ram)

if you have some tweaks let me know... thanks!

rampy

[Howard_Casto]

To actually answer your question both, but the processor is far more important than anything else.  When a game is emulated it takes 2 to 10 times the amount of processor resources that a normal pc game of the same quality would. this is because the orignal instructions have to be ran through an interpreter and then often an emulated pice of hardware on top of that.  Also ram is very importatn for the larger games as any mame game is completely loaded into memory to speed up the emulation process.  The video card is also important in that some of the newer games have large textures(or a lot of textures all at once), which can choke a low-end video card.  So the moral of this story is you've spent a lot of money setting up a mame cab, don't skimp on the most important part, the pc.    A gig or so amd processor and 512 megs of ram will do ya.  

[CthulhuLuke]

Well to tell ya the truth, when I play Neo-Geo games, Cps-1 games, or Cps-2 games, I actually load up Kawaks, because it seems to be a lot more slower processor friendly.  If you're really having a tough time loading up Neo geo games, just use good ol fashion NeoRageX, best Neo-Geo emulator out there.
  -CthulhuLuke