cpu perfomance in mame

[stephenp1983]

Didn't know where to post this so I'll ask here anyway.  I Know that mame is pretty much dependant on the cpu and not the video card.  I'm currently building a cab, and have been testing out all my mame stuff on my main desktop which will not be used in the game.  Its a quite powerful athlon 4400 x2 and most games work great.  I know some games aren't going to work at 100 percent due to emulation problems and not the processor.  I'm wanting to  know what do you think a good medium is for a processor.  meaning where does the perfomance from the processor itself not matter anymore and its really a matter of emulation limitation.  I see alot of people around here with celerons and older amd processors.  I want to be able to run most of the newer games, but I was just curious as to what processor I should put in my cab, without going overboard. Hope this is clear on what I'm asking

[lordtodd75]

Most of the newer games, especially the CHD games cannot be run to there fullest on any processor. I guess we just need technology to catch up  I think it is somewhere upwards of 8 ghz you would need and since mame does not support dual processors, it might be a little while until you can run the newer stuff. Most of the stuff from the late 80's back should run just fine on what you have.

[ArtMAME]

I am using a Socket A type  AMD Sempron  3000 (2GHz)  and it works great for all the games I throw at it.  You could also try AMD Sempron 2600 (Socket A).  If you are going to purchase a new processor for your MAME cabinet, you can get a new AMD CPU/Motherboard combo for less than $100 in some places.

I have not used newer Intels except when I play MAME on my Laptops (Older Gateway with P4 1.7GHz and Dell Latitude 610 with Pentium M 1.73 GHz) and they work just fine.

If you are looking to salvage an old PC, I would say any processor faster than 1GHz (AMD or Pentium) should have plenty of power to run the currently playable games in MAME.

[stephenp1983]

Thanks guys for the information.  I had an older 754 socket mb and an athlon 64 3000 plus that I was planning to use, but I've had to rma the board twice to asus and sometime during me taking the computer apart twice a pin got bent on the processor.  Asus is sending me a brand new board, but I might not be able to get the processor to work anymore, so I might end up having to use an old p3 instead.  The games i enjoy the most are the streetfigher 2d fighter type games, and the games like xmen aracade around the mid 90's I guess.  Those are the games I'm worried abotu playing at full speed if I have to use the p3

[DaveJ-UK]

I currently use a socket 478 Celeron 1.8GHz which runs everything I want fine.

I'd say just search eBay for a nice small form factor Dell Optiplex. You'll get 2.4GHz/512MB/80GB for about

[stephenp1983]

well hopefully i'll still b e able to use my a64 3000 if asus sends me a good motherboard back lol