How much does a graphics card matter?

[Panzer]

Hi all!

I havn't posted in some time but I am getting pretty near completion.

I wimped out and put a 26 inch tv in my cab and had my laptop running mame for awhile. As luck would have it I just got my hands on a 2.8 ghz / 768 ram computer that I am going to pop in there. I know this is a bit of an overkill but it was free so i'll take it!

So the question is... There is no s-video out on my computer yet obviously, so i need to go buy a card. In regards to running mame is there any real noticible difference betwwen the $50 card and the $300 card? Or does that just affect you more high end PC games?

Thanks all, this site has been a wealth of info to date!

[ahofle]

It won't make much (if any) difference in MAME performance, but it's possible the s-video output might be better in a more expensive card.

[Fozzy The Bear]

2.8Ghz isn't overkill if you want to run games newer than about 1990.  You should be able to run some of the CHD's at a reasonable speed on that as well.

As far as graphics cards with good S-Video TV out are concerned, go for as good an ATI card as your budget will allow.

Graphics card performance IS starting to make a difference to Mame now that the Devs have started to offload some of the rendering to the GPU. As the newer internal Mame drivers start to appear in the next year or so, graphics card performance WILL start to make a difference to Mame performance.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[ahofle]

Graphics card performance IS starting to make a difference to Mame now that the Devs have started to offload some of the rendering to the GPU. As the newer internal Mame drivers start to appear in the next year or so, graphics card performance WILL start to make a difference to Mame performance.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

That would certainly be nice if true.  Just curious, where'd you read that?  I've always heard the mamedevs say that due to the non-uniform nature of graphics hardware and APIs, they render everything in software (CPU) and then just use the GPU to copy the single rendered 'polygon' to the screen.

[Organic Jerk]

2006 - 23 Jul - New video system comes online, focused on letting the video hardware do compositing (0.107)

http://mamedev.org/history.html

[u_rebelscum]

Graphics card performance IS starting to make a difference to Mame now that the Devs have started to offload some of the rendering to the GPU. As the newer internal Mame drivers start to appear in the next year or so, graphics card performance WILL start to make a difference to Mame performance.

That would certainly be nice if true.  Just curious, where'd you read that?  I've always heard the mamedevs say that due to the non-uniform nature of graphics hardware and APIs, they render everything in software (CPU) and then just use the GPU to copy the single rendered 'polygon' to the screen.

The card can make a difference, but not because mame will let it emulate the game's rendering.  (ahofle, you're right about how mame does the video.)

Mame now uses direct3D by default, & some directX 9.0 stuff to display overlays & bezels.  Mame still emulates the graphic calulations in the CPU, but can offload the final rendering to the card (mostly the overlay & stretch to screen).

Basically, a card that does directX 9.0 in hardware, has nice d3d, and (optional) clean s-video out is all you need.  However, a semi-new card that does directX 9.0 in software, or older that can't do dx9 or dx8, or does d3d in software, or an onboard chip that shares main memory, can be noticeably slower than a good card.

[Fozzy The Bear]

Basically, a card that does directX 9.0 in hardware, has nice d3d, and (optional) clean s-video out is all you need.  However, a semi-new card that does directX 9.0 in software, or older that can't do dx9 or dx8, or does d3d in software, or an onboard chip that shares main memory, can be noticeably slower than a good card.

Thanks for clarifying all of this stuff further.... I was a little hazy on some of it.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[Texasmame]

Similar thread. . .

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=62604.0

[falkensmaze]

just got my hands on a 2.8 ghz / 768 ram computer that I am going to pop in there. I know this is a bit of an overkill but it was free so i'll take it!

I still cant run some chd's and some roms  at a decent speed and i got
Athlon 64 3800 box 2.4GHz AM2
Asus M2N-E Socket AM22000FSB SATA ATX
Corsair 1GB (2 x 512MB)
Asus Nvidia 7300GS 256MB PCI-E

I toyed for ages if to get a spec this high but im glad i did the emu comunity will grow and it STILL amazes me how kwik hardware becomes out of date also its a pleasure to work on a decent pc when u are doing a lot of trial and error stuff with front end etc and as im using gameex (which i didnt know when i bought the hardware) its an added bonus to have a decent pc..

 ive got a few 1ghz sys lying about and if i do another cab im going top see how low cost i can do it

[Panzer]

Out of curiosity....

What if I just used a vga to s-video adaptor for now until i invest in a nicer card?

Will that work? Not sure what the specs are of the generic card.

Thanks all!

[csa3d]

I am running from cpu out to a 65" hdtv.  I was originally using S-Video, and the results were so so.  When I bought the appropriate wire to hook a DVI connection from the card to the HDMI on the TV, it was day and night.  The DVI looks _SO_ much better - crisp, clean, less static.  When considering a new card, if you have any digital inputs on your display, I'd highly suggest using that connections instead.  I also agree that ATI has better TV-Out interfaces, though for graphics production I do prefer NVidia products.

-csa