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4Ghz Core 2 Duo vs M.A.M.E. 0.120 (benchmark results)

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Neverending Project:

This is quite the informative thread. Does anyone have any thoughts on whether the Nehalem architecture that Intel will be manufacturing next year will provide a substantial leap over the Core 2 in MAME? My initial thoughts are that it won't be substantial, but I am not really in the know... just speculating.

Here are some of the features I have read about:
* Turbo Boost - CPU will shut down idle cores to save power - not much help for MAME here.
* Integrated graphics core in the CPU - not much help for MAME here.
* Integrated memory controller - possibly helpful?
* Quick Path Interconnect (QPI) - faster pipes for chips and system components to communicate - possibly helpful, but it seems like this would most benefit multi-core operations.
* DDR3 memory and shared L3 cache - this should help.
* Each core can execute two simultaneous software threads - this would help, but be most helpful for highly-threaded applications - hence not really MAME.

Any other opinions on all this?

Tiger-Heli:

On Nehalem - keep in mind MAME now supports a lot of multi-threading which is one of the reasons C2D outperforms AMD on it.

Keep in mind also that eventually most of the Dev Team will likely upgrade to C2D or Nehalem, so it is in their interest to capitalize on its enhancements.

So while 0.120 might not run much better on it, 0.150 certainly could.

u_rebelscum:


--- Quote from: Tiger-Heli on October 23, 2008, 07:08:31 pm ---On Nehalem - keep in mind MAME now supports a lot of multi-threading which is one of the reasons C2D outperforms AMD on it.
--- End quote ---

No, not a reason: 2, 3 and 4 core AMDs don't get the same boost as C2D or C2Q.  Because the Core2 is more powerful per core.  (Just like the dual P4s don't get as must boost as dual core AMDs, because the AMD is powerful than the P4, but the difference isn't as much as between the core2 and anything below it.)

If the Nehalem is less power per core than core2, it won't help mame.  We'll need to wait and see.


--- Quote ---Keep in mind also that eventually most of the Dev Team will likely upgrade to C2D or Nehalem, so it is in their interest to capitalize on its enhancements.

So while 0.120 might not run much better on it, 0.150 certainly could.

--- End quote ---

Agree.  It's much easier to code for what you have, than for what you don't.

taz-nz:


--- Quote from: Neverending Project on October 23, 2008, 05:50:27 pm ---This is quite the informative thread. Does anyone have any thoughts on whether the Nehalem architecture that Intel will be manufacturing next year will provide a substantial leap over the Core 2 in MAME? My initial thoughts are that it won't be substantial, but I am not really in the know... just speculating.

Any other opinions on all this?

--- End quote ---

- I would expect clock for clock a Core i7 (Nehalem) will be a little faster than a Core2duo due to improvements in basic architure of the Nehalem core.

- I don't think the intergrated three channel memory contoller will have much if any real effect on MAMEs perfomance, while this is probably the largest single improvement in the Core i7 design over the Core2duo memory bandwidth and latency doesn't seem to be that big an issue for MAME on atleast not on a Core2duo system.

- The elimitation of the FSB bottle neck with the introduction of QPI, and the large amounts of internal shared Cache memory in the Core I7 may throw up some surprises when it comes to MAME performance, the high FSB Core2duo don't really show any major signs of being bottle necked, the Core2quads on the other hand do.

- Hyper threading on the Core i7 will likely get in the way of MAME preformance with it's mostly Single Threaded design, I'm guessing disabling this feature if it is possible will aid the perfomance of MAME on the Core i7, unless Intel have made some major improvement to how it works from the P4 days.

- Clock speed will be the down fall of the Core i7, MAME is the ultimate Ghz whore, nothing gains you more preformance in MAME than upping the clock speed of your CPU, good CPU architure does matter but it's unlike that the architural improvements in the Core i7 will be able to add enough preformance to match the brute force of a heavily overclocked Core2duo. The Core i7 being a new CPU design and being a quad core will be unlikely to overclock anywhere near as well as the lastest Core2Duo E8600 E0 stepped CPUs do, the Core i7 will be limited by it's need for power and heat it will produce just like the Core2quad is when it comes to overclocking. I expect to see the Core i7 hit 4ghz, but with the Core2duo is already able to hit 5ghz+ with highend cooling, I expect the Core2duo to hold onto it's single threaded preformance crown for some time to come.

Future developement in MAME may well see it gain more performance on the Core i7 with time, but this will be limited unless MAME suddenly becomes fully multi threaded to take advantage of all four of Core i7 cores, until then the power saving features will get a workout powering down the cores left unused by MAME.
(Note: this is not a jab at the Dev Team, I understand there are very good reasons behind why MAME is largely lacking in mutli thread support)







holtzboy:

Wow, it's great to see San Francisco RUSH running so smoothly! What kind of components does your computer have BigTymer?

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