Problem with Mame32 - slow motion

[nycjsw]

I built my machine using a UAII cabinet, Betson 27" monitor and a custom made ArcadesRfun controller.  Everything turned out great!  The problem I have is a software issue.  I'm using a brand new Dell computer with Vista to run Mame.  It has like a 2.2 Ghz dual AMD chip but uses a built in graphics card.  When I run a rom like NBA (something) from 1999 and a few other more modern games (from the late 1990s) it seems to run in slow motion with the sound all chopped up.  Even when you try to go into the games controls by hitting the tab key there is a big delay between hitting a buttton and having it take place on the screen.  The funny thing is I also have the same problem with a few older games like Asteroids??  But that could just be bad roms.

My question are:  Would a better graphics card help?  I have an old ATI 9600 Pro graphics card sitting around that I bought back in 2004 or something.  Do you think throwing  this in would help or hurt the situation?  I'm not that great with computers so I'm a little worried about messing a good thing up. I have like 5,000 games that run great.  Thanks for your help.

[thatitalian]

That system should be powerful enough to run all your older games. But the newer ones are more related to software.

Try and run a game like tekkn 3 in MAME and then run it on a PSX emulator and see the difference!

BTW, in built graphics is a def no no. To run games like these you will need a dedicated graphics card! (well at least to run them better than they are now!)

[Flake]

Let me preface my response by saying I am a complete noob when it comes to software and technical computer issues.  I am also very much new to this whole "thing of ours" (just look at my post count).  However, each step of the way in building my cab I have done exhaustive research so I will share with you what I know, or think I know.

First off, the PC system requirements have increased exponentially as newer versions of MAME have been released (see this thread http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=76862.0).  Second of all, the newer games (late 1990's that require CHD files naturally require a more powerful system.  Some games wont be playable at all unless you are using a VERY powerful core 2 duo processor.  I would think your system would run most all games except some of the newer CHD games such as guantlet legends and NFL blitz games.  I have a Pentium D 2.8 GHZ with 4 GB RAM and an NVidia 8400GS graphics card and it runs everything but those later CHD games like NFL blitz/MK4/Tekken 3 (wish this one worked)/Gauntlet Legends.

I have also heard of some instances of older games not running well with newer MAME versions but I think from what I have read it is more of software/settings issue (although in some instances where the PC specs were so low it was a hardware issue).  I unfortunately dont have any specific answers for you but if you check out the link I provided there are actually other links inside that thread that may very helpful to you as well.

Good luck

[nycjsw]

Thanks for the replies.  Well, I am kind of bad when it comes to computers so I'm  really afraid of breaking what is working pretty good right now.  There are a few games (NFL Blitz is one of them) that I noted won't run correctly and appear to have a REALLY low frame rate so to speak.  Not I know my old graphics card sitting around is way better as far as specs than my built in card but I did not know about if it had old outdated software (old Directx??) or if it would not work with Vista or mame32.  Thanks

[Flake]

Well I have Vista running on another home computer and everytime I've installed any software I've had to download the drivers (the install CD's never work).  If you card has better specs than your onboard graphics then I dont see why it wont run on Vista (other than the driver issue).  Cant you simply download the newest versions of Directx if your old card sends you back to a previous version?

I would try the graphics card and see what happens.  But then again, I'm more of a "go in guns blazin" kinda guy when it comes to trying things out so maybe I'm not the best person to take advise from.  But really, how much harm could it do?

[u_rebelscum]

As others have said, some games had hardware that takes a lot of CPU to emulate.  Most are due to powerful processors on the original arcade boards, definitely including the NBA game you mentioned.  Old games (like asteroids) had discreet circuits that take a lot of CPU to emulate; mame now emulates these circuits for asteroids instead of using sound samples.

OTOH, depending on the settings, the video card can be a choke point.  How much depends on how well the video card does resolution and directX (direct3D or directDraw), and if you're using the overlays, video effects, or stretching.  Asteroids, a vector game, runs at a fairly high res and has overlays IIRC, so the video card could be adding to its slow down.  Add that old onboard video chips used CPU and main memory, that's "speed" stolen from mame.

So, while adding the video will most likely help, it won't help enough for the NBA game, and might help asteroids.  (I have ati 9650 card.)

[Flake]

I can get NBA Jam to work without a problem (see system specs in above post).  I dont think my processor is all that powerful.  I would think he should be able to get NBA Jam to play on his system but maybe my processor is better than I think (Pentium D's were Intel's go at dual core I think, later outdone by the Core Duo line).  I know for sure NFL blitz wont run 100% though.  NBA Jam must have less system requirements than NFL Blitz.   

[Turnarcades]

This is a recurring topic and purely a matter of emulation quality. Check all your video settings in MAME and if you can, I'd really suggest using the command-line MAME and an older Windows build as Vista is a big RAM drainer.

Since the graphics and sound re-writes in MAME a while back benchmarking has become more difficult, so depending on what games you want to play you may do better with an older build of MAME (0.100 or lower is ideal), which were not dependant on D3D-supporting graphics cards. Not sure how new you re to MAME but remember it is designed to document and accurately emulate games, not run them at speed. As such, complex hardware (such as hard-disk games, Midway boards and unusual architecture like Asteroids) will not always run fast on any machine, as the software is just trying to emulate the hardware in a true fashion.