spec required to run capcom fighters - this info isnt ANYWHERE

[darthbane2k]

okay I have a complete mame 0.89 romset and want to build a cabinet running 2D classics and all capcom fighters such as final fight, streetfighter alpha 3, ultimate mortal kombat 3, marvel vs capcom etc.

Question is for these games what spec system will I need. I dont want to shell out a lot. Would a P3 do? P4? or Athlon? 256mb ram or 512?
What is the min I would get away with on a xp system?

Please do NOT reply with "as big a processor/memory you can afford" I need actual specs here. Like I said, all I want to run is the likes of marvel vs capcom and ultimate mortal kombat 3 - whats the min spec that can run these games at full speed.
Im trying to be economical here

[paigeoliver]

Downgrade your Mame version until they all run on whatever system you already have, all those games have been running full speed for years.

[Goz]

Not exactly the same but should be helpful...

I run the Capcom fighters and all the rest of the CPS2 games in WINKAWAKS spot on with a 1Ghz VIA processor w/ 512MB RAM.

If you don't like the results in MAME, try KAWAKS / WINKAWAKS.

-Goz

[AceTKK]

My old computer had a 1.4 gHz Athlon Thunderbird and 512 RAM.  All the Street Fighters and MK games ran 100%.  Killer Instinct 1 had a little bit of slowdown, and KI2 was unplayable.  I think this was using MAME .80-.85

-Ace-

[AlanS17]

okay I have a complete mame 0.89 romset and want to build a cabinet running 2D classics and all capcom fighters such as final fight, streetfighter alpha 3, ultimate mortal kombat 3, marvel vs capcom etc.

UMK3 is not a Camcom fighter and wil likely have stricter processor requirements to work well.

[RayB]

You need to tell us what version of MAME you are running. Alot of peeople run MAME32 with all the funky effects turned on and then wonder why games are slow...

[darthbane2k]

Well I have a full romset for mame 0.89 so I guess i'll stick to that.
I have managed to source an athlon xp 1.8 ghz, 512mb RAM, graphics card (not sure what the memory is like on that yet but at least its not on board)
Would this be okay? Basicly the game that will be the highest threshold in terms of performance demand will be ultimate mortal kombat 3 (unless marvel vs streetfighter demands more) - I have no interest in killer instinct

[paigeoliver]

Well I have a full romset for mame 0.89 so I guess i'll stick to that.
I have managed to source an athlon xp 1.8 ghz, 512mb RAM, graphics card (not sure what the memory is like on that yet but at least its not on board)
Would this be okay? Basicly the game that will be the highest threshold in terms of performance demand will be ultimate mortal kombat 3 (unless marvel vs streetfighter demands more) - I have no interest in killer instinct

UMK3 will run full speed on like an 800 mhz computer is you use Mame .69 or .70

Mame .89 takes roughly 200-400 percent more CPU power than older versions like .55, .60, etc. I seem to recall the Mortal Kombat series is fastest using a Mame version right around .70

I always like to recommend .55, as it has almost every game anyone REALLY cares about, and it is super fast.

[elvis]

http://benchmark.mameworld.net/

And yes, I'm *STILL* planning to make this database-driven/dynamic, and give public write access to submit benchmarks.  As soon as the MAMEWorld kids respond to my emails and give me MySQL access.

[AceTKK]

I always like to recommend .55, as it has almost every game anyone REALLY cares about

That's awfully presumptious of you.  For myself, and many others, Killer Instinct and Golden Tee 98+ are must-have games.  GT 2k officially became supported as of version .91 (.92?) I believe so I'm limited to using the newer builds.

-Ace-

[NoOne=NBA=]

I'm limited to using the newer builds.

Only if you WANT to be.
You can actually mix/match for best performance, if you want to.
There's no sense in taking a huge performance hit on one game, just to play another, if you don't have to.

[pointdablame]

That's awfully presumptious of you.  For myself, and many others, Killer Instinct and Golden Tee 98+ are must-have games.  GT 2k officially became supported as of version .91 (.92?) I believe so I'm limited to using the newer builds.

-Ace-

NoOne has the right idea.  There is no reason you are "limited" to newer versions.  You can easily run a full set up of Mame .55 and then run a newer version of Mame for the 5 or so games since then you really want to play.

You get all the speed benefits from a .55 setup, AND you play your new games.

[Howard_Casto]

I would like to point out that .55 is a dumb version to reccomend. 


37b15 is the one to reccomend for windows users with resource problems as it's the very first version of mame to use the windows core.  In other words, it's th elowest you can go without having to deal with all the stupid little add-on dlls to get mame running in windows. 



For the most part .55 is just as slow as the current version.  There hasn't been THAT much bloat added recently. 

Also, I'm not sure what you guys are talking about, but cps2 games will run on a 500mhz processor.  It has been talked about numerous times. The topic of "how fast a pc do I need" pops up about once every other month.....  I always give the benchmarks, with approx 500-mhz being the minimum you need to run cps2 games.  The more ram, the better..... some neogeo games take a buttload of ram, as do the last few cps2 games. 

Also sometimes you ARE limited to the mame version.  That is if you use a crappy fe that only supports one emulator.  In which case upgrade to a real fe.   


And finally I'm suprised no one mentioned the kawaks and nebula emulators.  They run on far less resources. 

[pointdablame]

My experiences show that .55 makes a MASSIVE difference when compared to newer versions.   I'm sure .37 is good too... I went with .55 because it was once recommended to me, and it worked great for me, so never bothered trying anything else, but I have to say I disagree about .55 being just as slow as newer vesions.  Tell that to my bartop that won't run any late .8x or .9x mame versions but gets by great with .55

[skarr]

I downloaded a mame .55 build but how can I make it run with my current set of roms ?

I tried using clrmamepro to create a datfile from the exe, but that don't work.
Any idea where i can find a DAT file for mame .55 ?

[Steve Kaz]

Which version of MAME was the first to support NBA Jam and Open Ice?

Those are must haves also, IMO.

You need to tell us what version of MAME you are running. Alot of peeople run MAME32 with all the funky effects turned on and then wonder why games are slow...

What funky effects?  Hell, if there's something that i can turn off to make things run faster, i'm all for it...

[pointdablame]

ClrMamePro will do it, I'm not sure what problems you are having, but that is how I downgraded my romsets to .55.  Read up on EasyEmu to see if that solves your problems (http://www.mameworld.net/easyemu/)

Steve Kaz - According to MAWS, the NBA Jams were released in the late .3x releases of mame, with NBA Jam Extreme coming in at .78

Open Ice came out during one of the beta releases of .37, so NBA Jam and Open Ice would both be in .55, just not Jam Extreme

Link to MAWS for those who haven't used it: http://www.mameworld.net/maws/

[skarr]

Turns out I had to select OLDMAME instead of MAME since listxml isn't supported in .55

Works now

[Veinman]

Wow, so maybe one of the $350 Walmart computers would be a nice addition to the cabinet.

[big daddy]

Wow, so maybe one of the $350 Walmart computers would be a nice addition to the cabinet.

heck, for $350 you can get a pentium 4 AND a free monitor on some of the deal sites. 

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah... buying pre-built pcs are for newbies and lamers.  You build them and get a LOT more bang for your buck.

[thetered]

so I have no problem upgrading mame, but if i want to go back to .55 can I just put it in place of .97 and play normaly as long as the rom was supported in the .55 version, or do I have to find a .55 version of the rom. Or I guess a better way to put it is, are new roms backwards compatible (again assuming they were supported in that release)?

[Q*Bert_OP]

heck, for $350 you can get a pentium 4 AND a free monitor on some of the deal sites.

[pointdablame]

so I have no problem upgrading mame, but if i want to go back to .55 can I just put it in place of .97 and play normaly as long as the rom was supported in the .55 version, or do I have to find a .55 version of the rom. Or I guess a better way to put it is, are new roms backwards compatible (again assuming they were supported in that release)?

you'll have to use ClrMamePro to downgrade your roms to .55

Your current roms should work... they just need to be "fixed" for the older version

[big daddy]

heck, for $350 you can get a pentium 4 AND a free monitor on some of the deal sites. 

where???

http://www.xpbargains.com/

check periodically.  There was just a P4 2.8GHz, free 15in LCD, 256MB, 40GB  $329 shipped

[Veinman]

Yeah... buying pre-built pcs are for newbies and lamers.

[SirPoonga]

http://benchmark.mameworld.net/

And yes, I'm *STILL* planning to make this database-driven/dynamic, and give public write access to submit benchmarks.  As soon as the MAMEWorld kids respond to my emails and give me MySQL access.

I was looking over the numbers.  I see a trend.  AMD is better than Intel.  Specifically an AthlonXP running the bench1280 test.  I find it suprising the higher resolution is better with those procs but worse with others.  There's exceptions to this but I see that as the overall trend.

So I'd say if you wanted the best performance from a older budget processor get an AthlonXP with at least 512 megs of memory setup like the bench1280.
Also you will see with the versions tested 68 seems the best over all.

I'm going to try some of the games I think get iteresting results on my amd 64 3200.  When I get my dual celeron system running again I will do that too.

Back to the original poster.  Mame blows for some types of emulation because it is a "documentation" project, not an emulation project.  They don't take advantage of hardware like other emulators.  Your best bet is to use kawaks, nebula, or whatever else the others here have suggested.  Those are meant to be played and take advantage ofmore modern hardware and software.

Any idea where i can find a DAT file for mame .55 ?

Tell clrmamepro to make one form mame.  It just uses listini/listxml output for the most part.

[elvis]

I was looking over the numbers.  I see a trend.  AMD is better than Intel.  Specifically an AthlonXP running the bench1280 test.  I find it suprising the higher resolution is better with those procs but worse with others.  There's exceptions to this but I see that as the overall trend.

I'm glad someone else can figure that bit out.  I tried saying the same thing on the MAME forums and got labelled a "raging AMD fanboy" by R.Belmont.  Pffft...

For me, the AthlonXP's (and newer Semprons) are the best price/performance ratio, especially when you can pick up matching motherboards for a few bucks.   In Australia at least, Intel seem to drop their low-end CPUs just at the point where they become cheap enough for MAME-style projects.  I don't need a several-hundred-dollar 3.6GHz beast when 2GHz or less would do me for the games I play.