boosting dmame performance

[Matthew Fisher]

Hey, you DOS experts out there, I am looking to maximize my DMAME performance.  I have a 700 mHz Athlon with 381 MB ram.  My little rig is having real trouble with some games.  My question is, would adding more ram help, or do I need to a get a faster processor?    I'm running EMM386.EXE and NOEMS.  Thanks for any hints. 

[youki]

I don't think adding more ram will help under Dos.  I even not sure that DOS can allocate the memory you already have.

But a Faster processor would help for sure.

But a 700Mhz is already good for most of the game.  On what kind of game you have problems?

[Matthew Fisher]

Darn.  That's what I thought -- I just wanted to be sure.  It may be time to upgrade.    Let's say I bought a relatively new computer with a P4.  Any reason I coudn't load Win 98 on there and then run DOS?  I know there may be driver issues, but I think I can work around those, since all I need to work in DOS is a serial mouse and a soundcard.  For now, I have to stay in DOS though. 

I'm trying to run Exidy Top Gunner and am maxing out at ~8fps.  Not exactly humming along...  It was a 68000-based vector game.  Funny thing is, Cosmic Chasm, another 68000 game, plays just fine.  Does this have to do with the size of the roms, or am I thinking about this wrong? 

[lokki]

Try running it with -noart parameter

[Matthew Fisher]

Will do.  How about adjusting the audio sample rate to 22050 or 11025?  Does this do much (other than degrade the sound quality)? 

[lokki]

Not sure, the noart helps some vector games (but not sure about topgunner since this uses a very new driver)

[Matthew Fisher]

I'll try -noart and the sampling rate.  Can't hurt, right?  All of the other vector games work just fine for me, rock solid at full framerates.  Thanks for the info. 

[RayB]

I'd also look into what resolution is being used and if vector anti-aliasing is on as well.
The lower the res, and the less extra "enhancements" are on, the better.