Best mame version for pentium 3

[astro57]

After reading a bunch, it seems that older versions of mame are better for older cpu's. I have a pentium 3 730mhz, some games seem very slow. Would an older version of mame work better than the most current (if so which one)or would a console emulator run faster (snes)? Right now only a few games run well, atomic screen freezes on the ones that won't load. Last quesion, would win 98 perform betteron my system than xp is?

Thanks, Dave

[u_rebelscum]

In general, an older mame can help.  However, what games do you want to play?

Depending on which version of mame you switch to: some games won't be helped enough (blitz for example), some games won't run correctly anymore, some games weren't emulated then, and a very few games might run slower.  And different games were effected differently at different versions of mame on different hardware.

So which games will effect how far to go back (if at all).

Win98 might help, especially if the computer doesn't have much memory.  But you need working drivers for your hardware, which can be hard to get.

[TOK]

Going with an older version will make a huge difference. I'm running a P3/933 in my bartop. I chose .84 and it runs very fast (handles MaLa OK too). If Robotron is a big deal for you, try .99 (speed was fixed). Around .102 there was a major overhaul and things really got slowed down.

[gonzo90017]

FastMame 84 should work great.

[astro57]

Thanks, I'll try a few different ones.  Is there a way of knowing which rom work with a version? I was given some cd's with a pile of mame roms but for the most part nothing works. I was also given a mame starter pack with mame32 .103 and about 100 roms and they all work. I don't think I think I understand mame sets.

Thanks, Dave

[Dmod]

I posted a bunch of experiments I did with my PIII 933 MHz last year.  You can find them if you do a search.

[daywane]

I posted a bunch of experiments I did with my PIII 933 MHz last year.  You can find them if you do a search.

thats not much help!
how about a link. or some thing to work with even to do a search

as far as a 700+ meg cpu. I had the best luck with mame 56 but you need the roms to go with the 56.
there are ways to roll them back from what I under stan but I am not sure how it works.
send me a email. maybe I can help. 

[astro57]

Well, I though the mame32 games were working but they aren't rotating for my cocktail cab. I'll work on that.

[ark_ader]

Going with an older version will make a huge difference. I'm running a P3/933 in my bartop. I chose .84 and it runs very fast (handles MaLa OK too). If Robotron is a big deal for you, try .99 (speed was fixed). Around .102 there was a major overhaul and things really got slowed down.

[Dmod]

thats not much help!
how about a link. or some thing to work with even to do a search

Here's a link that has most of the results I captured.  As TOK recommends, stay under v102.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=68732.0

Here's a link from Aaron Giles website where he tested all Mame versions  up to v118 on a PIII.

http://aarongiles.com/?p=208

Some games become playable in later versions of Mame but often many games slow down.  A good example of this are the Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam games.  In general, I found that for the PIII most games play faster on older versions of Mame.

I therefore personally have two different installations of Mame and use a batch script to select which version to run.  I've forgotten what my baseline version is but I think it's around v068.  The batch script keys off of the rom name and will launch a handful of games using a later version around v102.

[Ummon]

Following along the lines of what u_rebel_scum said in Dmod's thread: game and settings. Generally, the later the game, the hungrier it is. Any effects will also eat performance. Start with the latest game you like to play, no effects*. If it won't run right on the version you're using, you know you need to go earlier. As mentioned, some games may not work well/at all, or even be supported in earlier versions. You can do a lot of research to try to fit your machine to what you want it to do, or you can get a more powerful one.


*Looking back at Aaron's testing, I might assume he's using switchres (?), which I've found runs fine, I think regardless of the resolution, but it doesn't fill the screen. (Using D3D versions after the re-write makes this different.) It wouldn't be a real test for most, as they're running DD+hwstretch.