mame still slow?

[subedriver]

So here's what I've got: Dell Inspiron 2350 pc 2.0ghz and just upraded the ram to 1gb.  Was 256mb before.  I use mameui32 and it runs slow.  It was slow with 256mb and I assumed that upgrading my ram would solve this problem.  The game I've tested this with is Mortal Kombat 2.  I have the same setup on one of my other pcs that is probably 2.8ghz with 2gb of ram and it runs just fine.  Dell also is running tiny xp.  Any suggestions?

[DeLuSioNal29]

Try reducing the sample rate of the sounds:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=85899.msg901617#msg901617

If not, try a lower MAME version.

[subedriver]

what version would you recommend?  and will my current roms work with an older version?

[RayB]

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[Xiaou2]

 Many companies like Dell use the worst hardware possible.   In your case,  the bottleneck
may be a very poor motherboard design.    Ive noticed huge gaps in performances
between different mothboards in the past, and Im sure its still the same today.

 They may do this to create a more stable system...  where as in the past, MB makers
seemed to take too many chances, and caused very bad instabilities.

 The other thing it could be... is the cooling.

 Ive already come across a few Dells which were unreal slow.   Turned out that the
heatsink was filled with dust... and prevented proper CPU cooling.   This then caused the
CPU to clock down to prevent it from cooking itself.

 Their stock cooling heatsink/fan combo  is usually not very good either... as they are more concerned with sound levels than cooling performance.
 

[Haze]

or simply the fact that 2ghz is far too slow for the game, unless you're talking about a Core 2 Duo where even a single 2ghz core gives the performance equivalent to a 4ghz P4.

MAME needs CPU power above all else, and the *only* CPUs worth using with MAME are the highest end C2D chips you can afford.  P4s are useless, newer AMD chips are useless (they're not better value anymore, because you don't get anywhere near the same speed for your money)

[subedriver]

so what your telling me is that i need a c2d setup to run it?  that seems a little much to run such a program.  the game i have tried is mortal kombat 2 and game play is very slow.  characters jump and move slow.  so would an older version of mame help then?  I currently have the newest version.  What version would you recommend then?  Building an entirly new computer is not an option at this time and I'm not going to stick my good comp in my cab.

[ctozzi]

i had the same issue, i spent 150 on a new cpu on this site, and so far it works great except for killer instinct 1+2, they are slow. I have a motherboard and other stuff laying around that i would almost give you cheap it would be an upgrade for you.

[Nemss316]

I have a 2.4 P4 Processor, 1.5 GB of RAM, and a GeForce FX 5200 card, and I can run every game smoothly. Even KI and KI2 run w/ no problems whatsoever. I did have problems a few weeks ago, but I downloaded an older version of MAME, and it took care of all of the problems I was having w/ my games.  The only problem I have now is that some games take up about 95% of the screen. What version of MAME are you running?

[TAG]

or simply the fact that 2ghz is far too slow for the game, unless you're talking about a MAME needs CPU power above all else, and the *only* CPUs worth using with MAME are the highest end C2D chips you can afford.  P4s are useless, newer AMD chips are useless (they're not better value anymore, because you don't get anywhere near the same speed for your money)

Don't you think that's a little overstated?  There are thousands of classic games that are playable with a P4, even if you won't be able to play stuff like Gauntlet Legends, Blitz, etc.  The Core2Duos are definitely the best way to go right now, but that doesn't mean that they're the *only* option.

[HaRuMaN]

just step back to an older mame, problems solved...

[nox771]

Is that Dell running off an integrated graphics chipset?  I've seen before that PCs and especially laptops which use integrated low-end graphics chipsets get performance hits.  Even more so if they use so-called "shared" graphics memory, where they steal mainboard memory instead of having their own framebuffer.  I personally won't buy laptops unless they have a decent branded graphics chipset at minimum (nvidia or ati). 

Oh and as a data point, my circa 2003 laptop, running a 1.5GHz PentiumM, 1.25GB ram, and radeon 9200 graphics, runs MK2 no problem (using mameuifx32 0.128u1).  If I knew how to turn on a frame rate setting I would give you a number, but I don't see the option...

Just a thought.

[subedriver]

The version is mameui32 .126.  Yes the video is onboard I don't have a seperate card yet but would get one if you all think it would help take care of the problem.  I will try to find an older version and roms and let you know how that goes.

[ideft]

I had the same problem.  I was running Mame .117  on a IBM P4 2.0 512 sdram.  Mortal Kombat 2 had sound issues and some video lag.  I started using fastmame and problem solved.  MK2 plays perfect now as well as MK3.

[brpadington]

I noticed on my setup that over time my system performance got less and less. i would recommed a virus and malware scan to make sure you are clean. I finally just got sick of the poor performance and installed Ubuntu Hardy X64. I am running it on an AMD 4800+ X2 and it plays everything i need at decent speed. The tekken games run perfectly. I have yet to try gauntlet legends but so far all the 3d fighters work great. i built the whole machine for 200. and i could not have made a pc this fast with Intel for that price.

[SirPeale]

You haven't stated WHICH games are slow.  If you're trying to play Blitz...forget it.  If you're trying to play Pac-Man and it's slow, there's a config issue.

[subedriver]

The game I've been testing with is mortal kombat 2 that I mentioned earlier.  I tried several older versions of mame today and am down to mame32.097.  It runs better than it did but still seems like the characters move a little slow.  It's playable but not quite right.  I'm using the same rom to do the testing.  Do I need to try to find an older version of the roms also?  Really wanting this to just play fighters for the most part.  MK, Street Fighter, Killer Intsinct and so forth, also some neo-geo.  I'm using the win32 mame and not command prompt since it seems to be a big pita to setup.

[SirPeale]

Post your mame.ini.  I'm betting a config issue.

[subedriver]

please excuse me for being stupid but how would i get ini?  I looked in the ini folder and there wasn't anything there cept the .txt file

[subedriver]

this is mame32, not command line is that why i can't find the .ini file?

[subedriver]

Wow I'm an idiot.  Now realize what you asked for.  Here it is.
## MAME32ui.ini ###

### interface ###

default_game mk2
default_folder_id 2
show_image_section 1
current_tab 0
show_tool_bar 1
show_status_bar 1
show_folder_section 1
hide_folders ""
show_tabs 1
hide_tabs "marquee, title, cpanel, history"
history_tab 6
check_game 1
joystick_in_interface 0
keyboard_in_interface 0
broadcast_game_name 0
random_background 0
sort_column 0
sort_reversed 0
window_x 0
window_y 0
window_width 640
window_height 428
window_state 1
custom_color 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
list_mode Grouped
splitters 152,362
list_font "-8,0,0,0,400,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,MS Sans Serif"
column_widths 185,68,84,84,64,88,74,108,60,144,84,60
column_order 0,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,1,10,11
column_shown 1,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0
ui_key_up KEYCODE_UP
ui_key_down KEYCODE_DOWN
ui_key_left KEYCODE_LEFT
ui_key_right KEYCODE_RIGHT
ui_key_start "KEYCODE_ENTER NOT KEYCODE_LALT"
ui_key_pgup KEYCODE_PGUP
ui_key_pgdwn KEYCODE_PGDN
ui_key_home KEYCODE_HOME
ui_key_end KEYCODE_END
ui_key_ss_change KEYCODE_INSERT
ui_key_history_up KEYCODE_DEL
ui_key_history_down "KEYCODE_LALT KEYCODE_0"
ui_key_context_filters "KEYCODE_LCONTROL KEYCODE_F"
ui_key_select_random "KEYCODE_LCONTROL KEYCODE_R"
ui_key_game_audit "KEYCODE_LALT KEYCODE_A"
ui_key_game_properties "KEYCODE_LALT KEYCODE_ENTER"
ui_key_help_contents KEYCODE_F1
ui_key_update_gamelist KEYCODE_F5
ui_key_view_folders "KEYCODE_LALT KEYCODE_D"
ui_key_view_fullscreen KEYCODE_F11
ui_key_view_pagetab "KEYCODE_LALT KEYCODE_B"
ui_key_view_picture_area "KEYCODE_LALT KEYCODE_P"
ui_key_view_status "KEYCODE_LALT KEYCODE_S"
ui_key_view_toolbars "KEYCODE_LALT KEYCODE_T"
ui_key_view_tab_cabinet "KEYCODE_LALT KEYCODE_3"
ui_key_view_tab_cpanel "KEYCODE_LALT KEYCODE_6"
ui_key_view_tab_flyer "KEYCODE_LALT KEYCODE_2"
ui_key_view_tab_history "KEYCODE_LALT KEYCODE_7"
ui_key_view_tab_marquee "KEYCODE_LALT KEYCODE_4"
ui_key_view_tab_screenshot "KEYCODE_LALT KEYCODE_1"
ui_key_view_tab_title "KEYCODE_LALT KEYCODE_5"
ui_key_quit "KEYCODE_LALT KEYCODE_Q"
ui_joy_up 1,1,2,1
ui_joy_down 1,1,2,2
ui_joy_left 1,1,1,1
ui_joy_right 1,1,1,2
ui_joy_start 1,0,1,0
ui_joy_pgup 2,1,2,1
ui_joy_pgdwn 2,1,2,2
ui_joy_home 0,0,0,0
ui_joy_end 0,0,0,0
ui_joy_ss_change 2,0,3,0
ui_joy_history_up 2,0,4,0
ui_joy_history_down 2,0,1,0
ui_joy_exec 0,0,0,0
exec_wait 0
hide_mouse 0
full_screen 0
cycle_screenshot 0
stretch_screenshot_larger 0
screenshot_bordersize 11
inherit_filter 0
offset_clones 0
game_caption 1
language english
flyer_directory flyers
cabinet_directory cabinets
marquee_directory marquees
title_directory titles
cpanel_directory cpanel
background_directory bkground
folder_directory folders
icons_directory icons

[SirPeale]

That's not it.  Perhaps you haven't generated it yet.

From the command line, do:

mame32ui -cc

and it'll generate a config file if there isn't one already.

[subedriver]

i dont use command line mame though so will it still do it?  i'm using the win32 mame.

[Hoopz]

Yeah, it will still work.  The command line here isn't Mame, but cmd in windows to launch a "dos" box.   

[subedriver]

tried it though the dos box and am not getting anywhere.  any other ideas?

[SirPeale]

So...to get this straight...you opened up a command line window, typed "mameui -cc" and it did nothing?

[u_rebelscum]

FWIW, mameUI creats and puts its mame.ini in the ini folder, if you make any changes to the seetings in "directories" or "default game options" in the options menu item.  It you don't have one, you are using the default settings.

Instead of creating a mame.ini file by hand, you might find it easier to go into one of the above and change one settings and applying it.  (And Changing it back and applying that, if you're not sure what you just did.) 

All the settings (AFAIK) in the mame.ini have a corresponding item somewhere in the UI tabs.  Might be named a little different, but most are fairly close.  OTOH, many of us don't use mameUI, so more can help the vanilla mame way.  And IMO it's a Good Thing to be able to use the command line in general.

[subedriver]

mameui .ini must be different because what i posted before is what i've got.  I might try playing around with the command line mame and some front ends and see what i like.  Looks like is running corrently right now though.  Is command line mame any faster than mamui?

[u_rebelscum]

Is command line mame any faster than mamui?

No.