MAME question regarding CPU Speed & Video Card

[tbombaci]

If a game has jerky movement should I suspect a slow processor or a slow video card? How much affect does a high end video card have on MAME vs a lower end?

Thanks.
-Tom

[jerryjanis]

From what I've heard, the video card isn't very important for the game speed...  CPU is everything.

[tbombaci]

I did a test last night. Basically,  built an Athlon XP 2200+ system for my MAME cabinet. I had an old Matrox Mistique PCI card I threw in for video.

I configured the box, etc... Booted mame and the games looked like hell and were chunky in movement. My test box (my regular PC) is a P4 1.5 gHz with a Radeon 9000. MAme looked and performed really well. I figured the Athlon 2200+ (1.8 gHz) should be close to the same performance). After this post last night, I put the Radeon card in the Athlon box for testng and it made a world of difference. I guess I answered my own question.

(the game I used for benchmark was Street Fighter II US)