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The state of processor speeds
#300654 - 12/15/12 05:38 PM
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Hey folks -it's been ages -trying to get my life back....
Let me explain: Back when I was putting my mame cabinet together and really active in all things mame (probably about 6 or 7 years now), there was still -and i forget the actual verb that is used to describe that slow motion or echo effect in some of the light gun games like House of the dead etc that would make game play impossible. At the time, I was using a pc running xp. I know that there were some hardware/software issues back in the day where the hardware couldn't keep up with some of the "more modern" games.
My question is this: In today's world of 64 bit machines and beyond, has this slow motion/ echo issue been alleviated?
I just fired up my mame cabinet for the first time in a very long time and well, need to upgrade hardware!
Thanks for reading!
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Stiletto |
They're always after me Lucky ROMS!
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Re: The state of processor speeds
[Re: Rhetro]
#300683 - 12/16/12 12:11 AM
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> i forget the actual verb that > is used to describe that slow motion or echo effect in some of the light gun games > like House of the dead etc that would make game play impossible.
lag? controller lag?
- Stiletto
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Re: The state of processor speeds
[Re: Rhetro]
#316876 - 11/04/13 10:07 AM
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> Hey folks -it's been ages -trying to get my life back.... > > Let me explain: > Back when I was putting my mame cabinet together and really active in all things mame > (probably about 6 or 7 years now), there was still -and i forget the actual verb that > is used to describe that slow motion or echo effect in some of the light gun games > like House of the dead etc that would make game play impossible. At the time, I was > using a pc running xp. I know that there were some hardware/software issues back in > the day where the hardware couldn't keep up with some of the "more modern" games. > > Thanks for reading!
You mean why do you still see slowdown with emulated games a decade later? Because the original game running on the original exhibits that exact same slowdown. If MAME didn't reproduce exactly how the game ran, it wouldn't be much good would it?
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Re: The state of processor speeds
[Re: Laraul]
#336818 - 02/10/15 12:25 AM
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> > Hey folks -it's been ages (AGAIN)-trying to get my life back....
Because > the original game running on the original exhibits that exact same slowdown. If MAME > didn't reproduce exactly how the game ran, it wouldn't be much good would it?
No, it wouldn't be much good. But then again, you wouldn't get this controller lag when you would play their ORIGNIAL arcade versions; the vendors of the machine wouldn't make any money off of it... So I'm not following your reply.
Let me try this again: Are there any fixes to this? Now, as of 2/9/2015?
Thanks in advance.
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...Nothing like Green Monochrome
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Re: The state of processor speeds
[Re: Rhetro]
#336842 - 02/10/15 01:12 PM
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> Hey folks -it's been ages -trying to get my life back.... > > Let me explain: > Back when I was putting my mame cabinet together and really active in all things mame > (probably about 6 or 7 years now), there was still -and i forget the actual verb that > is used to describe that slow motion or echo effect in some of the light gun games > like House of the dead etc that would make game play impossible. At the time, I was > using a pc running xp. I know that there were some hardware/software issues back in > the day where the hardware couldn't keep up with some of the "more modern" games.
The "slow motion" verb you're looking for is stutter (notably when the game isn't hitting 100% speed in MAME)
What type of PC? A Pentium 3 or 4 (or Socket A equivalent) won't cut it for hardware beyond 1992 or so (a P4 can't hit 100% while playing Tekken 1 or Point Blank 2 in MAME, but will easily run Neo-Geo/CPS games and Point Blank 1 at full speed since they are on older hardware). Also, chances are the caps are starting to reach the end of their lifespan in such an old board (not to mention the power supply).
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Re: The state of processor speeds
[Re: Rhetro]
#336844 - 02/10/15 03:16 PM
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Depends on the game. You're still better off with standalone emus like demul for some Sega stuff and Moore's law has been dead since just after the Core2Duo came out, especially as far as MAME is concerned. So the past 7 years, no there hasn't been a magic bullet to fix your problems.
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Re: The state of processor speeds
[Re: Smitdogg]
#336851 - 02/10/15 08:33 PM
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Do you think processor design has come to a point that A) technology isnt advancing that fast or B) the cpu devolopers arent that interested or motivated to push hard on speed and designs because there isnt a whole lot of general programs out there that take full afvantage of the technology modern cpu alread provide or C) more time, effort and research is put into smaller cpu's like cell phones etc?
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Only here to annoy...
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Re: The state of processor speeds
[Re: Renegade]
#336852 - 02/10/15 08:37 PM
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I think I'm not qualified to answer that with anything but a guess pulled out of my ass.
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R. Belmont |
Cuckoo for IGAvania
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Re: The state of processor speeds
[Re: Renegade]
#336855 - 02/10/15 10:00 PM
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> Do you think processor design has come to a point that A) technology isnt advancing > that fast or B) the cpu devolopers arent that interested or motivated to push hard on > speed and designs because there isnt a whole lot of general programs out there that > take full afvantage of the technology modern cpu alread provide or C) more time, > effort and research is put into smaller cpu's like cell phones etc?
None of those, although B) and C) are partial factors. The real problem is a bunch of laws-of-physics types of things asserted themselves in the Pentium 4 days and derailed the ongoing clock speed march that had benefited MAME up to that point.
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Comboman |
Can't think of a good title
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Re: The state of processor speeds
[Re: Renegade]
#336866 - 02/11/15 05:33 AM
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Technology is still advancing, but as I understand it (and I may be way off), newer CPU designs have gotten their performance gains by added more cores rather than increasing clock speed. That's fine for programs written with multithreading support, but doesn't help emulation at all (unless maybe you're emulating a multicore processor or a machine with multiple processors?)
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Re: The state of processor speeds
[Re: Comboman]
#336868 - 02/11/15 06:07 AM
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IMHO the jack of all trades in the CPU department is still the E8400, especially with a decent P45 motherboard to crank it up to 4ghz+. For £20 or so it can't be beaten.
Newer i7 CPUs are a bit faster but for the price I don't think it's really worth it.
It's never been proven (to my knowledge) but I still find Windows 7 slightly faster as an OS than XP. For MAME at any rate.
I've seen a lot of ideas from big companies for new architecture for CPUs in recent years because yes, short of a few tricks the x86 model seems largely near it's limit in terms of what's physically possible.
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R. Belmont |
Cuckoo for IGAvania
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Re: The state of processor speeds
[Re: RetroRepair]
#336876 - 02/11/15 08:58 PM
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> It's never been proven (to my knowledge) but I still find Windows 7 slightly faster > as an OS than XP. For MAME at any rate.
You're not imagining it. 7 is more optimized than XP, and 8 and 8.1 even more so. Free RAM on boot actually goes up upgrading through those 3 versions, and the number of default background processes goes down. 10 should follow along with further improvements.
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Re: The state of processor speeds
[Re: R. Belmont]
#336877 - 02/11/15 09:06 PM
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Thanks, Belmont.
I guess like any of this stuff here; it's a WIP that just improves. Win 7 was going to be my next upgrade, but perhaps I should just wait for 10??
On a tangent, I'm going to guess there are no advantages to going Mac for any of this?
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R. Belmont |
Cuckoo for IGAvania
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Re: The state of processor speeds
[Re: Rhetro]
#336880 - 02/11/15 10:25 PM
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> Thanks, Belmont. > > I guess like any of this stuff here; it's a WIP that just improves. Win 7 was going > to be my next upgrade, but perhaps I should just wait for 10??
Since 7 to 10 is a free upgrade it depends on if you have that "I want something new to play with" itch now or not > On a tangent, I'm going to guess there are no advantages to going Mac for any of > this?
Pretty much a wash - I wouldn't make MAME/MESS/UME the lynchpin of that decision. They'll be waiting for you on pretty much any machine you end up on. Personally I prefer the Mac's UI to Windows 8 and I swapped my daily-driver laptop accordingly over a year ago. I haven't played with 10 enough yet to come to a decision about it.
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Re: The state of processor speeds
[Re: Rhetro]
#336884 - 02/12/15 02:05 AM
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A new Mac would cost a lot more than upgrading Windows. And dont talk about a Hackintosh, those require violating Apple copyright and also likely anti-circumvention laws in various countries so we shouldn't be discussing such things here
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