MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Intel Pentium G3258 vs. AMD FX-6300 for Arcade Emu / PC Gaming Machine

Hello, everyone.

I'm currently facing a hard decision as I consider upgrading the machine in my cab.

With currently available deals, I can upgrade to either an Intel Pentium G3258 with O/C available, or an AMD FX-6300, also with o/c, for a similar amount of money. Both setups are within what I'm willing to pay for the upgrade, with Intel's i3 family and above being outside of the budget so let's not consider those for this discussion.

Since I only want to go with stock voltages and cooling, I expect I can overclock either of the alternatives to around 4.0 GHz, perhaps 100-200 MHz more, so let's use this assumption. My graphics card is a GTS 250, so far capable of everything I have in there.

With so much information out there, I'm to the point where I'm no longer sure what is the best answer, in terms of current performance on the different types of applications I'll be using, future proofing in terms of software, etc. Hardware upgrade path is not a consideration as I will stick to this setup for years and when it's time to upgrade again I will not be able to reuse any of the hardware.

Here are the applications that are relevant to the discussion:

MAME: low importance as I already run everything I need at full speed, and I can't hope to run Naomi/Atomiswave at a playable speed with either

Demul: low importance, as either upgrade above should get me to full speed

PCSX2: somewhat important as I don't know if both up upgrades will allow me to achieve full speed, especially on Soul Calibur III which is one of the few PS2 games I'd like to play on my cab

Dolphin: same as above, except that Soul Calibur II and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom are the only games I have set up, although I'd be interested in checking out upscaled Wii games

PC Games: important as I occasionally add PC games over time and I don't know how multi-core performance will change in the future (also, I currently can't play MKKE or IGAUUE at full speed)

Can anyone voice their opinion on this choice?
Thanks!