[truthlesshero]

so...i have zsnes, which runs pretty good on xbmcbuntu...

but i've now discovered the joys of dolphin and pcsx2...

so my question to you all, is what hardware do you have and which emulators have you run with, mostly, no hitches?

the reason i ask is because after doing some research, it seems that i should not be able to run those emulators on xbmc (i haven't tested them on my htpc build yet)
here's my build:
MOBO: ASUS F1A55-M/CSM
CPU: AMD A6-3500
HARD DRIVE: Kingston SSDNOW S50
RAM: Kingston VALUERam 4 gig

I've looked around for overclocking and it seems i can overclock on stock cooling a bit, but not drastically and it might be bottlenecked by my ram...
so let me know what you guys think and what experiences you have had with your hardware, especially if you ran more complicated emulators (e.g. gamecube, pcsx, pcsx2, dolphin, etc) and if you think my build can handle it

thanks!

[charlie0440]

might want to check out mednafen:

The following systems are supported(refer to the emulation module documentation for more details):

Atari Lynx
Neo Geo Pocket (Color)
WonderSwan
GameBoy (Color)
GameBoy Advance
Nintendo Entertainment System
Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Super Famicom
Virtual Boy
PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 (CD)
SuperGrafx
PC-FX
Sega Game Gear
Sega Genesis/Megadrive
Sega Master System
Sony PlayStation - (buggy, alpha state)

[wsume99]

I have a buddy who played around with emulators a while back. He has the same CPU I have (G620) and he was able to run lots of games on everything up through pcsx. He tried pcsx2 and it ran but the framerate was really low (like 10 fps). I'm pretty sure he was running everything at stock speeds. Since the hardware is being emulated it puts a real strain on the CPU and that is the weak point of the A6-3500. It actually has a lower passmark than a G620 so I highly doubt that you will be able to run it on your rig but why not just try it out? Then you'll know for sure.

[truthlesshero]

might want to check out mednafen:

The following systems are supported(refer to the emulation module documentation for more details):

Atari Lynx
Neo Geo Pocket (Color)
WonderSwan
GameBoy (Color)
GameBoy Advance
Nintendo Entertainment System
Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Super Famicom
Virtual Boy
PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 (CD)
SuperGrafx
PC-FX
Sega Game Gear
Sega Genesis/Megadrive
Sega Master System
Sony PlayStation - (buggy, alpha state)

agreed...but mednafan is a bit harder to install for linux (?) from what i read/saw...then to run it from xbmcbuntu...plus, i was more looking forward to beyond those generation of consoles...pcsx2 i guess...snes and genesis ones run great already

I have a buddy who played around with emulators a while back. He has the same CPU I have (G620) and he was able to run lots of games on everything up through pcsx. He tried pcsx2 and it ran but the framerate was really low (like 10 fps). I'm pretty sure he was running everything at stock speeds. Since the hardware is being emulated it puts a real strain on the CPU and that is the weak point of the A6-3500. It actually has a lower passmark than a G620 so I highly doubt that you will be able to run it on your rig but why not just try it out? Then you'll know for sure.

yeah, that's what i'm kind of afraid of...i'm going to try it out and let this thread know...i may make the jump and upgrade to a6-5400k...it's a beast for not much of a difference in price...stupid technology, always upgrading...

[charlie0440]

might want to check out mednafen:

The following systems are supported(refer to the emulation module documentation for more details):

Atari Lynx
Neo Geo Pocket (Color)
WonderSwan
GameBoy (Color)
GameBoy Advance
Nintendo Entertainment System
Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Super Famicom
Virtual Boy
PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 (CD)
SuperGrafx
PC-FX
Sega Game Gear
Sega Genesis/Megadrive
Sega Master System
Sony PlayStation - (buggy, alpha state)

agreed...but mednafan is a bit harder to install for linux (?) from what i read/saw...then to run it from xbmcbuntu...plus, i was more looking forward to beyond those generation of consoles...pcsx2 i guess...snes and genesis ones run great already

I have a buddy who played around with emulators a while back. He has the same CPU I have (G620) and he was able to run lots of games on everything up through pcsx. He tried pcsx2 and it ran but the framerate was really low (like 10 fps). I'm pretty sure he was running everything at stock speeds. Since the hardware is being emulated it puts a real strain on the CPU and that is the weak point of the A6-3500. It actually has a lower passmark than a G620 so I highly doubt that you will be able to run it on your rig but why not just try it out? Then you'll know for sure.

yeah, that's what i'm kind of afraid of...i'm going to try it out and let this thread know...i may make the jump and upgrade to a6-5400k...it's a beast for not much of a difference in price...stupid technology, always upgrading...

Mednafen can be installed from the software centre in Ubuntu

as wsume99 said when I played with emulators on similar hardware I got a pcsx working fine, but didn't have the hardware to get decent fps on ps2

[truthlesshero]

Mednafen can be installed from the software centre in Ubuntu

as wsume99 said when I played with emulators on similar hardware I got a pcsx working fine, but didn't have the hardware to get decent fps on ps2

alright..maybe i'll try mednafan as well...hopefully it's a smooth and nice looking as zsnes..hehe

you didn't have good enough hardware for pcsx2
you have a g850 (is it oc'ed?) and 8 gigs of ram and it wasn't enough to get a decent fps?

so maybe an upgrade to a6-5400k wouldn't be worth it? (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819113282)

[newoski]

I've got the following systems running near-flawless with HyperSpin on an A8-3850 build:

NES
SNES
N64
Game Boy
Game Boy Color
Game Boy Advance
Sega Master System
Sega Genesis
Sega 32X
Sega CD
Sega Genesis

PlayStation is giving me a bit of trouble finding the right settings...

I'm finding that games stutter at times -- which it sounds like they shoudn't on my system -- so I'ms still trying to find the right settings for ESPXE 1.7 on my A8-3850.

If anyone can share settings that they have found to work well, I'd be thrilled...

I'm happy to post any of my Emulator / HyperSpin settings if they'd help anyone get started...

I've also got original controllers (USB versions) for each System, which makes things that much more fun

---

To address your specific question, I've tested all the systems I mentioned in my first post on an A6-3500 and everything worked perfectly with the exception of Playstation. I had the same problems on the A6 that I have on the A8.

[wsume99]

so maybe an upgrade to a6-5400k wouldn't be worth it?

IMO the a6-5400k is not going to be enough. As I said before emulators are very CPU intensive and even with all the improvements Trinity APUs are not really strong on the CPU side of the house. The iGPU is pretty respectable but that doesn't really make much of a difference for emulators. I'm guessing you're going to need a i5 or i7 or a hex core AMD CPU to get psx2 working well. Maybe there are some emulator forums out there where you can find out more details.

[truthlesshero]

so maybe an upgrade to a6-5400k wouldn't be worth it?

IMO the a6-5400k is not going to be enough. As I said before emulators are very CPU intensive and even with all the improvements Trinity APUs are not really strong on the CPU side of the house. The iGPU is pretty respectable but that doesn't really make much of a difference for emulators. I'm guessing you're going to need a i5 or i7 or a hex core AMD CPU to get psx2 working well. Maybe there are some emulator forums out there where you can find out more details.

possibly...but i'm pretty sure dolphin emulator will be fine, as it is well over the recommended requirements of 3.0...plus, emulators (especially pcsx2) have lots of trouble of using the different cores to their advantage with timing and such..
plus, if it comfortably overclocks from 3.6 to nearly 4.. (at the very least, 3.8 just by bios configurations), then there's hope...plus, like you mentioned, the igpu is what is actually least concern, which is always a good thing

I have ordered the 5400k...so i will post my experiences once i get a few days off and try to get things running...i saw on a dolphin forum that a6-5400k will get the vast majority of games running at full speed for the wii...but with hle versus lle difference with the higher end processors...as long as it runs full speed, i'll be happy..like i said, i'll post my experiences here

[truthlesshero]

just a follow up for those looking for the a6-5400k...
dolphin runs like a beast, no lag, full hd (1920x1080) for the set up I have with the f2a55 board...so i highly recommend it (8 gig of ram, if it matters)

as far as pcsx2...haven't gotten around to it, but at least this is a good sign

[newoski]

A quick update on my A8-3850 troubles using EPSXE...

I FINALLY fixed this after stumbling across the answer.

The problem is with Windows 7 or something...

If you are having problems with setting the resolution in any EMU -- and your taskbar is visible during FULL SCREEN + the image is off center -- the following fix worked wonders for me:

Right click on EMU Application -> Properties

Under Compatability:

- Under the section "Settings" place a check in the boxes next to the following settings:

- Disable visual themes
- Disable desktop composition
- Disable display scaling on high DPI settings

- Finally make sure the Privilege Level section has a check in the box next to Run this program as an administrator.

[Balthazar]

just a follow up for those looking for the a6-5400k...
dolphin runs like a beast, no lag, full hd (1920x1080) for the set up I have with the f2a55 board...so i highly recommend it (8 gig of ram, if it matters)

as far as pcsx2...haven't gotten around to it, but at least this is a good sign

Would you mind posting the details of your setup? I have an A8-3870K on an MB-A75M board. When I run dolphin it lags to the point of being unusable. Are you overclocking? Running on windows or linux? If Windows are you using any other programs to speed things up? I am currently using Linux, and I have a feeling it has something to do with the drivers, but I would be willing to install Windows (I have a Windows 7 license I don't even use ) if it would guarantee Dolphin running smoothly.

[newoski]

+1

[truthlesshero]

just a follow up for those looking for the a6-5400k...
dolphin runs like a beast, no lag, full hd (1920x1080) for the set up I have with the f2a55 board...so i highly recommend it (8 gig of ram, if it matters)

as far as pcsx2...haven't gotten around to it, but at least this is a good sign

Would you mind posting the details of your setup? I have an A8-3870K on an MB-A75M board. When I run dolphin it lags to the point of being unusable. Are you overclocking? Running on windows or linux? If Windows are you using any other programs to speed things up? I am currently using Linux, and I have a feeling it has something to do with the drivers, but I would be willing to install Windows (I have a Windows 7 license I don't even use ) if it would guarantee Dolphin running smoothly.

I struggled to get it to run smoothly on ubuntu...so it might be windows. I got it running on windows 7, 64 bit
i didn't change any of the basic "fast" settings... (basically, the ones that are checked by default to help speed up the emulator..even on the dolphin website, it says that most of those settings will help up to 20fps..)
I installed all the latest drivers from the amd website for the a-series
same thing for the drivers for my asus motherboard
basic overclocking...meaning, the one click settings on the motherboad bios... "easy OC" i think it's called...the clock speed is 4.3ghz right now
8 gig of ram

that's all i can think of right now...
i had to switch to windows to get most things running smoothly...like i said, i was surprised..i ran mariokart at 100% full speed with no problems at all on first run..

hope that helps a bit...


edit: I just tried a few newer games, and there is lag in regular gameplay, so i guess it's not foolproof... but like i said, the older games run fine..i'm going to play around with it to see if i can tweak some settings

[truthlesshero]

alright...so to help out the people checking this thread

i'm getting full speed with most games with these settings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJcKeIlEEqo

follow that video and pretty much everything works great on my type of set up (even without video card)

the only extra thing i checked is "disable fog" just to make sure i can max out my fps...and everything is running smoothly