MAME Speed Question

[uberpubert69]

So, I would like to think I have a pretty decent rig setup for all my games and I've been trying to play games like California Speed and Cruisn World, but they run like ass! I was wondering what i can do to speed them up because they're unplayable to me. When I go to these games in GameEx the Video Snap shows the game running full speed so I know its possible. Just wondering if my PC is able to pull it off.

Specs:

AMD A-10 5800K 3.8GHz (4.2GHz Turbo) Quad Core Processor

8GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM

Radeon HD 7750 2GB Graphics Card

[DazzleHP]

Your specs are fine There are a couple of things you can try, however i now know you're not using Vanilla MAME so the commands may be different. Firstly, try turning off multithreading. "WHAT?! i have a quad core!" i hear you say. Yes indeed you have, but it is known to cause problems with certain CPU's, and yours may be one of them. To switch it off use this in your command:

-nomt

Secondly, you can try running native resolution. With the default settings of MAME it won't switch your desktop resolution when launching. This means if your desktop is set at 1920x1080, MAME will run at that resolution regardless of the rom's internal res, which can be a resource hog. To switch your desktop at launch use this in your commandline:

-switchres

You can also determine a specific res in the mame.ini. Find a line in your mame.ini that says something like:

## OSD PER-WINDOW VIDEO OPTIONS#screen                    autoaspect                    autoresolution                auto

Change it to something like this:

## OSD PER-WINDOW VIDEO OPTIONS#screen                    autoaspect                    autoresolution                1024 x 768

Now when you "switchres" it will force all games to that specific resolution. You may see some gains with a combination of, or all of the above.

[uberpubert69]

Your specs are fine There are a couple of things you can try, however i now know you're not using Vanilla MAME so the commands may be different. Firstly, try turning off multithreading. "WHAT?! i have a quad core!" i hear you say. Yes indeed you have, but it is known to cause problems with certain CPU's, and yours may be one of them. To switch it off use this in your command:

-nomt

Secondly, you can try running native resolution. With the default settings of MAME it won't switch your desktop resolution when launching. This means if your desktop is set at 1920x1080, MAME will run at that resolution regardless of the rom's internal res, which can be a resource hog. To switch your desktop at launch use this in your commandline:

-switchres

You can also determine a specific res in the mame.ini. Find a line in your mame.ini that says something like:

## OSD PER-WINDOW VIDEO OPTIONS#screen                    autoaspect                    autoresolution                auto

Change it to something like this:

## OSD PER-WINDOW VIDEO OPTIONS#screen                    autoaspect                    autoresolution                1024 x 768

Now when you "switchres" it will force all games to that specific resolution. You may see some gains with a combination of, or all of the above.

I've done as you instructed but I've seen almost no change in performance even at the lowest possible resolution and no enhancements.

[nullPointer]

Just out of curiosity what version of MAME are you running? Have you checked the driver status on those games for your version of MAME? Sometimes newer versions of MAME can actually knock previously 'working' games down to 'partially emulated' status and whatnot. FWIW I don't think California Speed has ever ran very well on my system/Mame version. I haven't played Crusin' World for a while though, so I can't remember on that one.

[uberpubert69]

Just out of curiosity what version of MAME are you running? Have you checked the driver status on those games for your version of MAME? Sometimes newer versions of MAME can actually knock previously 'working' games down to 'partially emulated' status and whatnot. FWIW I don't think California Speed has ever ran very well on my system/Mame version. I haven't played Crusin' World for a while though, so I can't remember on that one.

I'm running on the latest .154 version of MAME. .154 MAMEUIFX to be precise. But in my game list it shows both of those games as working fine. It probably is related to the version I'm using but I remember .152/3 doing the same performancewise.