How fast a PC?

[lockburn]

I recently downloaded GameEx to try out on the MAME cabinet I'm building.

I'm running an older recycled machine, PIII - 933 Mhz, i815 video and audio.

I ran a few MAME roms in Linux at a fine speed. However, when loading GameEx, it is >very< slow. Ie, the beginning animation where 'Start...' scrolls across the screen stutters and takes about 10 seconds to complete.

What hardware are you all using for GameEx. Is a P3-933 simply too slow for this application?

Thanks!

[TOKY]

P4 1,5GHz

512MB RAMBUS

GForce 2 64MB GLT/Pro

runing perfect

[skidrash]

Dual P3 866's

768mb ram

ATI AIW Rage128 16mb PCI

Runs fine, even with 3d animations turned on. You said you are using i815 video? Might be the problem (though I'm not terribly familiar with the i815). Especailly if it shares video ram with the system. I'd try a full video card. My Rage128 is about as cheap as you can go, and like I said, it works fine for me.

By the way, I think your 933 is fine. I don't think GameEx is multithreaded (though i haven't checked... Tom?), so technically I'm running it on one 866.

[lockburn]

Yep, I think thats the source of the issue. I really like the GameEx interface. Its nice and clean. MAME runs great on this PC. Just the video within GameEx is unbearably slow.

For example, when you select a game, and you get the play menu/description, that takes about 5 seconds or so to comes up. So, its very slow when browsing games.

Its only those small animations though, the text that comes in sideways, and I couldn't imagine why they run so slow, even on a low end video card. I'd rather not install a new card, as I have this all in one motherboard I was cramming into a bartop cabinet, and don't want an expansion card. Also, I have a few of these computers available, so I can make make a few cabinets very easily if I wanted.

I'm running DirectX 9c, installed all Windows updates. I can't imagine what it is other than the video card, but again, its just for the side moving GameEx text and the animated button highlights. I can't see how this would swamp the video card...

[headkaze]

Try some of the following options in the config:

- Display Settings (Page 1) / Alpha Blend Videos : No

- Display Settings (Page 2) / Advance Graphics : No

- Tweaks/Performance / Dont Wait for VSYNC : Dont Wait

- Tweaks/Performance / DirectDraw Dont Wait : Yes Dont wait for blitting

and maybe...

- Display Settings (Page 1) / Anit Alias Fonts : No

- Display Settings (Page 1) / Use 16 Bit Colour : Yes

Also, if your using the default theme, I suggest you go to the THEMES\Default - Default directory, open the Theme.ini file and change to AniBak=False.

I also have the following setting :

- Tweaks/Performance / Reduce CPU Utilisation (MS) : 16

But I think that is for faster CPU's.. along with the Don't wait for VSYNC option it changes my CPU utilization from around 50% to 5%!

I'm not sure about the Create Image/Video on thread and Load Playlist on thread options may be worth trying. Although I havn't tried these specifically.

There are a few other options in there you can try out too.

[lockburn]

Headkaze,

Hmm, I don't seem to have a Display Settings (Page 2).

Using 'Easy Configuration', I have 'Display Settings'. My only options are:

Theme

Dont switch resolution

X Resolution

Y Resolution

Prev Page and Next Page are greyed out.

[headkaze]

Have you tried going into your GameEx folder and launching "GameExConfig.exe"?

[lockburn]

Ahh, I was using 'Easy Configuration', not 'Configuration'.

Also, did you edit your first message? This board doesn't seem to put on a 'last edited' timestamp. I thought I was going crazy...

[headkaze]

Yes, I did edit it.. quite a few boards only place an edited timestamp if you don't edit within a particular time limit. I think some allow you to edit a few times before they timestamp too. Not sure which one this forum uses.

[lockburn]

Thank you again for all of your suggestions. I think it may almost be at an acceptable point right now.

I tried all of your recommendations, one at a time. I believe the one that worked the best was setting AntiBak = False in the theme.

However, the change that made the most difference was going into the display adapter settings and disabling all performance acceleration (odd I know, but I was grasping at straws).

Well, 1AM here, so I'll continue looking at it tomorrow evening.

Thanks for all your help!

[lockburn]

Ok, couldn't stay away. Unfortunately, debugging this takes forever as I get the 10 second nag screen (for a 2 sec 'response' test).

To get a significant performance BOOST, I had to ramp back the 'Hardware acceleration' tab on the adapter.

FWIW, it disabled:

'Disable all DirectDraw and Direct3D accelerations, as well as cursor and advanced drawing accelerations.'

'Disable all cursor and advanced drawing accelerations.'

'Disable cursor and bitmap accelerations.'

The problem I'm having now is that after exiting a game, I go back to GameEx and it is a black screen. I know its loaded (I hear the sounds as I move through the menu), but I can't see anything on the screen. To play another game I have to exit and restart GameEx.

Any ideas on that one?

[djrobx]

At this point you've pretty much identified that the i815 video drivers are crap. I'd be looking at finding another video card (PCI even if you have no AGP slots).