a

[mycarsucks]

aaaaaa

[OldSchoolGamer]

Faster CPU first, they are not so graphic intensive but since they emulate other processors they are CPU intensive............

[SoulBlazer]

Right, the most important for emulators is that you have a good processor. The older ones (8 and 16 bits) are much more kinder -- I could run them fine on my own 400 Mhz -- but if you want anything newer, or any arcade games from the early 90's on in MAME, you'll need more power. I would'nt suggest anything less then 1.4 P4 or the equiv -- and I'd suggest a 2.0 Ghz or faster.

RAM is important also, have at least 512, and any kind of video card at least a few years old is going to be fine.

[mycarsucks]

aaaaa

[Jorpho]

I thought MAME, in its quest for accuracy, didn't even use hardware 3D acceleration, in which case a fancy video card would add nothing.

[Ed Oscuro]

I thought MAME, in its quest for accuracy, didn't even use hardware 3D acceleration, in which case a fancy video card would add nothing.
It's an option one can disable/enable...with every MAME32 I've tried, it's been on by default (and looks like crap).

Also should mention that newer video cards should (in theory) boost 2D application performance as well, as those fancy XP style buttons (which I don't use) do add to performance hits.

[retroman]

almost any old pc could run most retro emulators..

[it290]

There hasn't been any real improvement in 2d performance for some time, although image quality does vary somewhat between cards. The only emulators that will see any performance gain at all from a newer 3d card are PSX/N64/DC emulators and the like, and even then an older/lower end card should be more than sufficient. The 'hardware accelerated' option in MAME32 just displays the screen as one big texture, which any video card from the last five years or so should be able to handle.

[Duncan]

I'll vouch for the "processor-over-vidcard" argument, since my (rapidly aging) 733MHz Athlon simply refuses to run the new PS1 emulator set in MESS. However, I've never had any issues with graphics or slowdown on pre-1995-ish arcade or console games in MAME or MESS -- everything looks and plays just like I remember it.

Time to upgrade my PC, I suppose. :)