Which CPU for PCSX2 emulator?

[lackofcheese]

The i5-450M and i5-520M both have a base clock speed of 2.4Ghz and Turbo Boost to 2.67Ghz on two cores, although on one core it's 2.67GHz vs 2.93GHz - since PCSX2 uses two cores, I wouldn't expect this to matter much.

Apart from that, the i5-520M has three features that the i5-450M doesn't - VT-d, the new AES instructions, and Intel Trusted Execution technology. That last one is a security feature, while I doubt PCSX2 uses VT-d or AES-NI. As such, I doubt the i5-520M would be any better for PCSX2 than an i5-450M.



As for i5-520M vs 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo, the i5-520M performs something like a 2.8-3GHz Core 2 Duo in most other tasks. If you want a big improvement, you need an i7-620M or overclocking.

[InfectedSonic]

i dont think you understand the concept of emulation. there are no challenging games. the only thing challenging is emulating particular parts of the console itself. when bugs are present it will be for all cpus even if you had a super computer from the future it will still be there regardless of your cpus speed.

the recommended isnt really that high anymore. as for the 520m its been stated several times when it comes to the emulation of pcsx2 it will be the same as a 450m providing your laptop choice has the thermal abilities to allow for the maximum turbo boost.

[dookie11]

Sorry, didn't intend to hijack you there. I'd be curious about that too. I'm more partial to the 520m but either one would be interesting - and again, for challenging games only (which is what you'd want to see mostly as well - right?).

Ya, in many ways I agree with ya

LaptopNut tells me that the 450M should be fine as a CPU. He also told me that these emulators though they're CPU dependent, it also depends on your settings, speed hacks, etc etc etc. However, I'm still unclear about 450M's abilities. The 430M seemed fine in most of those videos, and the 520M seemed great in its videos... but they're not definite answers to warrant a $1000 purchase quite yet.

[LaptopNut]

i dont think you understand the concept of emulation. there are no challenging games. the only thing challenging is emulating particular parts of the console itself. when bugs are present it will be for all cpus even if you had a super computer from the future it will still be there regardless of your cpus speed.

the recommended isnt really that high anymore. as for the 520m its been stated several times when it comes to the emulation of pcsx2 it will be the same as a 450m providing your laptop choice has the thermal abilities to allow for the maximum turbo boost.

I tend to agree to an extent. I have seen some unofficial / private builds of PCSX2 that have been optimised only for speed pretty much ignoring compatibility (in some cases making it less). These builds are frowned upon on the official PCSX2 forums by the way so I wouldn't mention them there.

In this case, people who tested the emulator out with the same CPU were seeing an extra 30 fps in some games. There was a Japanese build that played Shadow of the Colossus at 60 fps where the official build would play it at 30-40 fps for that particular person with the same configuration.

I will try to get hold of one of these builds for some testing.

Edit: Another example.

In God Of War 2 using the latest official build of PCSX2, I get around 30-35 fps with all recommended speed fixes enabled and at my native resolution of 1600 x 900. If I enable all speed hacks I get a few extra fps but not much.

I just tested an unofficial build called pcsx2 maetel 2.6 and when I played God Of War 2, my fps was a smooth 50-60 fps never dropping below 50 at the same resolution and the graphics quality didn't look any different. I will try to get a more up to date build because this one was compiled in 2009 and is not using the latest GUI.

Some one talking about the unofficial builds speed...

Anyway, with my spec
5600+dual core, 2GB ram, 8800GT, and windows xp,
I ran DMC4 with about 40~60 fps.

But with this new Japanese version, it runs between 70~200.
It's true that my USA version had max FPS limit under CPU option
but it still doesn't change the fact that the slowest Framerate was still 30fps
faster in JAP version.

Edit: Further testing suggests that pcsx2 maetel 2.6 is specifically optimised for the God Of War series only.

I tested out the first God Of War and I get 60 - 75 fps even when there are lots of enemies during battle.


Edit: I have found more Pcsx2 Maetal builds for other specific games such as Tekken 5 and shadow of the Colossus. If you try to use the builds with other games, they are extremely slow.

[ArmageddonAsh]

That sounds very interesting - why are they frowned apon?

[sean473]

hi , i'm trying to make the emulator to work but i'm getting problems.. how do u set it up?

[LaptopNut]

That sounds very interesting - why are they frowned apon?

I think the reason is due to people on the forum asking for support and questioning the developers about why an unofficial build runs faster than their official one. The users easily forget the time and effort required to balance speed and compatibility but the unofficial builds are often optimised or hacked for specific titles so they don't need to worry about anything else.

[Shoegazer]

i dont think you understand the concept of emulation. there are no challenging games. the only thing challenging is emulating particular parts of the console itself. when bugs are present it will be for all cpus even if you had a super computer from the future it will still be there regardless of your cpus speed.

I understand perfectly well the concept of emulation but thanks. There are of course challenging games; games that run sub-optimally (read: with fewer than 60fps on an NTSC game) on modern x86 or x64 platforms are "challenging" to the platform no matter what is going on under the covers. By this definition, GTA3 is challenging to emulate at playable speeds, and Kingdom Hearts isn't. It's really that simple. Games that are challenging for an emudev to emulate, due to missing opcodes, graphics/sound subsystems, protected code, etc. is a different subject altogether.

the recommended isnt really that high anymore. as for the 520m its been stated several times when it comes to the emulation of pcsx2 it will be the same as a 450m providing your laptop choice has the thermal abilities to allow for the maximum turbo boost.

And again, I'm not interested in comparisons between the 450m and the 520m; more between the 520m and a 2.66ghz c2d (or if you prefer, the Intel T9550 CPU).

In any event, the issue at hand is whether the Core i5 is worth the money as an emulation platform, and as has been discussed and revealed here, neither the 450m nor the 520m are wise investments at all when considered purely for emulation, especially considering the c2d gives you the same amount of power at much less cost. So I think I've got my answer and will wait for the much higher-clocked mobile CPUs to hit the market in Q4 2010.

[Shoegazer]

I just tested an unofficial build called pcsx2 maetel 2.6 and when I played God Of War 2, my fps was a smooth 50-60 fps never dropping below 50 at the same resolution and the graphics quality didn't look any different. I will try to get a more up to date build because this one was compiled in 2009 and is not using the latest GUI.

That is more likely due to the configuration of the official build. Try, for example, switching from MicroVU (which is default on later builds) to the SuperVU recompiler, and like magic, the official build is just as fast as that hacky stuff. Generally speaking it's wise to stay far away from hacks like that as they tend to be riddled with viruses, strongly discouraged by the devs, and are otherwise just a waste of time. Think about it. If those people really knew what they were doing they'd be contributing to the official project.

[MagusDraco]

hi , i'm trying to make the emulator to work but i'm getting problems like finding games? The links u gave don't work.. ads come up and i can't find any games to download.. I need a gundam seed/ destiny game.. i've got the emulator program so need games now and how to make it work... Plz help

ummm...

I'm gonna just go with piracy isn't supported on the boards.

rent/buy the games or if you really wanna find stuff well...google searching can help if you know what you're doing.