Computer Hardware Tweaking

[knight76]

So I have my driving cab all set up with supermodel and am running only one game at full speed with good framerates and that is star wars trilogy.

Scud runs at around 58FPS but is still slow due to having to drop the processing reference down. So the frames are fast but the game is slow. Daytona 2 is very slow.

Anyway I thought I would post up my PC specs to get some indication on what I should change out to get things flowing. Or even if a new PC is required.

Here are my specs:
Asus M3A Mainboard
- AMD Phenom 9750 Quad-Core @ 2.4Ghz
- ATi HD4870 512MB GDDR5 (with Dvi + HDTV)
- Kingston 4GB DDRII-800 Memory
- Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA HDD
- NEW LG Sata 24X SuperMulti DVDRW Burner
- Logitech Keyboard + Mouse
- Antec EarthWatts 550W 80+ Certified PowerSupply
- CoolerMaster HyperTX2 Heatsink (for cooler processor)

Now the Quad Core I would think would be fine, 4gb of RAM should be ok I think, running Win XP, I am thinking a video card replacement may be the way possibly?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[orimarc]

Yes, a Nvidia* 1GB video card should improve performance. Remember to search different stores, you can get quite good prices that way.

*apparently ATI updated drivers can cause graphic glitches on SuperModel, see here: http://www.supermodel3.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=324&start=40

[nikdd]

So I have my driving cab all set up with supermodel and am running only one game at full speed with good framerates and that is star wars trilogy.

Scud runs at around 58FPS but is still slow due to having to drop the processing reference down. So the frames are fast but the game is slow. Daytona 2 is very slow.

Hi knight76,

Are you using v0.2a or the SVN development version of Supermodel? I ask because with the latter you should experience a big improvement in frame rates especially on a quad-core CPU like yours, due to the multi-threaded rendering updates. You may want to try the development version out first, or at least wait until the next official release v0.3a, before splashing out on any extra hardware.

Cheers, Nik.

[knight76]

Thanks guys. I am on 0.2a, is there a release schedule for 0.3 being released?

Happy to give the SVN a whirl, is the latest SVN this one?

http://www.emucr.com/2012/02/supermodel-svn-r251.html

I'll get it downloaded and see how it goes.

Thanks again.

[nikdd]

Thanks guys. I am on 0.2a, is there a release schedule for 0.3 being released?

Happy to give the SVN a whirl, is the latest SVN this one?

http://www.emucr.com/2012/02/supermodel-svn-r251.html

I'll get it downloaded and see how it goes.

Thanks again.

Hi knight76,

No, that's not the very latest one but it should be good enough and you will hopefully see significant improvements with it already so give it a whirl! SVN 257 is the latest version of the code right now (the SVN number changes every time Bart or I make an update) but I don't think that version is available on emucr.com. I don't know how often they do SVN builds. If you are feeling brave enough though you could compile the latest SVN version for yourself - see the instructions in the 'Dark Room' forum for steps on how to do this.

As for a release schedule for v0.3, I can't answer that I'm afraid. Bart is the man with the master plan !

Cheers, Nik.

[knight76]

Ok just downloaded the SVN, the multi threading changes really make a big difference.

I tested it with Daytona 2 regular and it is actually playable now at a decent frame rate and speed. I think it was running at about 42FPS. Scud ran much faster also and was near 100% speed with about 55FPS and noticeably faster speed.

I ran these at default settings except for res and no throttle.

Thanks guys, excellent work.

[nikdd]

Ok just downloaded the SVN, the multi threading changes really make a big difference.

I tested it with Daytona 2 regular and it is actually playable now at a decent frame rate and speed. I think it was running at about 42FPS. Scud ran much faster also and was near 100% speed with about 55FPS and noticeably faster speed.

I ran these at default settings except for res and no throttle.

Thanks guys, excellent work.

Great news! Glad it's working better for you. The latest SVN has a couple more speed updates, in particular the lag in Daytona 2 that occurs at certain points of the advanced and expert tracks has been fixed (hopefully), so you should try it out at some point.

At this point, I'm guessing that upgrading your graphics card would not actually make much (if any) difference. The bottleneck now that is stopping you from achieving 60fps is probably your CPU. I don't know whether you've considered over-clocking it (I don't know how easy/hard it is to over-clock AMD processors though, as I have no experience with these)?

Another thing you could do without having to upgrade hardware is install a 64-bit O/S. This would also make a noticeable improvement to frame rate.

Cheers, Nik.

[orimarc]

Installing a 64 bit would allow the emulator to use more RAM, since 32 bit O/S only use 4GBs of "shared" RAM, which in practice means it's not using the full 4 GB of "dedicated" RAM you have.

[knight76]

Thanks Nik and Orimarc.

I will get a 64bit OS and put that on and see how much of a difference that makes, I would say with the additional RAM used it may help things along.

Otherwise i am happy to wait for 0.3.

Thanks again, I will update after the 64bit OS is on.

[nikdd]

Thanks Nik and Orimarc.

I will get a 64bit OS and put that on and see how much of a difference that makes, I would say with the additional RAM used it may help things along.

Otherwise i am happy to wait for 0.3.

Thanks again, I will update after the 64bit OS is on.

Actually, with Supermodel the improved performance on a 64-bit O/S does not have much to do with the fact that 64-bit lets you access more RAM (unless you intend to run lots of Supermodels at the same time that is !). Rather, it's because the 64-bit version of Supermodel can be compiled to take advantage of the various optimisations that a 64-bit CPU architecture can provide.

The import thing is to make sure that you run the 64-bit version of Supermodel on the 64-bit O/S otherwise you won't see any improvement at all. Also, don't expect a huge speed increase running it 64-bit. I would hazard a guess that it's only about 5-10% faster... but, still, that's not to be sniffed at!

Anyway, good luck! Cheers, Nik.