Best CPU/rig for emulation purposes?

[VirtualLarry]

I have a real PSX and PS2, but for whatever reason I want to run those games on my PC instead.

I've gotten EPSXE installed and configured on both my Q9300 desktop, as well as my (stock speed) BE-2400 HTPC rig. It runs pretty decently on such a slow machine (2.3Ghz, I think), with Internet radio taking up 40-50% CPU time in the background. I was quite frankly, somewhat amazed.

Well, I tried PCX2 (PS2 emu) on a friend's Athlon II X4 640 3.0Ghz quad-core rig, and it was considerably slower. The BIOS menus were running at around 26FPS. I brought one game with me, KOF XI, and I tried that. Some of the screens were running at 60FPS, but many of them were only 30-45FPS.

So 3.0Ghz isn't enough for smooth emulation of that game.

So I'm wondering, what kind of massive rig would I need to play PS2 games at 60FPS all the time? Would a 4.5Ghz SB 2500K suffice? I think that the emu only takes advantage of two threads.

I would like to hear from people that are successfully emulating PS2 games on their PC at 60FPS, if there are any in this crowd.

Would also likely use MAME32FX on this proposed rig too.

 

[zebrax2]

I believe PCSX2 uses instructions not available to to Athlon II/Phenom II processors (ssse3, sse4) which helps speed up emulation.

Edit:
just noticed this in their wiki

The difference between these versions is not immediately apparent to the user. You won't see large FPS gains when switching from SSE2 to SSE4 but there are some parts in games that do benefit from these optimizations.

Maybe its just the game?

 

[-Slacker-]

PCSX2 runs on a maximum of 3 cores, so having anything more expensive than an i5 2500k wouldn't help ... so yeah, a 2500k at 4.5 would suffice.

 

[Anarchist420]

I get a constant ~60 fps in DX11 software mode in CV Curse of Darkness (edge AA enabled as well) with my 2500k, so any SB processor should be plenty fast for any game you want to play on PCSX2.

The software modes are more accurate than the hardware modes. My old PhII build ran like a slide show, not averaging more than 5fps.

 

[Anarchist420]

I have a real PSX and PS2, but for whatever reason I want to run those games on my PC instead.

I've gotten EPSXE installed and configured on both my Q9300 desktop, as well as my (stock speed) BE-2400 HTPC rig. It runs pretty decently on such a slow machine (2.3Ghz, I think), with Internet radio taking up 40-50% CPU time in the background. I was quite frankly, somewhat amazed.

Well, I tried PCX2 (PS2 emu) on a friend's Athlon II X4 640 3.0Ghz quad-core rig, and it was considerably slower. The BIOS menus were running at around 26FPS. I brought one game with me, KOF XI, and I tried that. Some of the screens were running at 60FPS, but many of them were only 30-45FPS.

So 3.0Ghz isn't enough for smooth emulation of that game.

So I'm wondering, what kind of massive rig would I need to play PS2 games at 60FPS all the time? Would a 4.5Ghz SB 2500K suffice? I think that the emu only takes advantage of two threads.

I would like to hear from people that are successfully emulating PS2 games on their PC at 60FPS, if there are any in this crowd.

Would also likely use MAME32FX on this proposed rig too.

OC'ing wasn't necessary for me to get 60 fps.

I believe PCSX2 uses instructions not available to to Athlon II/Phenom II processors (ssse3, sse4) which helps speed up emulation.

Maybe its just the game?

That's exactly why. SSE2 will run like a damn slideshow. Recent PCSX2 builds can even us AVX.

 

[Rifter]

You want the fastest IPC possible.

This article explains why you need a 3Ghz CPU just to be 100% accurate for emulation of a SNES

http://www.tested.com/news/why-perfect-hardware-snes-emulation-requires-a-3ghz-cpu/2712/

For that reason alone as PS1 and PS2 emulation get more advanced and accurate you are going to need some serious firepower from your CPU to keep up.

So i would go for a SB chip, a K series so you can OC.

FYI EPSXE runs great on my i7 930 @ 4.2Ghz, i have not attempted to emulate the Ps2 yet as i dont think its possible with current hardware, at least not to an accurate enough level to be worth attempting.

 

[IGemini]

PS1 emulation is about as far as it'll get without making brand-new emulators, and is much easier to do on lower hardware. Perfect emulation you won't find in PS2. PCSX2 is the furthest along and it's still pre-v1 and still has a lot of issues to iron out, because PS2 had 3-4 differently-clocked processors doing all the work, and it's hard to run them all in software synchronously. My system can run it...well enough, though I don't have access to the SSE4.2 or AVX instructions. Sandy Bridge would definitely be the way to go, but any Intel CPU would be preferable to AMD for emulation here.

 

[sm625]

The last time I tried to run a PS2 emulator I about tore my hair out. It ran fine on a Q6600, other than the tearing and artifacting and lockups. But it ran at good framerates.

 

[LoneNinja]

I use to run PS2X on my Phenom 9850 @ 3.0Ghz. Final Fantasy games ran fine, games like Tekken lagged to badly to play. I haven't messed around with PS2X on any of my 3.8Ghz Phenom II processors.

I would hope an I3/I5 Sandy Bridge would suffice, but PS2X is very demanding compared to PSX. PSX played smoothly on my old Athlon 64 3200, 1Gb DDR ram, radeon express 200 chipset.