Best for MAME retro gaming: Intel J5005 or AMD R1505G

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

I've been looking at several thin clients for MAME retro gaming, and wondered which would do better are more modern MAME gaming, the AMD R1505G or the Intel J5005 pentium.

Intel J5005 3090 cpu marks 10 - 15 Watts G3DMarks 1807

AMD R1505G 3909 cpu marks 15 - 25 Watts G3DMarks 772

The one with Intel J5005 cpu has Radeon E9173 embedded, which I think explains the better graphics performance. Just wasn't sure whether double the video ability would be more important for MAME, or if the 1/3 more cpu performance would be more important.....

 

[igor_kavinski]

I would be surprised if Intel J5005 has more G3DMarks. Seems R1505G wins.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

I would be surprised if Intel J5005 has more G3DMarks. Seems R1505G wins.

The one with Intel J5005 cpu has Radeon E9173 embedded - without it, it only has Intel 605 graphics, which I think gives a g3dmark score of about 370 - less than 1/4 of what the one with the tiny 30 watt AMD video card in it.

 

[igor_kavinski]

The one with Intel J5005 cpu has Radeon E9173 embedded

Woah! That totally changes things!

PassMark - Embedded Radeon E9173 - Price performance comparison

PassMark - Radeon Vega 3 Ryzen Embedded R1505G - Price performance comparison

So the Intel one with the embedded Radeon is 2.34 times faster if not CPU limited.

PassMark - Intel Pentium Silver J5005 @ 1.50GHz - Price performance comparison

PassMark - AMD Ryzen Embedded R1505G - Price performance comparison

R1505G has slightly more CPU power but relatively poor GPU so recommendation changes to get the J5005.

 

[sdifox]

It's mame, it runs on a rpi4 (retropi)

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

It's mame, it runs on a rpi4 (retropi)

I get that it will run on a Raspberry Pi 4, but from what I've seen, a RPi4 gives a cpu mark score of about 1,000, and costs about $60+. Memory is pretty much stuck at what it comes with. However, the thin clients I was looking at above can sometimes be found in the $35 - $65 range, and have 3X to 4X the performance. You can also upgrade the memory on many of them easily through the sodimm slot. I've been tempted by the R Pi a few times, but have been turned off by the cost. I do actually have a Pi Pico that my son has messed around with. Eventually I'll get a Pi Zero to install in a Sega Genesis Hallmark ornament, to make the world's smallest licensed and WORKING Sega Genesis. Right now I have one up on our Christmas Tree. (it is about 3 inches wide)

 

[sdifox]

It's emulating arcade machines, it doesn't need more than what rpi4 offers. But given the price points you are looking at yeah those thin clients are better suited. Reading current MAME site it says you want as powerful a gpu as you can throw at it... Odd.

An Introduction to MAME — MAME Documentation 0.276 documentation

 

[aigomorla]

I've been looking at several thin clients for MAME retro gaming, and wondered which would do better are more modern MAME gaming, the AMD R1505G or the Intel J5005 pentium.

Neither... get a shield pro.

NVIDIA SHIELD TV PRO, best streaming media device today

Buy NVIDIA SHIELD TV PRO with AI-enhanced upscaling feature in the market today

www.nvidia.com

They might be a bit pricey for what your looking at, but i realized they play just about every emulator flawlessly and they are all found on the google play store. The Shield Pro also has native console controller support, as it was intended as a gaming platform.

Use MAME4Droid found on google playstore.

MAME4droid (0.139u1) - Apps on Google Play

MAME4droid emulates arcade games supported by original MAME 0.139u1.

play.google.com

This is about as far as we are allowed to talk about it on this forum, without getting into trouble as some MAME games are still holding copywrite patents.

Talk about where to find roms, and how to get them are against TOS, so lets end talk about software here unless its from a legal and reputable software distribtor.

 

[balloonshark]

What about those small PCs like the hp elitedesk? I believe dell and lenovo offer similar sized PCs. I would love to have one with a pricier ryzen apu to connect to my tv.

Example only: https://www.ebay.com/itm/364394213161

 

[sdifox]

What about those small PCs like the hp elitedesk? I believe dell and lenovo offer similar sized PCs. I would love to have one with a pricier ryzen apu to connect to my tv.

Example only: https://www.ebay.com/itm/364394213161

Not for this purpose but I got this for my wife

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CH7XHM7M?ref_=cm_sw_r_apan_dp_C87JW262VQ6SG2ACRH0T&peakEvent=4&dealEvent=1&language=en-CA

 

[aigomorla]

The thing is some emulators don't work right for windows.
And some LAG really really bad on top.

If i was doing emulators, i would go the RPi or Shield Pro route, as i believe, they run almost all the emulators out there flawlessly.

 

[sdifox]

The thing is some emulators don't work right for windows.
And some LAG really really bad on top.

If i was doing emulators, i would go the RPi or Shield Pro route, as i believe, they run almost all the emulators out there flawlessly.

Pretty sure linux runs on x86 hardware xd

 

[igor_kavinski]

Pretty sure linux runs on x86 hardware xd

Yup.

Linux Distros That Turn Your PC into Retro Gaming Console

Looking to spice up your system as a retro gaming console? These Linux distributions can help you do that.

itsfoss.com

These shouldn't have the typical Windows "spyware" overhead.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

It's emulating arcade machines, it doesn't need more than what rpi4 offers. But given the price points you are looking at yeah those thin clients are better suited. Reading current MAME site it says you want as powerful a gpu as you can throw at it... Odd.

An Introduction to MAME — MAME Documentation 0.276 documentation

Hmm, that is odd. I had been reading that the gpu/video card didn't matter much, since pretty much all of the emulation of the MAME stuff was done through the cpu.

Regarding Linux vs Windows, I've heard that Batocera Linux is specifically designed for retro gaming.

 

[sdifox]

Hmm, that is odd. I had been reading that the gpu/video card didn't matter much, since pretty much all of the emulation of the MAME stuff was done through the cpu.

Regarding Linux vs Windows, I've heard that Batocera Linux is specifically designed for retro gaming.

I was running MAME on my Pentium 60 fine.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

I was running MAME on my Pentium 60 fine.

My understanding is that the focus of MAME over time is to increase the quality of emulation. So later versions require much more 'horsepower' to run the same games, but get the emulation a lot closer to 100% perfect arcade experience.

Is this correct from those of you who have compared older vs newer versions?

 

[sdifox]

My understanding is that the focus of MAME over time is to increase the quality of emulation. So later versions require much more 'horsepower' to run the same games, but get the emulation a lot closer to 100% perfect arcade experience.

Is this correct from those of you who have compared older vs newer versions?

Aren't they all at most 480p?

I mean Mortal Kombat 2 was on this. Current Realtek sound card is probably more powerful than that board.

Midway T Unit - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[TheELF]

Hmm, that is odd. I had been reading that the gpu/video card didn't matter much, since pretty much all of the emulation of the MAME stuff was done through the cpu.

As they say in that link, a good GPU is important to get high scaling to 1440 or even 4k monitors and for filters like scanlines without getting huge lag.
If you are ok with running mame games at the original resolution without any filter then yes, even an intel iGPU is more than enough.