does anyone here use their PC and emulators as a complete replacement for consoles?

[magomago]

For those wondering, I do believe that the latest builds of PCSX2 do seem to be better on quad core processors than on dual cores. When I play on my i7, I noticed it doesn't hit the HT threads at all but it does spread the CPU activity across all 4 cores. This is with the SSE 4.1 build, so your mileage may vary.

As far as I read its Dual Core only on the forums. A lot of time spent reading their forums also revealed that you really need a 3.5-4Ghz i5/i7 to get full speed basically anything. 4 Gigs of Ram is fine, and anything above a 8800gt is also fine...but its really the CPU that matters the absolute most. As for now, for me, I'll hold off. Maybe I'll revisit sometime next year if I have a faster system.

 

[Bryf50]

As far as I read its Dual Core only on the forums. A lot of time spent reading their forums also revealed that you really need a 3.5-4Ghz i5/i7 to get full speed basically anything. 4 Gigs of Ram is fine, and anything above a 8800gt is also fine...but its really the CPU that matters the absolute most. As for now, for me, I'll hold off. Maybe I'll revisit sometime next year if I have a faster system.

Not even close. My laptop with a 2.4ghz core 2 duo and lowly 8400m gs ran most of the games i tried at full speed 60fps no frame skipping or other garbage. You just have to find the right settings and speed hacks to use for each game.

 

[magomago]

Not even close. My laptop with a 2.4ghz core 2 duo and lowly 8400m gs ran most of the games i tried at full speed 60fps no frame skipping or other garbage. You just have to find the right settings and speed hacks to use for each game.

I did mention earlier that it depends on how intensive the game is. But if you want to throw anything at it (ie: ff12), then you do need a very powerful CPU to do it because anything suggests everything. One sample point could ruin that statement.

I'm sure that next gen high end SB and high end Bulldozer will probably do just fine at that point, but I spent more than enough time to see that the reality is not as rosy as you suggest with your laptop. Of course, it comes down to what you want to to play; if all of what you want to play goes at 60fps no slowdown with the settings that you have, then sure its rosy.
If you want to play something like ff12, then it isn't rosy at all, and your 2.4ghz core2duo will get eaten alive even with speed hacks if you are using 60fps as your benchmark. People have been constantly searching for the right combo of settings for that game and the real consensus is as follows: faster cpu, faster cpu, faster cpu.

And since its all I want to play......everything follows from there, which is why I said I'd try maybe sometime next year.

As for the GPU, it doesn't seem to honestly dictate the performance of pcsx2, unless you plan to jack up the resolution and apply lots of filtering (Which is what I'd personally do). An 8400gs isn't going to play it with 4x or 6x scaling very well.

Here is a good example illustrating my point: http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-speedup-for-FF12-when-below-60fps-audio-is-too-slow Once overclocked the 3Ghz, its smooth for him. But notice how even with low resolution, little to scaling, he isn't hitting 60fps until he overclocks the cpu.

 

[Bryf50]

I did mention earlier that it depends on how intensive the game is. But if you want to throw anything at it (ie: ff12), then you do need a very powerful CPU to do it because anything suggests everything. One sample point could ruin that statement.

I'm sure that next gen high end SB and high end Bulldozer will probably do just fine at that point, but I spent more than enough time to see that the reality is not as rosy as you suggest with your laptop. Of course, it comes down to what you want to to play; if all of what you want to play goes at 60fps no slowdown with the settings that you have, then sure its rosy.
If you want to play something like ff12, then it isn't rosy at all, and your 2.4ghz core2duo will get eaten alive even with speed hacks if you are using 60fps as your benchmark. People have been constantly searching for the right combo of settings for that game and the real consensus is as follows: faster cpu, faster cpu, faster cpu.

And since its all I want to play......everything follows from there, which is why I said I'd try maybe sometime next year.

As for the GPU, it doesn't seem to honestly dictate the performance of pcsx2, unless you plan to jack up the resolution and apply lots of filtering (Which is what I'd personally do). An 8400gs isn't going to play it with 4x or 6x scaling very well.

Here is a good example illustrating my point: http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-speedup-for-FF12-when-below-60fps-audio-is-too-slow Once overclocked the 3Ghz, its smooth for him. But notice how even with low resolution, little to scaling, he isn't hitting 60fps until he overclocks the cpu.

Now wait a minute. You were the one who suggested that you needed a 4ghz i7 "to get full speed basically anything." I simply said this was not true because with the games i tried i was able to get full speed. I don't see where I implied that every game out there works at 60fps. While you did imply that no games at all work at full speed.
Going over your link there also shows a different story he was able to get 60fps from overclocking a lower end processor from last gen to a paltry 3ghz. Not even close to the "3.5-4Ghz i5/i7 to get full speed basically anything."

 

[exar333]

There may never be a non-hardware based PlayStation 3 (or Xbox 360) emulator. Current PCs can barely emulate a PlayStation 2 at full speed (many games work, but many don't), and CPUs aren't doubling in speed every couple of years anymore. Roughly speaking you need a PC 10 times as fast the emulated console to even think about emulating it, and you'll need a PC on the order of 100 times as fast to emulate it anywhere close to perfection. The PS3 and 360 both have PowerPC CPUs in the 3GHz range, and you'll probably have to wait a very long time to see 30 GHz PC.

Wrong on many levels. The PS3 and XB360 do indeed have "3 ghz" cpus, but they are much slower than a standard OOO x86 processor like a C2D, C2Q or PhII. If coded right with strong multi-threading capability, it would be very concievable that a 4-5ghz 6-8 core CPU could emulate this with a decent GPU.

When the PS2 is 2 generations old, the need to emulate it will be much greater than it currently is. Why spend the time time to code the emulation when so many PS2s exist, and you can still buy them for very cheap (new).