Need help choosing a budget GPU for PCSX2 emulation

[jana519]

I can run PCSX2 at 4x resolution on my Radeon 5770 graphics card, but when I bump it up to 8x resolution the frame rate drops to a crawl. Also the 5770 fan is hella loud, I don't know if it's defective but I can hear it roaring through my case.

What's the cheapest possible GPU I can buy to run PCSX2 games at 8X and hit 90% emulation speed? Also should I be looking for an AMD or Nvidia card?

 

[poofyhairguy]

Nvidia cards are better for PCSX2's OpenGL mode so I would go Nvidia. 8X is asking a lot, you might have to spring for a 3GB 1060 (or a used GTX 970) to get there.

 

[Gundark]

It was long time ago when I was gaming on PCSX2 but what I remember is when you go past x4 resolution the bottleneck is PCIe slot ( one of the pcsx2 devs had blog about that but I can't remember and don't care to search for it ). So at that resolution even the top cards are having hard times. But seriously this place is better for advice than this forum http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-GPU-Benchmark-designed-for-PCSX2

 

[poofyhairguy]

It was long time ago when I was gaming on PCSX2 but what I remember is when you go past x4 resolution the bottleneck is PCIe slot ( one of the pcsx2 devs had blog about that but I can't remember and don't care to search for it ). So at that resolution even the top cards are having hard times. But seriously this place is better for advice than this forum http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-GPU-Benchmark-designed-for-PCSX2

Good info!

OP if 4X is the max then I suggest a 750 ti. Mine can do that easily.

 

[dogen1]

I can run PCSX2 at 4x resolution on my Radeon 5770 graphics card, but when I bump it up to 8x resolution the frame rate drops to a crawl. Also the 5770 fan is hella loud, I don't know if it's defective but I can hear it roaring through my case.

What's the cheapest possible GPU I can buy to run PCSX2 games at 8X and hit 90% emulation speed? Also should I be looking for an AMD or Nvidia card?

I saw your thread on the PCSX2 board, but didn't have the chance to reply yet. Anyway, nvidia is overall the best choice, as AMD still has an outstanding openGL bug that breaks some games(and is much slower with accurate blending enabled).

Hitting 8x can't be guaranteed for every game because requirements can vary greatly per game. I'd wouldn't recommend using 8x in the first place though. 4x + FXAA will give you a much better performance to quality ratio.

In that case, a 750 or 750 TI should be able to handle that most of the time, but I can't guarantee that 100% of the time.

 

[Triloby]

Considering how good OpenGL is on PCSX2, I'd suggest going for an Nvidia card. Either a 750 Ti (if you can find one really cheap), the new 1050, or the new 1050 Ti are good GPU choices here. 8x IR requires A LOT of power, though, so I wouldn't recommend doing 8x IR on any of the above cards. Unless you're willing to shell out more for a 1060 6GB or above, that is.

I haven't used PCSX2 in a long time, so I don't know if they've made any major changes or upgrades like Dolphin has.

 

[jana519]

I saw your thread on the PCSX2 board, but didn't have the chance to reply yet. Anyway, nvidia is overall the best choice, as AMD still has an outstanding openGL bug that breaks some games(and is much slower with accurate blending enabled).

Hitting 8x can't be guaranteed for every game because requirements can vary greatly per game. I'd wouldn't recommend using 8x in the first place though. 4x + FXAA will give you a much better performance to quality ratio.

In that case, a 750 or 750 TI should be able to handle that most of the time, but I can't guarantee that 100% of the time.

That's great advice, thanks! I've seen some 750 Tis going for about twice the price of 650s, so I may cheap out and go with a 650. I don't know if the GTX 650 has the grunt to run 4X but I think it will do 2X and FXAA. Plus with the OpenGL backend and a quieter GPU fan, should make for a much better experience than the 5770 I got now!

 

[jana519]

Hey, if you guys say OpenGL is the better backend, I'm going to take your word for it

 

[dogen1]

Hey, if you guys say OpenGL is the better backend, I'm going to take your word for it

It's not always better because it's a work in progress and sometimes there can be regressions, but many games are much more accurate visually with opengl. And the reason I recommend using FXAA is because pcsx2's implementation is surprisingly good. Most games afaik use the default settings for FXAA, one of which attempts to reduce subpixel aliasing but is the cause of the blurriness people hate. PCSX2 has it disabled by default, so it's actually pretty nice, especially in combination with some downsampling from a higher res.