Bob Benson Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Hi, I am running Launch box and Mame on an HP desktop from work we were getting rid of. Right now its got an i5 650. The highest spec processor that will work for the PC is an i7 870. The existing 650 has a clock speed of 3.2 with turbo boost up to 3.46 The 870 only has a clock speed of 2.9 with turbo boost up to 3.6 I can also get an i5 670 with turbo boost up to 3.7 My main goal is to run the handful of lates 90s early 2000 roms I have like NFL Blitz. On my main custom rig with an i7 2600 it runs near flawlessly. But on this PC I am getting some stutter. My understanding is clock speed is the main thing to focus on for Mame. But would there be an advantage to the i7 870? Unlike those 2 i5's it has an 8 mb caches rather then 4 mb. But the clock speed is actually lower. All those CPU's seem easy enough to find at low prices refurbished. So price isn't an issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 An i7 generally runs faster even if the clock speed is technically lower than an i5, especially a later revision. It's not just about raw clock speed, but tons of factors. If price isn't much of a factor, I would just go with the best i7 you can grab and not look back. I don't think MAME utilizes more than one core, so either way this next stat is mostly pointless, but i5's early on, some didn't come with Hyperthreading or it was very poor, where the i7's did. So it wont provide you a boost per-se to emulation, but your OS and LaunchBox will benefit. Equivilent i5's and i7's (two that were released at the same time), with an i7 being technically slower in raw speed can usually be more performant than an equivilent i5 that may have a higher clock speed. If any of that makes sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Benson Posted January 30, 2017 Author Share Posted January 30, 2017 Thanks for the info. I believe all of those do hyper threading. Though obviously the i7 870 handles more threads. But I thought Mame made little to no use of multiple cores? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 (edited) No i5 processors support hyper threading if they did they would be I7's i3 two cores with hyper threading i5 4 cores no hyper threading i7 4 cores with hyper threading. https://ark.intel.com/products/88185/Intel-Core-i5-6400-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz Also some empirical evidence to back it all up Edited January 30, 2017 by DOS76 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Benson Posted January 30, 2017 Author Share Posted January 30, 2017 Actually according to the spec sheet for the 670 it does do hyper threading: https://ark.intel.com/products/43556/Intel-Core-i5-670-Processor-4M-Cache-3_46-GHz It claims its two physical cores running up to 4 threads. But regardless though, does hyper threading really provide any performance boost for Mame. It's hard to find specifics an average person can understand; but from what little I have read is Mame may be able to use 2 cores at best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 (edited) I stand corrected it seems this is a rare i5 that has hyper-threading 650 supports it also maybe it was something they did in the 1st gen only. Its hard to find any Google references about it unless you know the specific number Edited January 30, 2017 by DOS76 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Benson Posted January 30, 2017 Author Share Posted January 30, 2017 No worries. I think these processors are less common; they seem to have been mainly for mass market produced PC's like HP. Still the question though is for Mame do any of the benefits of an i7 provide any more performance for Mame then raw clock speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 I know you probably don't care but I dug deep and got all the facts it seems in the 1st gen they had quite a few dual core i5's then in the 2nd and 3rd gen they had one each 4th gen had 2 this was the last generation they made a dual core i5 http://ark.intel.com/products/43546/Intel-Core-i5-650-Processor-4M-Cache-3_20-GHz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Benson Posted January 30, 2017 Author Share Posted January 30, 2017 I do find it interesting, and I do appreciate the info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Yea, it seemed odd they had 3 variants running at once, the i5 was an in betweener on a lot of stuff for quite while. It bounced back and forth. There is a difference from i5's and i7's now, but it's a lot smaller than it used to be. In terms of the i5 vs i7, if the price is not much different, there's no reason not to go for the i7, the entire system will benefit including LaunchBox. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 (edited) Yeah I agree if its cheap get the i7 its always better don't expect the world though. Edited January 30, 2017 by DOS76 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Benson Posted January 30, 2017 Author Share Posted January 30, 2017 Yeah, I'm not expecting the world. But I am seeing refurbs around 80-90 so I feel like it was worth seeing if it gives me just the little boost I am looking for. My i7 2600 which is getting a little old in itself gives me the performance I am looking for. So I am hoping the 870 gives similar performance. I just want to make sure before I take a shot I at least am on the right track. The 870 is an i7, but the 670 has a higher clock speed. The i7 870 is only 2.9-3.6 while the i5 670 is 3.46-3.73 If everyone seems to think the i7 will always be better even at a lower clockspeed then I will go with the i7 870. I will let everyone know how it works out. I'm sure I can't be the only one looking to recycle a slightly older enterprise class HP and it seems these processors were in a lot of these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 Well, if you have a 3.7Ghz Dual core vs a 2.9Ghz quad core with hyperthreading (can't remember if this i5 does?), then yea, it's a bit tougher to say. Was their 600 and 800 series released at different times? Like generations? Did the 800 series come out way later? It could be like a GPU thing too, where the die size shrunk, or they tweaked their tech or something. Even level i7's tend to be better. They cost more because they cram more in them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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