PC Spec - should I get graphics?

[Simzter]

So - I'm planning on building an overkill PC for my cabinet. I built it 2 years ago - and the PC I had in it was just rubbish - and struggled with Launchbox so it got confined to the shed.

I came across it after forgetting about it in the shed - I removed it and cleaned it up a little - and instantly wanted to make it what it should've been.

I've pulled out the old PC, and want to put something in it that will cope.

I'm going to buy an i5 9400 @ 4.1Ghz, an M.2 1TB SSD, 8GB DDR4 RAM @ 2600Mhz.

 

I'm not sure if I need a dedicated graphics - or if I get the CPU with iGPU whether that would be enough.

 

I have an amazing gaming PC that covers the heavy stuff - this will be soley for MAME stuff.

 

What are your thoughts - if I got a 1060ti would that really make any difference?

[Lordmonkus]

A dedicated GPU for Mame only would't have any effect on the emulation at all but if you want to run HLSL or GLSL shaders you should have some sort of dedicated GPU in it. It doesn't need to be much at all but I would suggest an Nvidia card over AMD but even and AMD card would be fine for Mame with the shaders. Even an old 7xx or 9xx series card would do the job perfectly fine, just make sure it's a card with GDDR5 vram and not one of the budget GDDR3 vram ones.

A dedicated GPU will also help with Launchbox / BigBox but again you don't need anything crazy at all, system ram will also have an impact.

For the most part when it comes to emulation a graphics card has little to no impact at all depending on the emulator, the newer emulators of newer systems do rely pretty heavily on a GPU though. But like I said with Mame, if you get into the CRT shaders like in Retroarch a dedicated GPU will let you use the better quality ones, they can easily push beyond the limits of an on IGP. Shaders though is a personal preference though, some people like them while other people do not care and want the super clean sharp pixels.

[Simzter]

I appreciate the detailed answer, thank you.

I hadn't considered shaders - but I guess it would be good having a system that is capable if I wanted to dabble.

I can get the following: 4GB MSI GTX 1050Ti 4GT LP GDDR5 well within budget.

I hadn't considered the RAM - I'll go for 16GB

[lou silver]

Wondering what the specs of the old one were maybe build a second comp out of that with some cheap upgrades

and defintely get a gpu regardless

Edited February 11, 2020 by lou silver

[Simzter]

Thanks for the comment

The old one cost me like £30 second hand, and probably wouldn't survive a power on - it was covered in dust and probably damp.

I think I'm sold on the GPU idea, the 1050ti will cost me £130 and feels like money well spent if it improves the Launchbox experience. Last time I recall it being laggy - which is why I'm going SSD - previously it was an unbranded spinner.

[Lordmonkus]

The 1050Ti would be a great card for emulation, it will handle any shaders and if you wanted to dabble into the more modern emulators you can do that as well.