What settings for powerful PC and TV?

[Reentry]

My launchbox is ran by an overkill PC outputting to a TV with freesync. Mostly for MAME games.

Are there settings I should look at changing to get the best experience?

Edited September 19 by Reentry

[NNEMO]

You can make some improvements to improve visuals, the options that stand out are integer and Anisotropic filtering at 16x.

Here is AI's broad list. 

With a high-end PC, the biggest improvements come from upscaling 3D systems, adding CRT shaders to 2D games, and cutting input lag.

**TV and Windows**
- Turn on your TV's **Game Mode** (or set the input label to "PC") so the TV skips its own processing and lag drops.
- If your TV and GPU support **VRR/G-Sync/FreeSync**, enable it. Older arcade games run at odd refresh rates like 57.5Hz or 59.18Hz, and VRR plays them smoothly without stutter.
- Turn on **HDR** if your TV supports it. CRT shaders use the extra brightness to make up for the darkening from scanlines.

**2D retro (RetroArch / MAME)**
- **CRT shaders** make pixel art look like it did on a real tube. Good picks are *CRT-Guest-Advanced* and *CRT-Royale* in RetroArch, and the BGFX CRT shaders in MAME. A strong GPU runs them at 4K easily.
- **Run-Ahead** in RetroArch removes 1 to 2 frames of lag, so games can feel more responsive than on original hardware. Set it per core, since it costs CPU.
- **Integer scaling** keeps pixels sharp and even if you don't use a shader.

**3D consoles (where your GPU earns its keep)**
- **Internal resolution:** raise it to 4K or higher in Dolphin (GameCube/Wii), PCSX2 (PS2), DuckStation (PS1), PPSSPP (PSP), and Xenia/RPCS3 (360/PS3).
- **Widescreen hacks and 60fps patches:** most of these emulators ship built-in patches that render games in true 16:9 and unlock 30fps games.
- **PGXP** in DuckStation fixes the wobbly polygons PS1 games are known for.
- **Texture packs:** community HD texture packs exist for Dolphin, PCSX2, and N64 (through Parallel/Mupen).
- **Anisotropic filtering at 16x** gives sharper floors and roads with almost no performance cost.

**Playability**
- Use **Vulkan** when an emulator offers it. It usually has the lowest stutter and lag.
- Enable **shader pre-compilation or async shaders** in Dolphin, Xenia, and RPCS3 to avoid stutter the first time effects appear.
- Use wired controllers or a low-latency 2.4GHz dongle instead of Bluetooth.

**BigBox**
- Use a **4K theme** and download video snaps so the menu looks good on a large screen.
- Set the startup and pause screens so Escape or a hotkey combo brings up BigBox's pause menu in-game, letting you save, load, or exit without a keyboard.

Tune one system at a time and save the settings per core or per game. A shader that looks great on SNES can look wrong on a Game Boy game.