GPU Settings for Shaders?

RetroArch Additions Shaders
#1

I have a question that I haven’t been able to answer through my own searching.

Does anyone have suggestions for the optimal GPU settings to support Retroarch shaders like those by HyperspaceMadness or Kokoko3K? (In my case I am interested in Nvidia settings, but I haven’t seen this answered for AMD either.)

Why am I asking?

I know for me, for emulation/arcade projects I tend to use the lowest-spec possible hardware that runs the best games I want to include with the shaders I want.

I have a cab where I cut it too close… for example it runs Ibara, but once I add any demanding shaders it kills it. Admittedly this is with an older i3 CPU and an RTX 1050 – but like I said I am not one to put the latest and greatest hardware in dedicated game boxes. (Also it is 4K… if it wasn’t 4K that CPU/GPU would likely be overkill.)

Anyhow, I thought guidance on properly configuring your GPU settings for shaders might help people like me using lower-spec hardware squeeze out the best possible performance.

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#2

Since I write koko-aio on my haswell, that igp is my target, so i suppose any setting you throw at a discrete $VIDEOCARD wouldn’t make much difference as long as you target my target (lowres content and 1080p display)

In those conditions, the heaviest preset runs at about 100fps.

Targeting higher content resolutions and outputs, on an nvidia GTX1060, with the same game/preset/1080p output, we’re about at 550fps.

Testing now with nvidia on 4k and it seems to reach about 140fps despite the game input resolution (tried a lowres mame game and a 640x480 one), where the poor igp struggled with hires content even at 1080p.

You can do the math from there, I suppose.

-edit-

You can compare results here to have an idea.
Here is my 1060 vs 1050, (about 2x faster)

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#3

That is great info.

I have to confess, I just became aware of your shader (though I saw the folder when I updated Retroarch recently). I am eager to try it, might be less resource-hungry than similar ones I’ve tried.

Due to upgrades in my household, there is a GTX1060 that is about to become orphaned. I was planning to put that in the cab I am talking about to replace the 1050. But if I don’t need to, maybe I can just sell it or do something else with it.

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#4

It all depends on what you would like to achieve. There are a number of great looking shader options there now some can run fine on modest hardware, while others can put some strain on GPUs below current midrange tiers if you choose to enable all the bells and whistles.

So it really depends on you and also on what type of games and systems you would like to emulate.

There’s nothing particularly special that you would need to change in your graphics card driver settings. However, if you’re running into a situation where you’re dipping slightly below the “magic” 60fps mark, a bit of overclocking might take you over the threshold for a much better experience.

With either GPU, you can now run these great Shaders.

Mega Bezel is quite scalable and can even run on midrange mobile phones if you wanted to.

Koko-aio-shader is very lightweight so if you like it and it works for you then that is also a great option.

There are different flavours of CRT-GUEST-ADVANCE which are also quite scalable and powerful, including the very efficient GDV-Mini.

Then there’s the excellent Sony Megatron Color Video Monitor which gives you pretty accurate CRT emulation with a very low hardware footprint but relies on the brightness of the display to reproduce certain effects in a brute force manner.

You could definitely experiment with all of those using your existing hardware to evaluate if your lower end hardware is sufficient for the type of Shader experience you desire. If not and you need a bit more oomph, then step up to the 1060.

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#5

The effect that I really enjoy (aside from good CRT effect with curvature) is the bezel with reflections. That’s sort of my must-have.

I did also notice the CRT-Maximus-Royale in a recent update, which does offer that effect (not as dramatic as Mega Bezel) and seems more lightweight.

I just discovered koko-aio too. Haven’t even tried it yet.

Thanks, looking forward to experimenting a bit.

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#6

I played with koko-aio, it is very nice. Especially the Commodore monitor. I used to have an Amiga, not sure I actually had that monitor or if I used another one.

Like you, I think, I like CRTs and own a few, but display tech is getting us to the point that shaders like this get us 99% of the way to essentially the same “look”, with added advantages (like you can also emulate vector displays, among other obvious things like weight, thinness, etc).

I wanted to get you some FPS numbers but the way my display is mounted in my cab it makes it really tough to read the numbers accurately, just a bad angle. I will mess with it some more when I have some spare time.

#7

Heresy!

How could you forgot that typical look!

99% it was it or a microvitec 1438 (like mine, but it arrived in the late amiga days), since multiscan 15khz consumer monitors were always a rare thing.

edit.

whoa! bezels for everyone here! https://gona.mactar.hu/Commodore/monitor/Commodore_monitors_by_time.html