Integrated graphics VS cheap GPU

Libretro Lakka
#21

It is indeed on the work it is call the “Iris” Gallium3D for the Mesa 19.2 + And it should have some good improve on OpenGL.

I think Lakka right now is running Mesa 17.x with the “classic” i965 driver, and we wouldn’t get Mesa 19.2+ until Lakka 3.x. Overall performance is about 5% better, on many, but also - 5% on others, with exception.

Your statement is definitely true, and it is true to any graphic card really.

As far as Lakka goes. I truly don’t see much of a reason needing a decent iGPU. Like @BarbuDreadMon mentioned, there isn’t much heavy OpenGL depended core. and if your CPU can take it, I found software core a mostly better option compare to their hardware-accelerated counter part. anyway.

Again, realistically speaking, I would said, unless you need to run PCSX2 or Dolphin for Wii games. Even Dolphin with GameCube is 95%+ OK. iGPU come with 6Gen+ Intel is really “good enough” in most case.

If you do need PCSX2 or Dolphin for Wii, Desktop OS is the only way to go for now. But then you will got a lot more options for GPU. With that said, under today’s emulation landscape, CPU is more important than GPU, in my opinion, when it comes to emulation speed, and overall experience.

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#22

It’s a lot easier to have a good software renderer, first because you don’t have to care about GPU vendor issues, second because “glitches” present in the game won’t be magnified by upscaling (those games were never meant to run at those resolutions !). However, some systems require way too much ressources from cpu when using software renderers, a game like “Shining Force 3” won’t run at constant full speed on my i7 @ 3.4Ghz on beetle-saturn, it is a bit crazy for a 22 years old game xD. A lot of people also want upscaling nowaday for 3D system emulators.

#23

Oh boy~ SF3~ Sadly you will need a i7@ 4.1Ghz + to running it at Full speed AT NATIVE resolution!

And people never mention this, but the True CPU killer is actually MAME～， not the MAME 2000 or MAME 2003 plus, but MAME 2015+. If you are trying to run a 3D game, like Gauntlet Legend (also a 20+ years old game). This is when you want all the CPU power in the world. LOL.

On the other hand, Beetle PSX is doing a hack of good job. You can run game up to 4X using software render, and the resolve is beautiful in most case. 2X is really the sweet spot with the right shader. It is clean enough, yet still give you that 90s console feel to it. But again, that’s assuming you got a 4.0Ghz + CPU and a relatively new iGPU at the minimum to handle the shaders.

I mean it is a good and bad thing. The good thing is the reason they require so much CPU power is due to the low level emulation require, which in the long term, it is more accurate to the actual console, and CPU are getting fast and fast. but the bad thing is, it required a crazy amount of cpu power (especially single core performance) which we are still not yet to meet. It will be long before we can joy all these old game at full speed without empty out the wallet.

#24

Yeah, while it’s totally playable with a way lower cpu on yabasanshiro & kronos, a 70$ SBC like the odroid N2 can play most saturn games at full speed with yabasanshiro.

PSX’s arch was rather plain (1 CPU, 1 GPU, 1 SPU) so it’s a lot easier to emulate. Saturn’s arch was just pure madness, and the way all of this arch is working together is even more madness.

#25

You tempted me to give a yaba sanshiro a serious try. HAHA But I can’t get it work yet. not sure if that’s my CHD image. or BIOS setup. maybe is the graphic card, I don’t know.

How should be the BIOS setup looks like? like which file I need, and where to put them?

Thanks for the help.

#26

OK, I figure out why Yaba Sanshiro is not working on Lakka 2.3.1 It is due to the outdated graphic drive used by 2.3.1. I guess there’s not much we can do until Lakka 3.0