Picking a GPU for shaders

RetroArch Additions Shaders
#1

Hi everybody, just looking for some quick opinions.

I acquired some older VFX workstations from a company going bankrupt a couple years ago. The specs aren’t the greatest, but it has been pretty capable of handling everything up to and including N64/PSX (and even some PSP games).

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600 Dual-Core 2.8 Ghz dual core RAM: 8 GB GPU: EVGA GeForce GT 220 1GB 128-Bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16I’ve set this up with Ubuntu, AttractMode and Retroarch. Everything else is set up and running, but now I’m starting to tackle shaders and… it’s just not cutting it. Everything but the simplest, single layer shaders starts dropping frames, bsnes-balanced running at 58.4 instead of 60, etc.

Even with an old CPU like that, it’s most likely a GPU issue, correct?

I’ve got an Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-Bit GDDR5 laying around, but the power requirements would need a new PSU and I’m wary of AMD drivers in Linux (I should be, right?). Tom’s Hardware recommends a GeForce GT 730 1GB GDDR5 64bitfor their ~$65 range, I’m looking to spend < $100.

Some things hold me back though- my original GT 220 has a much higher memory bus, pixel rate and texture mapping units. Should I be concerned about that?

I’m not expecting to somehow be able to run Desume, Demul or PCSX2, just be able to run some of the more intense shaders- like the incredible original gameboy shader, and maybe some of the more intense crt shaders.

So, any opinions? Will a new GPU fix my shader issues? Thanks guys.

#2

Shaders are all on the GPU, and they can indeed reduce framerate if your GPU can’t handle them. That may not be the cause of your bsnes-balanced issue, but if it’s getting full speed with no shader and then less-than-full with a shader, that’s probably what’s going on.

The GT 730 is probably going to have as good or better shader performance than the 4870 (EDIT: well, maybe not. It seems the 4870 has double the shader processing units, though their actual performance is similar). However, nouveau (the open source nvidia driver) kinda sucks at performance and it’s necessary for KMS if you want to use that (KMS mode lets you launch from a text console [i.e., without a desktop at all] with improved latency vs in the regular X desktop environment), while the open source radeon driver is better for KMS. OTOH, the closed source AMD driver isn’t as good as nvidia’s closed driver. So, pros and cons.

The 4870 is a much more powerful GPU overall, though, so if you’re going to be playing other games than just emulation+shaders, the 4870 is going to be the better option.

If you’re not going to use KMS (i.e., everything will run from a desktop, which is presumably necessary if you’re using attractmode) and you’re only emulating, just go with the GT 730.

#3

Thanks hunter. I ended up with the 730, and it’s doing exactly what I want it to- shaders run perfectly now, including on bsnes and n64. I just couldn’t justify spending more money on a new PSU, just to add in a much older graphics card when I could get similar performance out of a cheapo current graphics card. It’s only going to be used for emulation, I have another PC for games.