| NEWS 15/12/2000 |
You ever wanted to know how the cards compare used in Mon-ARC Plus??
The following AGP cards are tested (Voodoo3, G400 and Blade3D) the system overclocked Celeron 450MHz(4.5x100mhz) with write combining enabled.
Test 1 - Video Memory Write
for example
;edi video memory address
loop:
mov dword ptr [edi], 0
add edi, 4
jmp loop
Clearing a screen of 640x480 at 16bit (614400 bytes)
Results:
Voodoo 3 = 260MBytes/sec.
G400 = 260MBytes/sec.
Blade3D = 190MBytes/sec.
Notice the Voodoo3 and G400 are the same, I believe this is an AGP bottleneck, AGP X4 should re-address some videobandwidth limits.
Blade3D isn't so good, this is probably due to the Blade3D's memory bandwidth which is only 64bit memory bus running at 100mhz.
Clearing a screen of 1024x768 at 16bit (1572864 bytes)
Results:
Voodoo 3 = 260MBytes/sec.
G400 = 260MBytes/sec.
Blade3D = 150MBytes/sec.
Voodoo3 and G400 are still maxed out! Blade3D begins to suffer when the Video Bandwidth is greater.
Test 2 - Video Blit from PC Memory to Video Memory
for example:
; esi source address
; edi video ram address
loop:
mov eax, [esi]
mov [edi], eax
add esi, 4
add edi, 4
jmp loop
Blitting a screen of 640x480 at 16bit (614400 bytes)
Results:
Voodoo 3 = 200MBytes/sec.
G400 = 200MBytes/sec.
Blade3D = 190MBytes/sec.
Possible memory bandwidth problem here, its always best to buy the best RAM possible, not all RAM is the same, some have much higher bandwidth.
Blitting a screen of 1024x768 at 16bit (1572864 bytes)
Results:
Voodoo 3 = 200MBytes/sec.
G400 = 200MBytes/sec.
Blade3D = 150MBytes/sec.
Once again the Blade3D suffers at the higher bandwidth modes.
Emulation Terms
Basically we have some figures, but what does this mean to our beloved MAME emulator?
Okay, lets get some info.
Running a MAME game at 320x240 at 16bit, this is 153600bytes (150K) to copy a screen from local memory to video (the screen).
The game requires 60fps, 1 frame = 1/60 = 16.6msec, this is how much time CPU has to complete CPU emulation/Sound Emulation and Video Emulation before it starts to miss frames!
Voodoo 3
150K (153600bytes) / 200MByte (204800bytes) = 0.73msec approx.
So we have 0.73msec for blitting, that leaves us (16.6msec - 0.73msec) 15.87msec for emulation per frame!
Blade3D
150K (153600bytes) / 190MByte (194560bytes) = 0.78msec approx.
So we have 0.78msec for blitting, that leaves us (16.6msec - 0.78msec) 15.82msec for emulation per frame!
So this makes Blade3D approx 7% slower than Voodoo3 in 320x240 at 16bit.
Running a MAME game at 1024x768 at 16bit, this is 1572864bytes (1536K) to copy a screen from local memory to video (the screen).
The game requires 60fps, 1 frame = 1/60 = 16.6msec, this is how much time CPU has to complete CPU emulation/Sound Emulation and Video Emulation before it starts to miss frames!
Voodoo 3
1536K (1572864bytes) / 200MByte (204800bytes) = 7.68msec approx.
So we have 7.68msec for blitting, that leaves us (16.6msec - 7.68msec) 8.92msec for emulation per frame!
Blade3D
1536K (1572864bytes) / 150MByte (153600bytes) = 10.24msec approx.
So we have 10.24msec for blitting, that leaves us (16.6msec - 10.24msec) 6.36msec for emulation per frame!
So this makes Blade3D approx 33.5% slower than Voodoo3 in 1024x768 at 16bit.
Can you see what happens when you get a bottleneck?? The Blade3D is the Bottleneck on this machine, however for Voodoo3 and G400 it is the PC memory that is the bottleneck.
When the memory is faster and the videocard is faster, then its CPU that will be the bottleneck!
For example Geforce 2 Ultra hasn't met its full potential yet, as there isn't a fast enough CPU to push it to its MAX!
Test 3 - Pixel clock accuracy (useful for Arcade owners only)
We we talk about pixel clock accuracy for low res/low scanrate modes.
for example:
#400x256 (for psychic5)
#clock 8.449MHz, HTotal 536, VTotal 293, H:15.76kHz, V:53.8Hz
Basically this means that Psychic 5 has a resolution of 400x256 and a Horizontal Clock Rate of 15.76kHz and a Vertical Refresh of 53.80Hz
The game has 18.58msec per frame, when VSYNC is enabled, MAME uses Vertical Retrace for emulation timing (Only VSyncMAME supports -VSYNC on this mode, if the card is supported).
G400
clock 8.437MHz = 27.000MHz * 10 / (4 * 8)
H:15.74kHz, V:53.72Hz
Meaning we have 18.61msec per frame instead, this means we are running approx .2% slower, you might think I am being silly now?? the answer is no!! this is noticable, and means emulation is not 100% accurate.
Voodoo3
clock 8.449MHz = 14.318MHz * 203 / (43 * 8)
H:15.76kHz, V: 53.8Hz
Voodoo3 delivers 100% accuracy.
Blade3D
No data, Blade3D is better than G400 according to Saka, maybe as good as the Voodoo3.
#320x240
#clock 6.690MHz, HTotal 424, VTotal 263, H:15.78kHz, V:60.0Hz
Used by NeoGeo, System16 games and so on.
The game has 16.6msec per frame, when VSYNC is enabled, MAME uses Vertical Retrace for emulation timing.
G400
clock 6.644MHz = 27.000MHz * 63 / (32 * 8)
H:15.67kHz, V:59.58Hz
Meaning we have 16.78msec per frame instead, this means we are running approx 1.1% slower, this is even more noticable!
Voodoo3
clock 6.690MHz = 14.318MHz * 243 / (65 * 8)
H:15.78kHz, V:60.0Hz
Voodoo3 delivers 100% accuracy.
Blade3D
No data, Blade3D is better than G400 according to Saka, maybe as good as the Voodoo3.
Also note that some videocards running at 320x240 mode on a PC monitor are not 60hz, some are 59.xxhz or there about, depending on the difference from 60hz it can be noticable!
I'd say the Voodoo cards are the king of emulation, but sadly they omit one thing, NO-INTERLACE MODE! doesn't really effect you so much if you have a Med-Res monitor as you can just create a 640x480 mode at 50Hz for Vector games, the pictures looks a lot sharper too, cause you don't get that interlace flicker!
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| NEWS 6/12/2000 |
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Mon-ARC PLUS updated, support for the Matrox G400.
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| NEWS 5/12/2000 |
Mon-ARC PLUS is here!! I am extremely impressed with this.
Read all about it in the Mon-ARC section.
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| NEWS 22/11/2000 |
I've really got into collecting arcade boards lately, its damn addictive (I knew I shouldn't have found E-bay!)
Current board list:
8-Man
Kof94
Kof95
Fatal Fury Special
Fatal Fury 3
Pulstar
NeoGeo 1 Slot MV-1F
Fatal Fury Wild Amibition
Marvel VS Capcom
Slam Masters
Dead or Alive
Virtua Striker
Virtua Fighter 3
Aliens
Golden Axe
Shinobi
Primal Rage
Surf Planet
Killer Instinct 2
Police Trainer
R-Type
And lots more on the way..
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| NEWS 1/9/2000 |
Am I Alive??? Just about..
No updates for a long while, though due to my arcade monitor breaking down.. :(
I've also been busy with other ventures..
Make sure you visit www.arcadegame.co.uk a new website which will sell anything arcade related!!
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| NEWS 3/8/2000 |
Pentium3 650E overclocked to 865mhz! Mortal Kombat 2 and 3 and other Midway games are bewteen 95% and 100% speed on my brothers PC with a Geforce2 for 2D (Under Windows DOS, I expect quicker speeds under native DOS).
I will be building a new PC soon, I am on a £500 budget, but I am definatley going for the ABIT BE6-2 motherboard and Pentium3 650E (Coppermine) CPU, a cheap, but powerful upgrade, twice the speed of my Celeron 300A overclocked at 450mhz.
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| NEWS 3/8/2000 |
Pentium3 650E overclocked to 865mhz! Mortal Kombat 2 and 3 and other Midway games are bewteen 95% and 100% speed on my brothers PC with a Geforce2 for 2D (Under Windows DOS, I expect quicker speeds under native DOS).
I will be building a new PC soon, I am on a £500 budget, but I am definatley going for the ABIT BE6-2 motherboard and Pentium3 650E (Coppermine) CPU, a cheap, but powerful upgrade, twice the speed of my Celeron 300A overclocked at 450mhz.
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| NEWS 3/8/2000 |
Voodoo5 5500 support in Mon-ARC soon?? (testing is currently underway).
NVidia support is looking doubtful, it looks like the dotclock can't be programmed to get an accurate clockspeed for Arcade monitors.
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| NEWS 26/7/2000 |
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There is stuff for sale!! check it out now, dammit!
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| NEWS 26/7/2000 |
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I've converted my SegaSwing Cabinet back to Jamma (I am now the owner of a Virtua Fighter 3 PCB thanks to www.vektorlogic.com), I recommend people to hook the cabinet via the Jamma connector, so you can also buy Arcade Boards, I plan to buy a lot more Sega equipment in the future.
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| NEWS 6/7/2000 |
Saka has totally re-written Mon-ARC! the code is a lot cleaner and more efficent.
Support also added for Matrox G400! Hooray for Saka!
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| NEWS 6/7/2000 |
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Pentium3 650E overclocked to 865mhz! lets just say the results are fantastic, almost a constant 60fps for Rolling Thunder 2 in MAME.
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| NEWS 22/6/2000 |
Updated the Video section, to include a my opinons of the SIS6326 videocard.
Also added some information to the Interface section.
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| NEWS 19/6/2000 |
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the first ever version of Mon-ARC released to the general public!
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| NEWS 5/6/2000 |
Update the Videocard section, and added Banshee/Voodoo3 to the list.
Anyone who seriously wants to run MAME on an Arcade Monitor should checkout both VSYNCMAME and AdvanceMAME.
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| WELCOME! |
| Finally I am getting around to document my ArcadePC project, I can't believe it has taken me so long to get around to it! |
| OPTI-MAME |
| What happend to Opti-MAME? Well lack of time and the fact that EMU+ supporting it, I didn't see the point having two varations of MAME which did the same thing. |
| ULTRACADE |
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www.ultracade.com
Quantum3D the highend videocard developers and close buddys of 3DFX, have announced ULTRACADE a commerical ArcadePC running classic games.
Games come in packs of 8 and our licensed from Tatio, Capcom, Jaleco and others to be announced.
For information and to view some photos of the cabinet, marquee and other such things, click on the link above.
It would seem Ultracade is generating a lot of interest.
The European distributor for the product are getting there first production samples within the next few days.
It's being shipped as a complete kit to fit any JAMMA cabinet with a VGA monitor. When I say complete kit I mean complete, it comes with all controls, joysticks & buttons etc. a complete set of decals the system itself of course and one gamepack pre loaded. This gives you out of the box 8 games playable on one system.
This is the only legal way to possess these games without the original ROM's, Q3D have a licensing agreement with all of the companies.
The system kit including one gamepack is available at £1620 with all other gamepacks available at £250 each.
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