best 250w graphics card for up to CPS3 3s???

[tmc]

Hi,

I've just got a shuttle pc that i am going to leave rigged up to the flatscreen specifically for emulation, it currently has an integrated intel 950 graphics chip, i wanted to upgrade it but the shuttle is limited to a 250w psu.

Could someone please recommend the best 250w graphics card that would be suitable for ultra smooth mame emulation up to CPS3, 3rd strike, etc.

Whats the best bang for my buck???

Shuttle specs are:

Shuttle XPC SD30G2B mini pc
Intel Pentium Dual Core E2180 2 X 2.0GHz Processor (each tweaked to 2.2GHz)
2GB DDR2 800 RAM
500GB SATA Hard Drive

many thanks.
DVD+/-RW LG Optical Drive

[DandySephy]

Hi,

I've just got a shuttle pc that i am going to leave rigged up to the flatscreen specifically for emulation, it currently has an integrated intel 950 graphics chip, i wanted to upgrade it but the shuttle is limited to a 250w psu.

Could someone please recommend the best 250w graphics card that would be suitable for ultra smooth mame emulation up to CPS3, 3rd strike, etc.

Whats the best bang for my buck???

Shuttle specs are:

Shuttle XPC SD30G2B mini pc
Intel Pentium Dual Core E2180 2 X 2.0GHz Processor (each tweaked to 2.2GHz)
2GB DDR2 800 RAM
500GB SATA Hard Drive

many thanks.
DVD+/-RW LG Optical Drive

Have you actually tried it with the existing chip? CPS3 doesn't need as much power as you might think. If it ran on an Athlon Xp 1.5ghz with only minimal menu stuttering at 640x480* on a geforce4 mx, a Dual Core Pentium will have no trouble with it.The cpu power should handle all the grunt. Heck, that system will have a reasonable stab at naomi (may not be playable, but useful for testing purposes)

*It ran perfectly at 320x240 or whatever the default res is, with a arcade vga

[AeroCityMayor]

Same PC I have in my mame cab.

I have a Sapphire Radeon X1550 512GB

HTH

[tmc]

Thanks for replys guys,

I think i'll try it with the existing chip but will prob try to get that Radeon alienmame mention if it'll take some load off the system, if it even works like that??

Alienmame - whats the sort of level of performance from your rig? i looked at your page and your cab looked sweet! I bought this small factor with a view to putting it in a candy cab just like you.

Are you happy with the shuttle for your emualtion needs? whats the best it can do, or you would expect mine to achieve with the lower cpu then yours?

thanks again both.

[AeroCityMayor]

Of all of the Shuttles I've owned (5 now) this is certainly the best and most stable.

I'm currently running mameuifx64.131 in my cab and I haven't found anything it can't run yet.

When I fire up msvc there isn't even a hint of screen tearing. I think your processor should run a good 97% of stuff in MAME

I'd highly recommend a 64bt OS and a 64bit build of MAME as this will give you a ~25% performance boost for free.

HTH