Project64 Configuration

[umop]

Hi. I have a pentium M laptop with an onboard NVIDIA GeForce Go 5200 and 786MB of ram. Project64 seems to be fairly slow with some games. My question is twofold:

1. What is the best emulator (if not project64) and sets of plugins to use for this system? Are there any additional drivers that I should have installed?

2. If I get another system, what specifically, for 64 emulation, should I be interested in pursuing?

That's all. Thanks!

Eric

[Clements]

Your laptop seems to meet all the requirements of PJ64, so the games that are running slow may require another graphics plugin. With a GeForce Go 5200 (which presumably roughly equivalent to a desktop FX 5200), just about any graphics plugin will work well, so download a good selection and if a game runs slow then experiment until you find a better plugin. Not all games will work well whatever you do; these games tend to get mentioned a lot in these forums so if you search you may find a workaround.

As for drivers, just get the latest from nVidia's site. These will be sufficient.

If you want a system designed for optimal emulation performance, buy a decent processor since this governs the frame rate you get, and a feature-packed graphics card that will be the most compatible with the most emulators and plugins. An expensive graphics card will enable you to use much higher resolutions and/or filtering which makes the games look much crisper. Avoid integrated video such as Intel/S3/SiS graphics since they provide bad image quality and are very slow, so stick with ATi/nVidia at all costs.

Your laptop seems fine to me, but just bear this in mind later on if you wish to buy a desktop system or perhaps a new laptop.

[umop]

Thanks for the information.

I am currently using Jabo plugins for graphics, sound, and input. I don't really have any knowledge on plugin details, and if I did, what those details would reveal. Do you have a suggestion on which to include in the trial arsenal?

I also don't know much about graphics hardware (bad geek, I know). So, within the NVIDIA/ATI confines, any specific suggestions on a good price/quality match for use with emulation?

Thanks again for the great input!

All the Best,
Eric

[Clements]

Just make sure you have in addition to Jabo's: Rice's Video, glN64(), Direct64, Glide64 (+Hactarux's glide wrapper) and TR64 OpenGL and you're set for most games then.

Within ATi/nVidia, it's a good idea to get a DirectX 9.0-compliant video card or above. In terms of product names, that would be GeForce FX 5200 or above, and Radeon 9500 or above. In this way you'll be able to use Direct64 to it's fullest, as well as useful when using other emulators such as Dolphin. You will not need to buy a $500 video card for emulation, so if you want to emulation mostly, there's no need for an exensive graphics card unless you have an expensive large monitor to show it's maximum potential.