Would these specs be able to handle Project64?

[crimsonnight]

Operating System Genuine Windows Vista Business (Service Pack 1)
Instant-On OS XMB (Xross Media Bar)
Chipset Intel® System Controller Hub US15W
Processor Intel® Atom™ Z520 Processor
Processor Speed 1.33 GHz
L2 Cache 512 KB
Memory 2 GB
Memory Speed 533 MHz
Memory Type DDR2 SDRAM (1 x 2048MB on board)
Hard Drive Capacity 60 GB
Hard Drive Speed 4200 rpm
Screen Resolution 1600 x 768
Graphics Card Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 500, with up to 384MB shared system memory
Graphics Memory Available Total available graphics memory approx. 760MB

Please let me know if these specs are enough to be able to handle N64 and/or Playstation emulation - thank you!



*EDIT* Details on the graphics chip: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA#GMA_500

[Agozer]

With Jabo's Direct3D6 graphics plugin, yes. With the default graphics plugin, most likely no. You might get some serious slowdown too. Do some testing yourself. Playstation emulation - perhaps, but possibly severe graphics issues, and slowdown with *decent* plugins. Test yourself.

What I'm saying is that your basic setup is just fine, but that Intel integrated chip will drag it down a lot. You should steer clear of using Intel's chips with emulation, period.

[crimsonnight]

Thank you for the advice,

Im planning to use Windows Readyboost to help speed things up when I buy the UMPC - is there anything else i can do/buy to improve things?

*EDIT* how much would it help (if at all) if I upgraded to the model with a 1.6GHz Processor?

*EDIT 2* I think this chip may be different though? quotes from wiki: "a flexible, programmable architecture that supports shader-based technology, 2D, 3D and advanced 3D graphics"

[Agozer]

Now that you mention it (and thanks to that Wikipedia article), it seems that Intel might have finally learned a few lessons in regards to what it takes to create a better integrated graphics chip, as opposed to their earlier attempts which are, bluntly speaking, utter trash when used with emulators that emulate 3D hardware. The fact that the GMA apparently has hardware vertex shaders is a colossal improvement in itself, although hardware T&L support have been lacking for a good while now - don't know what's its status is in the GMA500.

Having said that, I'm still not prepared to praise these GMA chips based on Wiki articles and spec sheets alone, so we're back to my original advice: Test it yourself. Preferably with both the default graphics plugin and Glide64 (Glide64 being considered the best N64 graphics plugin by many atm - should work with Intel's chips now too, better than Jabo's Direct3D8 does).

As far as your processor goes: I don't really know how much difference a ~300Mhz clock speed does, but the faster your processor is, the better. Still, I wouldn't change my machine's processor just to get an N64 emulator running smoother without having any data on how my current slower processor performs (that's just opinion, though). It's not like N64 and PSX are the most demanding emulators out there, in terms of raw number-crunching power.

[crimsonnight]

Thanks again ^^

Sorry, I don't think I properly mentioned it - but I don't actually own the UMPC, I'm considering purchasing it, and if it can handle N64 emulation then I'm pretty much sold >.< are you pretty confident it could?

[Agozer]

Well, if you haven't purchase done yet, I'd still recommend very strongly that you get a computer with an actual video card instead of an integrated solution; you'll be much happier with that.

[crimsonnight]

Basically, the main two things Im looking for is size and battery life, as I'm downgrading from a power laptop (alienware) which just became a pain to lug around - the only things i used it for on the go was a couple of basic mmos (pangya + grand chase) and emulation - so as long as it can handle those things even at a basic level, i'll be more than happy buying a Viao P Series UMPC (especially as im already a little in love with them lol) but if it can't then I'm screwed >.<

[Miretank]

is that an eeepc crimson?

[crimsonnight]

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...52921644608896

[p_025]

To say something of my experiences before I upgraded my desktop, and with my laptop; you're going to want something better than an integrated Intel graphics chip. Those things are terrible when it comes to OpenGL rendering. Also 1.33GHz is a bit slow of a processor. It'll run the thing, but forget about complex games like Banjo-Tooie or Perfect Dark. And why do people keep making threads like this? Don't ask us if your computer sucks, try the emulator yourself.