2007-11-09
We have a new speed king in the databases. Capcom's brillian shooter 1942 benchmarked on a 4GHz Intel Core2 CPU - an enormous average mark of 3342.32 FPS! A tip of the hat to the dedicated soul who submitted that benchmark.

Hardware certainly has come a long way since I first started using MAME back in 1997 on my then top of the line Pentium 200. How times have changed.

2007-04-06
Thanks to all those who've added benchmarks so far. The new public submission system works a treat, and it's great to see more numbers in there to give better averages.

In the "CPU" section I've added both "Microsoft XBox" (Low power Intel PIII running at 733MHz) and "Sony Playstation 3" (3.2GHz Cell). If you're a Linux-on-console user you can get your CPU stats by typing "cat /proc/cpuinfo" from a console. I'm curious to see how Cell stacks up against standard PPC, although I have a feeling specific support will need to be added to both GCC and MAME's internal code before any real boost will be seen.

2006-09-06
GREAT GOOGLEY MOOGLEY! I got my hands on a new Intel Core 2 Duo EXTREME chip today clocked at a whopping 2933MHz with 4MB of L2 cache, and this thing FLIES.

That's the first time I've seen playable (ie: more tan 60FPS) Cruisn' USA (a "meh" title for me) but more excitingly Radiant Silvergun. Although I should mention that RSG's actual benchmark is not anything to go by, as the intro squence is all 2D and runs at well over 250FPS. In-game however it was running at a smooth 80FPS. Very tasty.

Oh, and before anyone whinges: yes I know my choice of games to benchmark was lame. I do apologies. I didn't have any CHDs with me and only had the hardware for a VERY short amount of time (less than an hour). So I had to make do with what I had on me at the time.

Still, I don't know about dropping $3k on a system just to run MAME when Excellentcom are selling RSG boards for $250. :)

I'll be adding the benchies ASAP. Check the database to compare them to my slug of an AthlonXP system. I've been an AMD fanboy for many years, but Intel's switch to this new architecture (well, technically it's an improved old architecture, but lets not split hairs) has won me over.

I'm excited to see AMD's response. Good times ahead for x86 users.

2006-08-17
Wow. 2.5 years have passed since I said I'd do something with this page. Talk about slack.

Well, the time has come. The page got an updated and is now fully database driven!

I've added some easy search and averaging tools. I'll hopefully add some more search tools later that will do some sort of data interpolation.

Best of all, data can now be added by anyone. No more emailing me and waiting a gazillion years for me to pull my finger out. If you have benchmarks of your own, please add them ASAP! And don't feel like you need to always benchmark bleeding edge MAME builds or hardware either. Old MAME builds (eg: 0.53) on old hardware (say, older Pentium hardware 200MHz and below) are just as welcome.

In particular I'm really interested in hearing from folks who can benchmark MAME on handheld devices. If you run MAME on an sort of handheld PDA or modded portable console, please contact me and I'll add the CPU/platform type to the list!

2004-02-17
It's been a while since the last update.  Christmas and New Year's was pretty nuts.

I've updated the "AMD or Intel?" conclusion to be a little less fanboyish.  A big wave goes to Mr Belmont and others. :)

2003-11-06
Big news of the month:  the very friendly guys at Mameworld have offered hosting on their servers.  A big "cheers" to Roclobsta and the rest of Mameworld for letting me join such a great community.  Maybe with the extra bandwidth I can make the pages a little more exciting than text-only! :)

2003-10-30
Added some benchies for two higher-end systems.  One a P4 2.8GHz, and another an AMD AthlonXP overclocked to 2.2GHz.  If you want to know which is faster, check the newly added "AMD or Intel?" section at the right-hand side of the menu above.  You'll be surprised when you see the scores. :)

The official MAME version is now up to 0.76.  The MAME devs really have been motoring along the last few months.  The benchmark files still work fine with the new build, although be sure to update your ROMs to match the build you are using.  For benchmarking purposes I'm sticking with the directdraw renderer for now.  It seems to be the most consistent method for benchmarking purposes.  I personally use D3D on my own MAME box to remove the blurring that directdraw gives, but I've come across a number of hardware setups over the last few months that seem to fail under D3D in certain games (in particular with NeoGeo games on Radeon 9600 cards with the 3.8 Catalyst drivers).

You may also notice in the Database that some games are now benchmarking worse on faster systems than on slower systems.  No, this isn't a typo.  Many of the ROM sets were updated recently, and many games are now being emulated much more accurately (eg: almost all of the polygon flickering in crusnusa and propcycl is gone now).  When comparing benchmarks, please make sure to note the version of MAME used.  I will always try to keep benchmarked ROMs at the same version as the MAME build I'm using.

I'm still interested to hear from anyone with hardware I haven't covered yet.  In particular, Athlon64, Opteron and Via C3 owners.  If you're a MAME fan running this sort of hardware, please don't hesitate to submit your benchmarks!

I got a very interesting email today from a guy named "Moose" who's written a great little program that automates your benchmarking for you!  Just click the ROMs you want to benchmark, and sit back and relax!  For those interested, you can grab it from his page here: http://move.to/moose.  Check it out under his "Free Software" section.

If the command line scares you a little, you can use this little package to collect your benchmarks.

2003-05-28
More benchies added again.  Cheers Ashendragon and Garen (speedy system!!!).

MAME 0.69 is out.  The benchmark files have been updated to include 0.69 specific features.  Until the MAME team sort out the few remaining D3D bugs, DirectDraw will continue to be the renderer of choice for the benchmark.

I've added a few extra bits to the benchmarks to force no bezels, artwork, etc.  Cheers Matt for that one.
Replaced the "-nodisclaimer" and "-nogameinfo" with "-skip_disclaimer" and "-skip_gameinfo" options.  (The "whatsold.txt" file has the incorrect options listed).
Redownload the benchmark files if you are using new versions of MAME to benchmark with.

2003-05-16
Intel Celeron Tualatin 1.25GHz (125MHz FSB x 10) benchies added.  Cheers Ashendragon.

MAME 0.68 is released!  Preliminary support for Direct3D blitting has been added.  MAME can now draw it's information to a Direct3D window, which gives a slight boost to some cards.  The biggest advantage is now bilinear filtering can be controlled by the -filter and -nofilter options. (Good news for people running MAME through a TV!).  For now I'll leave the benchmarking with direct draw, but will incoroprate D3D tests in the near future.

Grab the release at the official MAME website, and check the whatsnew.txt for more info.

2003-05-15
More benchies added: AMD AthlonXP 1900+ (1.6GHz).  Cheers marilove, and congratulations on being the first submitter.
Cheers also to the rest of the folk on the MAME forums for their feedback and suggestions.

Changed the database to 1 decimal place in FPS ratings.  Who needs 6 sig figs? :)

Updated the benchmark batch files to include the  -nodisclaimer and -nogameinfo options.
*EDIT* Was given the news that those options don't allow benchmarking on certain systems.  They have been removed until I can test this further.  If you have troubles benchmarking, please redownload the bench1280.bat and bench800.bat files!!!

2003-05-13
Happy birthday to my buddy Geoff.
Added some of my TV machine benchies. Coppermine Celeron 566@850 (100MHz FSB x 8.5)

2003-05-11
Preliminary site goes up.  Enjoy! :)
Added AthlonXP benchies (2083MHz = 166.66MHz FSB x 12.5)