Thanks for this guide, this is really helpful! As I am a computer noob, would it be possible to use a smaller case for the high performance build, like a Fractal Design Ridge, or would any modifications be needed? This is for my living room, so ideally it could fit in my multimedia unit.

The Fractal Design Ridge is a Mini ITX case, which is the smallest normal case size on the market.

Still, at a glance, I believe that only two parts in the high performance example build would not fit in that case: the motherboard and the CPU Cooler.

You'd need a Mini ITX motherboard, like this one from MSI, and a low-profile cooler, like the Noctua NH-L9i and its corresponding AM5 mounting kit.

Congrats on being the only person in history to consider RetroArch's interface to be "elegant."

I assume you are referring to the XMB menu? They released a desktop UI about 4 years ago.

Launchbox premium is now $30 for yearly License, $75 for lifetime license and $45 to upgrade from yearly to lifetime license.

Ah, inflation! Ha, thanks for letting us know. Should now be updated.

Any reason you would pick a slower CPU for the Midrange Emulation Build above...

The (Zen3) AMD R7 5700G has faster single core and multi core performance vs the Intel i5-11400
This can be confirmed on hardware unboxed youtube along with other websites... maybe a Intel i5-12600K would be a better option?

https://www.cpubenchmark.ne...

The short answer is 'cost.' The R7 5700G currently costs $350. The i5-11400 currently costs $190.

The midrange build is the first one in our lineup for this article to introduce the considerable extra expense of a discrete GPU. This can be important for some (especially recent) emulators, which are able to take advantage of GPU resources. The price difference between those two CPUs is put toward the GPU, and the (ultimately quite small, ~2-4%) reduction in CPU power from the 4.6 GHz 5700G to the 4.4 GHz 11400 is the tradeoff used to acquire that benefit. The high price tag on the 5700G is justified in the lower-tier build because that system is relying entirely upon its iGPU for graphics processing.

If someone is looking to build a system with a dGPU around that level and their budget allows them to get an i5-12600K, then yes, I would definitely recommend going with that option (and a compatible motherboard to match).

I see thanks for the reply..... Its looking like the best bang for buck CPU is going to be the soon to be released i5-12400 or Ryzen 5600XTX Zen3D when they come out.. whatevers priced better and has the faster single core performance... also AMD's new up-scaling tech thats in the works can be applied to any game and may help with emulation upscaling.

The choice of i9 in the 'beast' build was a poor choice indeed.
With the insane power hungry multi-cores of Intel CPUs right now and Intel's problem with throttling; the i5 with 6 cores and slightly higher clock speed without the possibility of being throttled by a CPU intensive program like an emulator would have been a much better choice.
In fact, there was no reason to go above the Ryzen 5600X as the AMD CPU's are so much more power efficient they can self-OC to around 4.2-4.5 Ghz with a decent cooler.
And they are suffer from less stutter.
The i5 11600k will hit 4.7Ghz wihtout overheating with a liquid cooler (AiO) and the R5 5600X will hit 4.5 with a Wraith that comes with it.
The i9 is expensive overkill for worse performance! Never mind you would need a fully liquid cooled PC to stop an emulator from having a PC meltdown.
I saw the i9 being recommended and thought I was on LTT 😂

Thank you for sharing that feedback! The i9 was selected there thanks to its excellent out-of-the-box single-core speeds. Would it be possible for you to share the benchmarks which lead you to believe that an i9-11900K will be outperformed in CPU-heavy emulation tasks (like RPCS3 and CEMU) by an R5 5600X? We'd be happy to look into those sources when considering future updates for this page.

Unfortunately, I can't find any emulation results that pit the R5 against the i9. I can find opinion pieces on the i9 being a very capable CPU for emulation and Intels best one for a long time.
Oddly, the only direct comparison I got was Intel vs AMD for emulation all-round since Zen+. That concluded that Intel was indeed the better choice if the EMU was single thread orientated and AMD taking the crown by quite some way in EMU's that were optimised well for multi-threading (2+ thread or cores).

There was also an article from a link I clicked on Reddit that went into detail about Intel vs AMD auto-overclocking that claimed the way Intel overclocks, emulators (that are not optimised) will often not be able to run Intel CPUs at anything other than their base speed. (which would put a lot of high-end i7 and i9 CPUs at between 2.5Ghz and 3.5Ghz) While AMD CPUs are recognised at their boost clock. (4.6Ghz in the 5600X case)

This is all rumour and opinion with a splattering of anecdotes of course. And the only technical details were about the Intel and AMD base and boost speeds being implemented in such a way as Intel often only runs at the base.
I am in no way qualified or knowledgeable enough to confirm or deny what was being written so I can't add that as proof either way.
All I will say is the i9 was indeed considered a mighty CPU for EMUs and the AMD 5800X was often referred to as the best EMU CPU available right now.
So I guess you are losing nothing if you can afford the mighty i9 and you are going to run any EMU flawlessly if you have a delicious R5 5600X.

How did you come up with $390 for the cheaper build? I came up with just a hair over $650 for the exact build and tried swapping out a few components for similar ones and couldn't move the needle that much.

Yes, unfortunately, the PC hardware market is in a particularly bad situation at the moment (due to a number of related-yet-distinct factors). As a result, many parts are out-of-stock from their primary distributors and are only available at huge markups from third-party sellers; some are even being listed at higher prices by their primary distributors. These issues are hitting key components like the GPU and CPU hardest of all. It's a bad situation, and we hope things improve in the not-too-distant future. But ultimately, we're just as much in the dark as anyone else about how long it will take for the market to normalize.

Hi Daniel,
I brought an Optiplex 3010 home from work, added 16 gigs ram DDR3, (although, I looked up the manual, and it says it can only handle 8, even thought the PC recognizes it, not sure if it is being utilized or not). I added a 1660 Super and a 600W PSU, so I think I may be bottlenecked for some emulation with the CPU that is stock. Do I just start over to get a better frame rate on the more daunting emulation consoles, I've noticed I cannot get up to 60 FPS with many ISO file games, and some games don't play at all? Since Dell is pretty much a proprietary motherboard, should I just take out the GPU, PSU, and Ram and start over with a new build? Get an ATX motherboard with a new case and add what I have already purchased? If so, do you think that would support the below topic that I get into in the next paragraph?

Also, I am not sure if you are familiar with VPinball??? I am trying to build a large cabinet that will incorporate everything (MAME, Other emulation for consoles, but it would include a 4K playfield (portrait oriented), which will ultimately be a 43 inch monitor, or quite possibly bigger. This set up will have (3) monitors, one of the monitors will not do much. I don't know if that will require more cores or if it just utilizes mostly the first and second cores in the CPU just like the other games. Do you know much about Pinball emulation?

Your article is very helpful and I appreciate you putting all of that together. This helped quite a bit. I think it pointed out some errors in my ways when I first started this project. I'm always learning, and hopefully I can save some bucks by using what I have already bought for a new build....That I might not even need? Fingers crossed. Your input is appreciated.

Thanks,
Dave

Hello,

Hopefully it isn't too late but before you purchase an entire new system please look at replacing the HDD with a SSD first. In older threads for VPinball people are talking about upgrading to a 3470 (inside some Optiplex 3010) and it worked wonders, so maybe tweaking settings and looking at older posts. Though I also saw some having problems with stuttering and people recommended SSDs to fix the issue.

You'd want a SSD for the new build anyway, so might as well start with a SSD then look at getting a new system if that doesn't work. Samsung QVO 2TB SSDs are good for game storage but not Windows installations, also QVO 1TB is slooow. Samsung EVO SSDs are great for Windows and game installations but cost a little more. I use Crucial MX500 for Windows and Samsung QVO for games storage.

You would also have to replace the RAM. The most prominent options in the <$200 range are: i3 10100($116), R3 3100($135), i5 9400F($143), i5 10400($179)/F($172), i5 9600K($197+$30–$40 for cooler).

Thank you for pointing out the RAM issue! I read straight past it being DDR3.

Even if the system in question has one of the better 3010 CPU options, the whole system after your upgrades would still be a bit weaker than the 'cost-effective emulation' example build in the first section of the article above (for emulation, that is; the 1660 Super should make that system better than the 'cost-effective' build for general PC gaming).

At any rate, it doesn't surprise me to hear that it's having trouble emulating disc-based systems with that CPU. So, if those are desired targets for you, I'd have to recommend 'option B' here, where you take the RAM, PSU, and GPU that you purchased, and use them in a new build. As to what exactly to build, that's tough to say. In theory, you've set yourself up well for putting together something like the 'high-performance' example build above, if that is within your budget for the project. For a general well-balanced build at a slightly lower price point, however, you could also consider the 'Good' tier of our general build recommendation chart.

As to VPinball, I was not familiar with it at all until reading your comment, so the content of this paragraph will be pure speculation on my part. Extrapolating from what I know of other emulators, it probably depends on whether the program uses (or can use) a hardware renderer for resolution upscaling. If there are no options along those lines or only CPU-driven/software options, then a beefy CPU will certainly be a necessity. On the other hand, if hardware rendering is available, then even very-high-resolution displays shouldn't incur much of any hit on the CPU at all, leaning much heavier on the GPU.

Thank you... From what I hear the VPinball is pretty demanding. It looks pretty cool, even with a low end computer, but everything has to have the fastest response time, even the monitor, otherwise playability is horrible, so it is not cheap. No point in having something that is pretty, yet cannot be played. I appreciate the input, that chart will probably help quite a bit. I am now torn about my first build, and what to do with it. I guess I will be getting some new Ram as well, due to Equinoxdini suggestion. I have looked into some builds, and seems like even with what I do have, it may be cheaper to just purchase the computer outright instead of piece by piece. What do you think?

Please do note what the other user has said, as he is correct: DDR3 RAM will be incompatible with any recent motherboard and CPU. DDR4 RAM will be required. Sorry for not noticing that before making my prior response.

Hello,
Thank you for what you do this is very helpful. I currently have a recroom masters emulator plus arcade cabinet running on a raspberry pi but want to upgrade to a PC for many reasons. One of the more demanding games I want to emulate is Golden Tee Fore (at least I am told while in the woods this game gets very demanding) but want to be able to handle even more demanding emulation if it makes sense for me financially. I was thinking your Midrange Emulation Build ($800) would be the right choice would you agree?

If this is the correct choice, I noticed the CPU listed is never in stock and has been this way for some time is there an alternative you would suggest or wait it out?

I also see that the RAM listed is discontinued to be sure I choose the correct alternative could you suggest?

The Midrange Emulation Build ($800)
CPU: AMD R3 3300X
Graphics Card: RX 570
Motherboard: ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4
RAM: 8GB (2 X 4GB) DDR4-2666
Storage: 1TB SATA SSD
Power Supply: EVGA BR 450
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock
Case: Fractal Design Focus G
Operating System: Windows 10

Thanks,
J.T.

I have also replied on the homepage, but just in case you check here first, I'll copy over the response:

I wasn't aware that MAME had pushed compatibility so far into the 2000s already, so that's cool. Anyway, for targeting emulation, I wouldn't
recommend downgrading to a lower-tier CPU like the R3 3100 as a replacement there (even though the difference is small). Rather, if you'd like to stick with AMD, I'd recommend bumping up to an R5 3600. Otherwise, for an option around the level of the R3 3300X, you could also consider an Intel i3-10300 with a compatible motherboard.

If you have the time to check this let me know. I came up with the below for $800 between Amazon and Newegg.

Case- Fractal Design Focus G White ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, FD-CA-FOCUS-WT-W
Board- ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4/ac AM4 AMD B550 SATA 6Gb/s ATX AMD Motherboard
Graphics- ASRock Phantom Gaming D Radeon RX 570 DirectX 12 RX570 4G 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
CPU- AMD RYZEN 5 3600 6-Core 3.6 GHz (4.2 GHz Max Boost) Socket AM4 65W 100-100000031BOX Desktop Processor
RAM- Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Intel XMP 2.0 Desktop Memory Model TLZGD416G3200HC16CDC01
Storage- Silicon Power 1TB SSD 3D NAND A55 SLC Cache Performance Boost SATA III 2.5" 7mm (0.28") Internal Solid State Drive (SP001TBSS3A55S25)
PSU- Thermaltake Smart BX1 650W Bronze SLI/ CrossFire Ready Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3/ EPS V2.92 80 Plus Bronze Certified 5 Year Warranty Non Modular Power Supply PS-SPD-0650NNFABU-1
CPU Cooler- be quiet! BK009 Pure Rock - CPU Cooler - 150W TDP Intel: 775 / 1150 / 1151 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011(-3) Square ILM /2066 AMD: AM2(+) / AM3(+) / AM4 / FM1 / FM2(+)

Lookin' good! I see no compatibility issues, and I think you'll be very pleased with the performance of this system in the vast majority of emulators (with the only possible exceptions being RPCS3, Cemu, and emulators that are capped by their current development level like Xenia, Citra, and Yuzu).

Thanks for the reply!! I have never put together a computer before so I may just make parts list and post for feedback if that's ok.

Excellent write-up.
Very detailed and easy to follow along.

In an update, maybe go into more depth about the Emulator choices.
Also, for Section 1, I wouldn't mind seeing more emulation builds. There are some really unique ones on Youtube, but in this kind of "all-in-one" article it would be easier to pars.

The specific emulator choices that are listed are simply those that we currently recommend acquiring as standalone software, separately from Retroarch. If you meant more detailed info about each of them---what kind of details would you ideally like to see included?

Similarly, for the additional build suggestion, what kinds of different builds did you have in mind?

Hi Daniel.
Sorry for the late response. When I mentioned "emulation builds", I was referring to other things like Raspberry Pi, or emulation via "top boxes". Actually, in hindsight, those might stray too far from the conventional "PC emulation", but it was just a suggestion...
Anyways, I really like your write-up and I hope it gets continually updated :)
Thanks, and stay safe/healthy.

What are your thoughts on CoinOps Next 2 vs Launch Box / Big Box. Building a micro-atx PC for my living room, going to HDMI to TV to play as a 'console' type system when friends are over.

Cool idea! Ultimately, frontend choice is going to come down to personal aesthetic taste as much as anything else. I personally prefer a fast-moving, clean-looking design, which is why (as you can tell from all of the images in the article) I favor EmulationStation.

That said, there is a clear distinction between CoinOps and LaunchBox. The former is a super-easy set-up for arcade enthusiasts; the latter is a fully featured, highly customizeable frontend for just about every emulator imaginable. So if you want your set-up to handle a wide variety of console libraries (not just arcade), then your choice is pretty much made for you. For that very reason, I'd personally opt for LaunchBox / Big Box---but again, I'm not big on 'flashy' frontends, so I'm a bit out of my element here.

Awesome, thank you so much for the reply Dan... Yeah I played around with both on my current PC and I feel like i was leaning more towards LaunchBox / Big-Box accompanied with RetroArch. I still really liked CoinOps, but I'm more worried about the frontend running smoother and getting to games faster, then I am esthetics that can possibly come with some laggy input. I'll be building the PC this weekend, and i'll update you on how everything goes.

Before I head to bed, what are you specifically referring to for Former & Latter? I just started getting back into retro-systems after using a modded xbox my brothers and I purchased when the original Xbox like first came out, so i been outta the game for a bit. I'm starting to learn all these new front-ends, and i havent come across those words yet... are those sub-categories of Launchbox / Coinops? Thanks for any information, and again, thanks for the reply!

Is Ryzen 5 2600 and GTX 1660 Super alongside 16 GB RAM a good combination for emulation?

Yes! In particular, a PC with R5 2600 and a GTX 1660 Super should have overall emulation performance in between the 'midrange' and 'high-performance' example builds in the first section of the article above.

What are your thoughts on an Intel NUC's NUC8v5PNH or NUC8v7PNH? If those are no good is it becuase of the GPU for more recent console releases?

Unless you really desire the form factor, we wouldn't recommend them, simply because they are more expensive than far better options.

For example, the better choice of the two (which would be the NUC8v7PNH with the i7-8665U) can constitute a system that costs over $800---despite having a worse CPU, far worse GPU, half the RAM, and a fourth of the storage space of the $390 'cost-effective emulation' example build in the first section of the article above.

Using that $800 to build the 'midrange emulation' example build from the article would yield an enormous improvement in performance, still for a lower cost.

I'd like to point out that in the Beastly Absurd build the RAM specified is not completely compatible with the specified CPU. i9-10900k CPU only supports DDR4 2933, not DDR 4 3200, so those additional megahertz would not be used.

That's incorrect. While there will be diminishing returns past 2933 MHz, the actual max RAM speed for a system is determined by a combination of its motherboard, that motherboard's BIOS, and the CPU---not by the CPU alone.

The Z490 mainboard allows for memory overclocking.

Might I suggest alternative builds that include a DVD/Blue Ray drive(with a case that would accomodate it)? For gamers who wish to use game discs from their collection.

That's actually quite a good idea! We might not add the drives to the example builds by default, but next time we update this article, we can certainly choose cases with 5.25" drive bays for more of the builds (since currently only the 'midrange' build uses one). Thanks for the great idea!

The Cooler Master C700M has one, too.

That's correct, thanks. I just quickly skimmed past the section before writing that reply.

Excellent guide! Many similar guides seem not to fully understand emulation, or regurgitate info, but you know your stuff. I've thinking about a new emulation/gaming build based around an AMD R7 cpu, since AMD seems to have stepped up their game, looks like a good choice!

Right now I run a 3 yr old build with a i5 6600k gently OC'd to 4.25 ghz, and a Zotac Amp! 1060 6gb, 16 GB Ram, SSD. More or less your midrange build. Runs PC games fine @ 1080p & most emulators rather effortlessly. Doesn't run rpcs3 well, however, and certain games in dolphin & pcsx2 (f zero gx, some of the GCN Star wars games) are playable but show signs of strain, i.e. occasional stuttering, with increased resolution.

Hence I'm getting the itch for a new build that can effortlessly play everything @ 4k. Might try to make myself wait for the dust to settle a bit, as there seems to be a lot of new products and such intense competition between AMD and Intel/Nvidia right now that is going to be good for consumers.

Anyway thanks for the article. Bookmarking to keep an eye out for updates! 🙂 Cheers

i'm planning in the future (who knows maybe a couple years or so). on building an emulation PC exclusively for using dolphin and redream (a dreamcast emulator) on a 4K TV as well as probably let my brother play some games like final fantasy XIV online on it... it seems like you dont have a specific upscale resolution in mind when talking about the consoles... what would you recommend for emulating those consoles at 4k

In situations where resolution upscaling causes noticeable performance differences in emulation, that is typically caused by the required synchronization between the GPU and the CPU. Emulation relies very heavily on CPU performance, which makes resolution upscaling in some emulators practically negligible even at very high levels like 4K (RPCS3 is a good example of this). Still, the syncs mentioned earlier should be reasonably straightforward for modern midrange hardware, so our recommendations would be unchanged. For a system primarily aiming to run early-to-mid-2000s home console emulators like Dolphin and Redream, we would recommend building at least the 'midrange emulation' example build in the first section of the article above. (For reference, here is a Reddit thread about someone with a weaker system than that running a GC game at 4K with 60 FPS in Dolphin, after fiddling with the settings.)

thank you... would using something like a 9400F or ryzen 5 3600 work as an alternative to the 9600K (because this is a living room PC and it could be nice to save a bit of money as well)

Yes, those should be fine alternatives. In particular, the i5-9400F is about 5% less powerful than the i5-9600K, and the R5 3600 is about 10% less powerful than the i5-9600K. Just be sure to also switch over to a compatible motherboard if you go with an R5.

Hi. I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post. Hoping you will have a build for Mobile Game Emulators. e.g. Bluestacks, Gameloop, Nox ETC.

On cursory inspection, the hardware requirements for those emulators seem to be rather low, so even the 'cost-effective' example build in the first section of the article above should be able to handle them just fine.