corei7 @ 3.4/3.5ghz, how will software mode work in gsdx with 7 threads Pcsx2 0.9.6?

[Trigun]

4-4.2ghz on mine.

If I had a better chip, could top out at 4.4 (My BCLK (aka FSB) tops out at 210, so 210x21 (Turbo multi for 920) = 4410.
Usually keep it at 4.0 though, the voltage "My" chip (will differ batch to batch) takes at 4.2 is 1.45v with LLC, 4.0 only takes 1.35v LLC so 200mhz isnt worth that kind of jump to me 24/7.

[mird99]

software rendering in gsdx is locked at native resolution and doesnt use any postprocessing i'm aware of, remember that if you want to upgrade your cpu. It doesnt look too hot, compared to hardware rendering. Any noticable increase in picture quality must be paid with performance loss. Dont expect miracles

[Federelli]

@Rama Try MGS3, 7fps ftl!
@mird99, on the other hand, software mode emulates practically everything, even PP effects.

[Trigun]

I've yet to test mgs3 in software actually... i'll check that out later today ;p

[chuuey]

also check Shadow of Colossus in Software mode with 7 threads, i'm really interested how this will run on this configuration

[lightchris]

@mird99, on the other hand, software mode emulates practically everything, even PP effects.

The hardware mode tries that too, but in some games it doesn't work right.
Software mode is fine if you want to get as close to the original hardware as possible, but if you want to do better (high internal resolutions and/or AA respectively) hardware mode will be the only way.

[Federelli]

@lightchris, actually Gabest decided to not emulate PP in hardware i believe, he actually adds special checks that disable PP for as many games as he wants to add.

Again MGS3 for example, when using the Thermal Goggles, the PP effect seems to become bugged and starts trying to works as it should, turning the screen green and resulting in less than 1fps. You can see this in lots of places, when using the codec too, you can't see who you'r talking too and snake is perfectly rendered, instead of the PP effect used on the PS2.

[Gentleman]

Anyway, like mird said, software renderer only support the native resolution, atm any game looks 100% better on hardware mode. Hardware stills the way to go. Maybe in the future software mode will take over, but not right now.

[Trigun]

Some people care more about accuracy than larger resolution. Even when using hardware mode, I often don't use larger internal resolutions 99% of the time. In that case, Software works just fine and provides greater emulation quality.

[lightchris]

@lightchris, actually Gabest decided to not emulate PP in hardware i believe, he actually adds special checks that disable PP for as many games as he wants to add.

That's only for PP effects which don't make sense in emulation or look bad, such as blurfilters.
Usually GSdx tries to emulate everything, would be time consuming as hell too if you'd want to remove specific effects for each of the hundreds of games.