What actually is a good computer?

[DennyFrontier]

I've always considered my computer to be very good (albeit just turning 5 years old now), however I still think my emulator should run a little better than it does. So my question is, besides the minimum/recommended specs, what actually IS a good computer for emulating? In someone else's words, what is a "beefy" enough processor for example? If you had a blank check, what would the ideal hardware be?

I am currently in the process of building my new computer, Its almost done but until then I have this old girl.  I didn't expect it to be perfect but I havent been able to run a single game so far. (Tried Mercenaries 1, True Crime NYC, The Getaway and San Andreas)

Exactly, what does pcsx2 demand from you? I'm not asking for technical advice about those games, I'm just more interested where my hardware needs to be and how other users are faring with the emulator, all things considered. DF

[vsub]

Emulation requires high single threaded performance which your cpu actually have.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

The pc is more than fine for pcsx2,I don't know why you have problems with it.
You need around 1600stp for most games and then it goes up depending on how demanding the game is
The gpu also matters but not as much as the cpu and that gpu is also fine

There is also the fact that maybe pcsx2 is not running properly on the games you listed,not because you pc is weak(which is not)

I can run almost all games I have at more than full speed and my laptop,and my cpu stp is just 1800 while yours is almost 50% better

[DennyFrontier]

Emulation requires high single threaded performance which your cpu actually have.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

The pc is more than fine for pcsx2,I don't know why you have problems with it.
You need around 1600stp for most games and then it goes up depending on how demanding the game is
The gpu also matters but not as much as the cpu and that gpu is also fine

There is also the fact that maybe pcsx2 is not running properly on the games you listed,not because you pc is weak(which is not)

I can run almost all games I have at more than full speed and my laptop,and my cpu stp is just 1800 while yours is almost 50% better

If you don't mind me asking, what graphics setting do you use? The only thing I came come close to running smoothly is OpenGL software. Everything else is just plagued with graphical glitches, and basically 1 FPS (even with speed hacks turned up). Then that basically leaves me at square one, graphics settings that are no better than the original PS2 coupled with physical glitches that make it worse than playing on a ps2 to begin with.

[vsub]

No special setting,just OpenGL HW and some scaling(usually 3x)
From the speedhack,all default and mtvu is enabled

I already cleared few PS3 games(rpcs3)on i7-6700HQ with fill speed almost all the time.
For example on Valkyrie Profile 2(a demanding game),in the first town(Solde),when I remove the fps limit,the game is running at 100fps(40 over full speed)
Rogue Galaxy,also a cpu demanding game,100fps in the first town and 90fps in battle
Persona 4 in battle 130fps and up(sometimes more than 200)
ZOE2 - REALLY demanding game...above 50(Pal version)and don't drop below 40 on the known really demanding areas

I don't know what's wrong in your case but you should be getting much better results that me.

[DennyFrontier]

No special setting,just OpenGL HW and some scaling(usually 3x)
From the speedhack,all default and mtvu is enabled

I already cleared few PS3 games(rpcs3)on i7-6700HQ with fill speed almost all the time.
For example on Valkyrie Profile 2(a demanding game),in the first town(Solde),when I remove the fps limit,the game is running at 100fps(40 over full speed)
Rogue Galaxy,also a cpu demanding game,100fps in the first town and 90fps in battle
Persona 4 in battle 130fps and up(sometimes more than 200)
ZOE2 - REALLY demanding game...above 50(Pal version)and don't drop below 40 on the known really demanding areas

I don't know what's wrong in your case but you should be getting much better results that me.

Wtf I'm definitely not... And I've been trying all night to figure out whats wrong and I cant for the life of me.

Can you explain to me what GitHub is? Is it a different emulator altogether? Like pcsx2? Is this GitHub necessary for pcsx2 to be successful? Also in many of these videos Im watching on Youtube (Mercenaries and Mercenaries 2 for example) lots of these people are using 1.5.0 version of pcsx2. But the latest version is 1.4.0. Is 1.5.0 some kind of experimental build that runs better or something?

Some of the people in these videos have lower specs than me, and they can blow the game out of the water. I've followed their pcsx2 graphics setup to a T. Exactly how they set theirs up in the tutorial, and they arent experience ANY of the ***** I am. Like lines all over the screen, 12 FPS, a blooming sky (like a nuke exploded on the sun) all kinds of crazy stuff.

[vsub]

The latest official is 1.4.0 and the latest beta is 1.5.0 and it is also what we call github.
At the github site,the latest betas are posted and at the buildbot page,it is from where you get the compiled version.

1.4.0 is REALLY old and 1.5.0 is MUCH more improved with less bugs but it is still a beta version so one game may work today and not tomorrow.
I doubt anyone who knows about the buildbot\github versions is still using 1.4.0
https://buildbot.orphis.net/pcsx2/

I don't have those games so I can't see if I get the same results(maybe if you have some other games,maybe I will have some of them)

Can run the problematic game,make a screenshot of the game window(not in full screen),close pcsx2 after that and upload the screenshot and the file in PCSX2\logs\emulog.txt
It will be either in the pcsx2.exe directory or in Documents

[DennyFrontier]

The latest official is 1.4.0 and the latest beta is 1.5.0 and it is also what we call github.
At the github site,the latest betas are posted and at the buildbot page,it is from where you get the compiled version.

1.4.0 is REALLY old and 1.5.0 is MUCH more improved with less bugs but it is still a beta version so one game may work today and not tomorrow.
I doubt anyone who knows about the buildbot\github versions is still using 1.4.0
https://buildbot.orphis.net/pcsx2/

I don't have those games so I can't see if I get the same results(maybe if you have some other games,maybe I will have some of them)

Can run the problematic game,make a screenshot of the game window(not in full screen),close pcsx2 after that and upload the screenshot and the file in PCSX2\logs\emulog.txt
It will be either in the pcsx2.exe directory or in Documents

Right on. I stumbled upon that website earlier in the night. But I was confused when I found it because I wasnt sure which link to download. I saw the many revisions, but my many different authors. And the changelog seemed to address very specific things, like cars in Gran Turismo for example. So I thought it was just people updating things specific about that one particular game. And since I didnt see anything about Mercenaries, I didnt download anything.

So just download the latest revision? Currently by lightningterror?

I have a lot of ps2 games. Not as many as I used to but still a few. All of the GTA's, Splinter Cells, Getaways, Dead to rights, Red Faction, Max Paynes, True Crimes, Mercenaries, Kill Switch, Stuntman, off the top of my head thats all I can think of

[vsub]

All of them a developers contributing to pcsx2 and the latest version contains what every one of them have done
for example pcsx2 "1.5.something" have many updates to many games and bugs fixes then one of the devs fix some other problem and the next latest version will be "1.5.something that have many updates to many games and bugs fixes" + the update the last dev applied

For example that 3342 number on the latest version,means that this is many updates have been done to 1.4.0

[DennyFrontier]

All of them a developers contributing to pcsx2 and the latest version contains what every one of them have done
for example pcsx2 "1.5.something" have many updates to many games and bugs fixes then one of the devs fix some other problem and the next latest version will be "1.5.something that have many updates to many games and bugs fixes" + the update the last dev applied

For example that 3342 number on the latest version,means that this is many updates have been done to 1.4.0

Should I have kept 1.4.0 before installing the github version? I un-installed first and now im not sure if that was the right call because its acting weird. I cant select the folder with my bios in it and stuff like that.

[vsub]

The github\buildbot versions are portable versions.You can run them from anywhere and you can keep 1.4.0 installed if you want

1.4.0 settings and memory cards are kept in Documents\PCSX2 while the github version store them in the same directory as the pcsx2.exe
It is recommended to not place the portable version in Program Files,extract it to any non windows partition and run it.The wizard will ask you to point where the bios is
If it is not in the same folder as the pcsx2.exe(in bios folder),you will either have to move it there or uncheck the option "Use default settings" so you can specify the folder where the bios is