What's the Best PC Hardware for Emulating Different Consoles?

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Hey everyone! I’m a bit of a techie and have a bunch of spare hardware lying around. I’m thinking of building a TV box aimed at console emulation. I’m curious about what kind of CPU, GPU, and RAM I’d need for a solid, versatile emulation setup. What should I be looking for depending on the types of consoles I want to emulate?

4 Answers

EmulationHero -

For flexibility, I recommend going with at least an i5 CPU. I often repurpose old micro PC models as Batocera boxes. At 1080p, they can handle PSX and some GameCube/PS2 titles. My current setup is an i5 6800 with a GTX 960, and it manages PS2 and GameCube games nicely, but it can struggle with some higher demands, so plan accordingly if you want to push further.

OldSchoolGamer -

I just got my hands on a 3900x and a 5700xt with 32GB of RAM from a new server blade. How well do you think that would perform? I’m trying to gauge at what point putting in more power becomes less practical.

RetroKing88 -

The hardware you need really depends on what games you’re aiming to emulate. For retro 2D games, even something as old as a Pentium 4 or Core 2 Duo would work. If you’re looking at newer consoles like the Switch, you’ll want significantly more power. Let us know your specific goals, and we can help refine that further!

TechMasterQ -

I’m trying to understand the capacity I need across different emulators. My plan is to gauge the best setups and decide the specs after. I want to start with the highest ceiling I can realistically achieve.

GamerGuy2022 -

Are you specifically focused on retro consoles? Your setup seems overkill for systems up to the mid-2010s. Just doing a quick search could provide most of the info you’re looking for on how to approach this.

PixelProwler -

From my experience, it really comes down to what you’re targeting. I started with a Raspberry Pi 2 model B running RetroPie, and it worked great for consoles up to the N64. If I were doing it again, I’d still go for RetroPie with some wireless controllers.

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