Emulating n64/psx on netbook

Arcade

Hi everyone, brand new to the forum, and also new to retropie and emulation in general. Looking forward to learning more!

So a bit on my short emulation journey so far. I was recently inspired to start dabbling in emulation and was originally planning on doing so with a rasberry pi. However, after a bit of research I ultimately decided to set things up on an old netbook I had laying around instead, as many people said that the pies struggle with n64. I read many posts claiming most old computers would outperform the pie and were more optimal for n64 and other more difficult emulation. Given this information, I figured that though not quite a proper computer, my old netbook should still be able to out perform a pie.

I recently successfully set up my old netbook with a fresh install of Ubuntu and retropie via the guide from this site. Clearly I was either wrong about my netbook or I need to do something differently. The netbook runs the older systems like snes, nes, etc wonderfully, but it struggles with anything around the n64/psx era.

I am hopeful because if feels like the netbook can almost run both n64 and psx nicely. I feel like I may be able to change some thing(s) around I just dont know what. Here are my computers specs:

AMD C-50 Processor 1.0ghz dual core
4gb RAM
Solid state hard drive
64bit OS Ubuntu 16.04 (with 32bit retropie 4.3.7)

Also I will let you know in my own attempts to get things running I already installed a more lightweight desktop environment to try and free up some processing power (not sure if that was even helpful, it didn't seem to do much for the actual emulation). I know when I got retropie it said it was the 32 bit version. Given my OS is 64 bit, I'm unsure if this is technically an inefficiency, if it is I'm not sure what to do differently.

I'm not opposed to using something other than retropie to emulate if it may give me better performance. I just want to be able to run up to the n64/psx era.

So, is it possible to make these systems perform better on my netbook? Or am I stuck with a hardware limitation? Phew that was a long post. I appreciate if you've made it this far!

Thank you so much in advance for all of your help!

TLDR;
Trying to get psx/n64 emulators running smoothly on my netbook. Running 32bit retropie 4.3.7 on Ubuntu 16.04 with a lightweight desktop environment. System specs listed above. Is this possible and if so what do i need to do? Thank you.

mitu

@arcade said in Emulating n64/psx on netbook:

I know when I got retropie it said it was the 32 bit version.

Where did you get this information ? I shouldn't matter, as long as you're running on a supported system - and Ubuntu (x86_64) is one of them.

jonnykesh

Netbooks are pretty low-spec devices. The one you have is at the lower end spec-wise even for a netbook. I would say the Pi would out-perform this netbook on any benchmark testing. You are not going to get N64 running smoothly on it, though it should be perfectly adequate for up to and including 16 bit systems.

Arcade

@mitu said in Emulating n64/psx on netbook:

@arcade said in Emulating n64/psx on netbook:

I know when I got retropie it said it was the 32 bit version.

Where did you get this information ? I shouldn't matter, as long as you're running on a supported system - and Ubuntu (x86_64) is one of them.

I got the info from: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Debian/

In the guide it states in regards to the install: "Note that this will be the 32-bit version of RetroPie."

I have nearly no understanding of the difference between 32bit and 64bit... But I was hoping that given my OS is 64 bit I could change something somehow and get the boost I need to run psx/n64

@jonnykesh said in Emulating n64/psx on netbook:

Netbooks are pretty low-spec devices. The one you have is at the lower end spec-wise even for a netbook. I would say the Pi would out-perform this netbook on any benchmark testing. You are not going to get N64 running smoothly on it, though it should be perfectly adequate for up to and including 16 bit systems.

So the fact that I'm running 32bit retropie with a 64bit OS is irrevelant? I can't change some things around (even if that means running something other than retropie) to gain any sort of efficiency boost? When I test the games it feels like I am extremely close to running them well. I feel as though I only need a small efficiency improvement to have them running well.

mitu

@arcade said in Emulating n64/psx on netbook:

So the fact that I'm running 32bit retropie with a 64bit OS is irrevelant

Yes, as far as performance is involved. You'll not get a considerable boost from running an x64 system.
Experiment with the games you'd like to run and see how well they run, but even on more powerful machines N64 emulation is not perfect, so don't expect miracles here.