Requesting purchasing advice about the Pi4
-
Greetings everyone, for a while now I wanted a SBC capable of running Dreamcast and N64 games at full speed. When the Pi4 arrived I thought that might be it, so I waited until now for proper emulation support to make sure things work nice and smooth.
So my question is, is the Pi4 ready for this type of emulation? I watched some benchmarks I could find and everything looks decent with a few hiccups, but they are almost a year old and I just wanted some extra confirmation on the current state of things.
There's also the issue of which model to buy, the 4gb model seems the sensible option, as I'm not sure if the 8gb brings or will bring in the future any noticeable improvements to emulation? (Also I have to wonder if I can buy some better SBC with those 20 extra €).
Appreciate your knowledge on the matter, and oh, happy new year.
(I'm not sure if this belongs here or in general discussions, so I assumed here?) -
@tiberboi The Pi 4 is very much capable of N64, Dreamcast and PSP emulation.
Not all games run perfectly. I'd say for Dreamcast 90% of games (except the Windows CE games) run great. Nintendo 64 needs a fair bit of attention to get running smoothly, as despite the bump in specs from Pi 3 to 4 you still need to play around with mupen64's various drivers. There's plenty of info on those forums. After tinkering a fair bit I've got most N64 games working full speed on my rig - before overclocking.
Overall I would definitely recommend it. I was blown away by my Pi 4 personally. And while overclocking the Pi 4 is nice, I don't think it's necessary for N64 or Dreamcast emulation.You'll never use more than 1 or 2 GB of RAM at any time, don't shell out an extra forty quid if you're only planning to use the Pi for emulation.
Hope that helps.
-
@zering thanks! (and sorry for the late answer..)
I see that the 8gb model is clearly overkill, but are you saying that even the 2gb model is more than enough?
I've been trying to find some comparisons or benchmarks on the specific models, but no luck when it comes to emulation, almost everyone uses the 4gb.
And I was at first almost ruling out the 2gb model, but now I'm left to wonder if the cheaper option is all I need really, also I just got reminded the 3b+ (the model I own) was already running on 1gb so its double the power in that regard..Edit:
Did some searching here and I've seen the 2gb model recommended, I guess that should do it. -
@tiberboi The 2 GB is more than good enough. Like I said - you'll never use more than one.
Take the extra money and spend it on a fan, heat sinks, a strong power supply and a case. You'll get your moneys worth.
Contributions to the project are always appreciated, so if you would like to support us with a donation you can do so here.
Hosting provided by Mythic-Beasts. See the Hosting Information page for more information.