MAME on retropie is slow but on OS fast

[ejderfunk]

Hi, I am using Pi4 4GB. I installed the mame emulator via retropie but all games are running slow. When I install retropie on raspberry OS it works fast. It's not mame2003, it's mame which is normal. photo and video below.
Video:
https://www.veed.io/view/9270ea0f-1e31-4804-a8a5-4fe5f397c9d8?sharingWidget=true&panel=

[windg]

I am using mame2003plus without performance issues so far (except some 3d games). My roms are identical to this version of the core. I recommend to read the docs about mame emulation in the raspberry pi : https://retropie.org.uk/docs/MAME/ .

[mitu]

@windg I think the question/idea here is that there's a difference in performance between mame installed from RetroPie and mame installed (as a package?) from the OS.

@ejderfunk please add some info about your setup - as requested in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first.

Which RaspiOS are you using ? What MAME version are you comparing - is the same version ? What games have you tested to compare ? Can you run mame with the -benchmark option to let mame measure the performance of the driver ?

[ejderfunk]

@mitu no bro you don't understand. mame is slow in retropie but work correctly on retropie in OS.

[mitu]

@ejderfunk said in MAME on retropie is slow but on OS fast:

no bro you don't understand

Perhaps, maybe you can try and explain it better.

RetroPie is not an OS, it's always installed on-top of an existing Linux distro, which on a Raspberry Pi is Raspi OS. So Retropie on RaspiOS is just regular RetroPie, there's no difference here.

[ejderfunk]

@mitu I switched to batocera, retropie is very problematic. thanks for all.

[dankcushions]

this is a (sort of) known issue.

specifically, MAME (not 2003 or any of the libretro cores, but MAME standalone) appears to be faster run via the desktop, than via the framebuffer. some info here: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/28362/enhanced-performance-of-mamedev-mame-in-x11

i wonder if this could be fixed by configuring the launch script to launch MAME within X (on pi only)?

it has been on my list to investigate for years now, but yeah...