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Forums - PC - Gaming PC or Steam Machine — Emulation

 

From the perspective of emulation alone…

Steam Machine is the way to go! 1 11.11%
 
Wait for further details ... 2 22.22%
 
Get the upgrade to PC don... 6 66.67%
 
Total:9
JEMC on 18 November 2025
Machiavellian said:
Zippy6 said:

"My main purpose in purchasing is to emulate games from retro systems at the highest settings reasonable."

You always seem to recommend everyone gets way overkill for what they need. xD.

The vast majority aren't looking to spend almost $500 on just the CPU.

You actually do not know if its overkill until the person gives you a fuller detail on their budget and how long they expect to use this system for and also for the other thing outside of emulation that it also could be used for. Why skimp if you have the funds to future proof for a much longer time now than getting something that barely does the job only to be disappointed later when something comes out and it runs subpar on your system.  You are either in a budget mindset or you are in a future proof mindset so its best to know all options not just the option that is ok for today.

The team behind the RPCS3 emulator lists an "AMD - 6 cores and 12 threads or more # AMD Zen 3 architecture or newer" recommended CPU in their page (link), and they also have a spreadsheet (link) with lots of CPUs grouped into tiers based on how they perform. The 7600X and 9600X are Tier A (Outperforms PS3 in most titles, with smooth emulation) while the 9800X3D is Tier S+ (Significantly exceeds PS3 performance).

So yeah, the 9800X3D will give you the best results, but that's because it's the best gaming CPU you can find today, period. But that doesn't mean that other CPUs are bad.

If anyone is still wary of the 6-core processors, they can always go with the regular 8-core ones, the 7700X & 9700X. The extra cores will come in handy in some situation and they're a lot cheaper than the 9800X3D. Plus both are listed as Tier S.



Please excuse my bad English.

Currently gaming on a PC with an i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.

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rapsuperstar31 on 18 November 2025

If you end up being anything like me when it comes to emulation. You'll put thousands of games on your computer, pi, steamcube, whatever you get. Feel overwhelmed at first, play them for a month or two, and never touch them again.



Pemalite on 19 November 2025
Zippy6 said:
Pemalite said:

Build a PC. Don't skimp on the CPU and motherboard.

The Ryzen 9800X3D is probably the best bang for buck at the moment for a good all-round Emulation beast that should last the mile.

"My main purpose in purchasing is to emulate games from retro systems at the highest settings reasonable."

You always seem to recommend everyone gets way overkill for what they need. xD.

The vast majority aren't looking to spend almost $500 on just the CPU.

For emulation it's always best to buy the best CPU you can afford.
Great CPU's like the X3D lineup are going to outlive the GPU's in any system you buy, which pays for itself in the long run... So I have always been of the opinion to never skimp on the CPU and just upgrade the GPU a little more regularly.

Some emulators will also drive a 9800X3D pretty hard depending on settings and emulation accuracy and the system you are trying to emulate.

There is method to my madness.



--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--

BasilZero on 22 November 2025

Go for a full fledged desktop gaming PC.

I think the specs for the Steam machine will be lower than what you can get for a typical $1,200 to $1,400 unit on Black Friday (Assuming you are in the US) and the Steam machine's likely gonna be a $800 to $1,000 unit, might as well spend a couple of hundred dollars for something more substantial.

It'll be a better long term investment.

Also dont just go in for emulation, Steam alone has a lot of games especially with third parties, a lot of remasters and ports not seen on consoles that were released on previous gen systems are on Steam.