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Arcade · Load: light · active

MAME: what PC you need to emulate Arcade

MAME is a Arcade emulator (1997); FPSHQ load rating: light (30/100). 1,862 of 1,965 catalogue GPUs (95%) pass the GPU minimum (score 700), and 431 of 456 CPUs pass the CPU minimum (score 1,700). The most affordable suitable GPU is Zotac Trinity GeForce GTX 1050.

Key figures

Unique FPSHQ metrics from this page's data

700
min GPU score
RTX 3060 = 2,900
1,700
min CPU score
95%
of catalogue GPUs pass the minimum
1,862 / 1,965
95%
of CPUs pass the minimum
431 / 456
2 / 4GB
RAM: minimum / recommended
1997
first release year

Can my PC run this emulator?

Which GPUs run MAME: headroom over the minimum

GPU score ÷ the emulator's minimum score. ×1 — minimum, ×1.4 — comfortable at native resolution, ×2.2 — you can render at 2–3× resolution. Popular catalogue GPUs.

GeForce RTX 5070GeForce RTX 5070×8.9 · 2×–3×GeForce RTX 5060 TiGeForce RTX 5060 Ti×7.0 · 2×–3×GeForce RTX 3070GeForce RTX 3070×6.1 · 2×–3×GeForce RTX 5060GeForce RTX 5060×6.0 · 2×–3×GeForce RTX 3060 TiGeForce RTX 3060 Ti×5.4 · 2×–3×GeForce RTX 4060GeForce RTX 4060×5.3 · 2×–3×GeForce RTX 3060GeForce RTX 3060×4.1 · 2×–3×GeForce RTX 3050GeForce RTX 3050×3.4 · 2×–3×GeForce GTX 1660 SuperGeForce GTX 1660 Super×2.7 · 2×–3×GeForce GTX 1060 6GBGeForce GTX 1060 6GB×2.1 · 1×–2×Radeon RX 580Radeon RX 580×1.9 · 1×–2×GeForce GTX 1650GeForce GTX 1650×1.6 · 1×–2×GeForce GTX 1050 TiGeForce GTX 1050 Ti×1.1 · 1×GeForce GTX 1050GeForce GTX 1050×1.0 · 1××1 minimum×2.2GeForce RTX 5070GeForce RTX 5070×8.9 · 2×–3×GeForce RTX 5060 TiGeForce RTX 5060 Ti×7.0 · 2×–3×GeForce RTX 3070GeForce RTX 3070×6.1 · 2×–3×GeForce RTX 5060GeForce RTX 5060×6.0 · 2×–3×GeForce RTX 3060 TiGeForce RTX 3060 Ti×5.4 · 2×–3×GeForce RTX 4060GeForce RTX 4060×5.3 · 2×–3×GeForce RTX 3060GeForce RTX 3060×4.1 · 2×–3×GeForce RTX 3050GeForce RTX 3050×3.4 · 2×–3×GeForce GTX 1660 SuperGeForce GTX 1660 Super×2.7 · 2×–3×GeForce GTX 1060 6GBGeForce GTX 1060 6GB×2.1 · 1×–2×Radeon RX 580Radeon RX 580×1.9 · 1×–2×GeForce GTX 1650GeForce GTX 1650×1.6 · 1×–2×GeForce GTX 1050 TiGeForce GTX 1050 Ti×1.1 · 1×GeForce GTX 1050GeForce GTX 1050×1.0 · 1×

Official MAME requirements

CPUx86-64 / ARM64 · 2+ cores / 4 recommended
GPUany (3D arcade: discrete)
RAMminimum 2 GB, recommended 4 GB
Graphics APIOpenGL, Direct3D 11, BGFX
OSWindows, Linux, macOS
LicenseGPL-2.0 / BSD-3-Clause
PlatformArcade
Statusactive
Official sitemamedev.org

Requirements come from the project's official documentation (check date below). FPSHQ scores are our synthetic performance scale used to match against the catalogue.

Suitable GPUs by tier

At the minimum (×1–1.4)

Comfortable (×1.4–2.2)

Headroom for 4K rendering (×2.2+)

CPUs: headroom over the MAME minimum

CPUs that pass the MAME minimum

Core i5-10210UCore i5-10210U×1.0 · 4CFX-8320FX-8320×1.0 · 8CCore i7-7700HQCore i7-7700HQ×1.0 · 4CFX-8300FX-8300×1.0 · 8CCore i5-1035G1Core i5-1035G1×1.0 · 4CCore i3-7100TECore i3-7100TE×1.1 · 2CRyzen 7 3750HRyzen 7 3750H×1.1 · 4CAthlon 200GEAthlon 200GE×1.1 · 2CCore i5-8300HCore i5-8300H×1.1 · 4CCore i3-7100TCore i3-7100T×1.1 · 2CXeon E5-2620 v3Xeon E5-2620 v3×1.1 · 6CCore i5-9300HCore i5-9300H×1.1 · 4C×1 minimumCore i5-10210UCore i5-10210U×1.0 · 4CFX-8320FX-8320×1.0 · 8CCore i7-7700HQCore i7-7700HQ×1.0 · 4CFX-8300FX-8300×1.0 · 8CCore i5-1035G1Core i5-1035G1×1.0 · 4CCore i3-7100TECore i3-7100TE×1.1 · 2CRyzen 7 3750HRyzen 7 3750H×1.1 · 4CAthlon 200GEAthlon 200GE×1.1 · 2CCore i5-8300HCore i5-8300H×1.1 · 4CCore i3-7100TCore i3-7100T×1.1 · 2CXeon E5-2620 v3Xeon E5-2620 v3×1.1 · 6CCore i5-9300HCore i5-9300H×1.1 · 4C
In short

Which GPU do I need for MAME?

The minimum GPU score for MAME is 700 (FPSHQ scale). The most affordable suitable card is Zotac Trinity GeForce GTX 1050; rendering at 2–3× resolution needs ×2.2 headroom — the ASRock Taichi Radeon RX 5500 XT level and up. The project officially requires: any (3D arcade: discrete).

min GPU score
700
min CPU score
1,700
of catalogue GPUs pass the minimum
95%
RAM
2–4 GB
updated · source: official MAME documentation, FPSHQ model estimate

Frequently asked questions

Which GPU do I need for MAME?
The minimum GPU score for MAME is 700 (FPSHQ scale). The most affordable suitable card is Zotac Trinity GeForce GTX 1050; rendering at 2–3× resolution needs ×2.2 headroom — the ASRock Taichi Radeon RX 5500 XT level and up. The project officially requires: any (3D arcade: discrete).
Which CPU do I need for MAME?
The minimum CPU score is 1,700: 431 of 456 catalogue CPUs pass it. Official requirements: x86-64 / ARM64 · 2+ cores / 4 recommended. Emulation depends on per-core performance rather than the core count.
How much RAM does MAME need?
Per the MAME documentation: minimum 2 GB, recommended 4 GB. The emulator keeps the game image and shader cache in memory, so a RAM shortage causes stutter during shader compilation.
Which operating systems does MAME support?
MAME runs on: Windows, Linux, macOS. Graphics APIs: OpenGL, Direct3D 11, BGFX. On Windows, Vulkan is usually faster (if your GPU supports it); on Linux it is Vulkan/OpenGL only.
Can my PC run MAME?
Pick your GPU and CPU in the "Can my PC run it" block above: the page compares their scores with the MAME minimum (GPU 700, CPU 1,700) and shows the headroom. ×1.4 or more means comfortable play at the console's native resolution.
Is MAME still updated?
Yes, MAME is an active project; status last checked Oct 4, 2026. Official site: https://www.mamedev.org/.

Methodology and sources

This page uses the FPSHQ database: the GPU and CPU catalogue with synthetic benchmark scores, official game system requirements, FPS measurements from users of the FPSHQ app and the FPSHQ performance model. Calculated values are estimates, not a measurement of your exact configuration: the real result depends on drivers, settings and the rest of the hardware. More about the methodology →

Sources:
FPSHQ Team · Data updated

All pages with MAME

All graphics cards for this emulator (11)
RTX 3090 TiRX 9070RTX 5070RX 9070 GRERTX 3080RX 6900 XTRTX 5060 TiRX 6800 XTNVIDIA RTX A5000RX 7700 XTRTX 4060 Ti 16GB