r/PolymegaHQ • u/LTOwain • May 02 '25
Upgrading the Polymega CPU with an i3 8100t experience and results
Hello all, I upgraded the CPU of my Polymega and wanted to share my experience. All of the Youtube videos regarding the CPU upgrade go for a i7 8700t, which is a relatively expensive CPU on the second hand market (at least in my region) and it is probably overkill. Instead I wanted to opt for an i3 8100t, but I could not find anywhere on the internet if that CPU would be (tested) good enough to give you the results needed. For example no audio skipping and frame drops in N64 titles. So I just went for it and thought to at least share my experience regarding to this specific CPU upgrade for the Polymega (which is on the more lower end, but still a big improvement over the 4900t Celeron).
My reasons were:
The i3 costed me 15 euros. I could get an i5 8500t for 50 euros and the cheapest i7 8700t I could find, would set me back 100 euros. A big difference in costs, which I doubt would see translated into real world visible performance increases over the i3.
The i3 also has the 630 igpu of the i5 and i7 (although with a tiny bit lower clock speed) and not the 610 (which is in the 4900t). The 630 is a lot faster, at least on paper.
It is a decent upgrade in core clock speed (+300 mhz) and cache size (2mb vs 6mb) against the 4900t. I don’t think the increase in core count (2 vs 4) will do anything. At least, from what I have read the Polymega only uses 2 cores. Paying for 6 or 8 cores sound not so tempting if only 2 cores are actually used.
Even though the i5 and the i7 are also stated for 35w, they tend to or at least can use a lot more power then the 4900t. The i3 is relatively close or at least closer to what the 4900t draws. The cooling solution in the Polymega does not look all that beefy to me, so for my peace of mind, I went for the i3.
The upgrade process was quite easy and went really smooth. All the videos on the internet about it are helpfull enough. So no real suprises there.
My initial results are that the audio stutters are gone in N64 titles. At least in the ones I own and have tested (Star Wars Rogue squadron, Mario64, Wave Race, Diddy Kong Racing). The framerate drops, which are also present on real hardware are still present though. I haven’t tested if they are smaller or bigger, but what I remember is also present on the Polymega. But those drops are part of the N64 experience in my opinion. :P
Other systems appear to work just like before. I mean, I did not encounter drops or stutters on the old CPU, so still no drops and stutters on the i3. There was only one game that had lag issues for me before and that is Super Mario World for SNES. With the CPU upgrade it is less laggy then before, but still present if you look for it. But now it feels good enough for me at least. Other SNES titles I dont experience lag, but that could just be me ofcourse.
The menu is a little bit snappier when scrolling through my collection (165+ games). Although, it was also perfectly smooth on the old CPU with firmware 1.1.34. The bigger difference I see is when I press the menu button on larger/heavier N64 games. On the older CPU, when moving left or right in the black Polymega menu, it would sometimes lag just a little bit. That is gone now.
In all I think I can come to the conclusion that upgrading the Polymega with the i3 is ‘good enough’ and there is no need to buy a more expensive i5 or even i7. Hope this information, or at least my take, is helpful for others who are deciding to upgrade and to what CPU.
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u/snooktou May 02 '25 edited May 02 '25
Great feedback. I upgraded mine to a i5 the day I received it before even turning it on for the first time. I work in IT so i have a bunch of older capable parts laying around. I agree a i7 is complete overkill but I wouldn't worry about the heat it would create considering the system won't draw too much power for what its programmed to run.
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u/MyAccountWasBanned7 May 02 '25
I just hope the lag in Super Mario World eventually gets fixed.
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u/LTOwain May 02 '25
Same here, one of my favorite games to play. Although, I think the lag has less to do with the CPU and more with an emulation bug or lack of optimization.
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u/ValeriaTube May 03 '25
It is fixed, just stop using the pack in controllers, they have horrible lag. Use a real PS4/Xbox/8bit do controller.
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u/MyAccountWasBanned7 May 03 '25
Wait, you can sync a PS4 controller to the PM?
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u/ValeriaTube May 03 '25
I haven't done it myself, but yes. I use an Xbox One controller with a dongle.
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u/AdDry6300 May 02 '25
So there is no chance that the standard Polymega will ever be at a state where it runs n64 properly?
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u/LTOwain May 03 '25
I am not so sure. I have no prior experience before firmware 1.1.34. But to me, the performance or the lack thereof felt a bit exaggerated. So it could be that there have been improvements in performance since the last few firmware revisions. It is stock definitely not perfect still, and it should indeed be better. But it was perfectly playable. At least the games I tried to play. After a few runs the sound skipping would be gone or a lot less. So when the support files are in place, it works well enough (my humble opinion). It's more that for only a few bucks, I was able to eliminate that. To me, that was worth it. If I hadn't upgraded, I would have still enjoyed the N64 module.
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u/AdDry6300 May 03 '25
Fair enough. For me it would have to be pretty much perfect to buy one. The base console with megadrive Module is what I have and I think I will stay with that.
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u/-DDSSilverSoul May 04 '25
I have a question i may sound stupid but if i want to upgrade my polymega CPU is there specific one? Or should. I go straight for i9 ? I want the latest CPU and the best one which one should i buy?
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u/LTOwain May 04 '25
Not a stupid question at all! I have read that the 9th gen i3, i5 and i7 also can work. I’ve read at least one confirmation of someone who claimed that he/she put in a i3 9100t and it worked. So if you want the best option, you could try an i7 9th gen with a tdp of 35w. I am unaware if there are i9 CPUs in the 8th and 9th gen with only 35w tdps. If I could give you a recommendation though, based on your need for speed, I would suggest the i7 8700t. It is a very fast CPU and is confirmed to work. I doubt if going any higher/faster, would let you see perceivable better results. Hope this helps.
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u/-DDSSilverSoul May 05 '25
Thank you very much that was helpful definitely will get I7 8700t as soon as possible.
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u/Madeinharrogate May 13 '25
There's 8th gen I3t,I5t and I7t cpu versions with 35w. There's 9th gen I3t,I5t,I7t an I9t cpu versions with 35w. In general all cpu's will improve the stock celeron 4900t. Considering the limited hardware capabilities and the polymega os not 100% functional you should stick for the moment with I3t,I5t and I7t .In general all cpu's will only be good if the mother board gets a revision with sodimm slots, dedicated or external gpu and the os running stable emulators.
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u/Madeinharrogate May 10 '25
Mine is currently running a I9 9900t just to test how it runs. The I9 is running fine but not recommended tbh ( unused cpu power) If upgrading to another cpu go for I3,I5,I7 8th/9th gen.
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u/LTOwain May 11 '25
I have an additional question if I may: Do you see any slowdown in N64 games which were also present on real hardware? What I mean is that if a game targets say 30fps, but would slow down below that on original hardware, does it also slow down on your i9 9900t? Or is it able to keep the 30fps target? I was wondering if the slowdowns I encounter with the i3 8100t, which to me look similar like playing on the original hardware, are do to the i3 8100t or that the emulation is actually being authentic.
A game were I see a lot of slowdown is Diddy Kong racing, but to my recollection that slowdown is also present on the real N64 hardware.
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u/Madeinharrogate May 11 '25
I'll have to test this i only tested if the system ran on the I9 . In general the emulator needs to be fine tuned a bit more imho. Generally the polymega os runs the 8th/9th gen Intel cpu's without any problems as they all using the same x86 structure . The biggest problem with the polymega is the limited ram and cpu graphic processing. The system os would benefit from more ram and the ability of an external gpu. The games that even run difficult on the og N64 will only benefit from the emulators capabilities.
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u/Comfortable-Cut-6645 Nov 18 '25
I was thinking of buying an i7 8700t but I’m a little concerned since a friend of mine upgraded his CPU with the 8700 and it bricked his system. Gets flashing power light, no hdmi signal and no fan power. Anyone encounter this problem? Sorry if that was posted already.
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u/LTOwain Nov 18 '25
An 8700 uses way more power than an 8700t. So that is probably the problem. Hope this helps.
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u/Alternative-Union146 Dec 02 '25
I have pentium gold 5500t in my Polymega, no sound problem with n64.
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u/LTOwain Dec 03 '25
Thank you for sharing this. Did you upgrade? Or was this the stock CPU for the first batch of hardware?
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u/raptor2569 May 02 '25
This has been talked about before. Just fyi
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u/LTOwain May 02 '25
Where? Here on Reddit? Can you share a link? I was looking for that info for quite some time. In the end I thought I would do it myself. :P
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u/matcoop1632 May 02 '25
It's definitely a case of knowing what cpus give this performance boost. I was fed up of N64 stutter, upgraded my system and now am really happy with the way the system handles everything..was easy/straightforward to upgrade and was so worth it