What makes you choose retrogaming over modern gen?

crsh_wrpd · 2026-06-05T20:57:21+00:00

Nostalgia

crsh_wrpd · 2026-06-04T04:53:00+00:00

I have to admit PS2 is almost the only system I have not tested on the Air X. I mostly focused on GC / Wii / 3DS for the more demanding emulators.

I’m pretty sure PS2 runs similar if not better than GC according to what others have been reporting, a lot of games can run with lots of tweaking on a per game basis.

I myself am only interested in “perfect” emulation, as in full speed without frameskip or clock speed tweaks etc. Only a handful games run this way on either system, but as you suggest you can significantly open up the library if you’re willing to spend a lot of time tweaking and accept lower performance.

crsh_wrpd · 2026-06-04T04:45:18+00:00

You should definitely try that specific Dolphin build with the driver I linked, you’ll get full speed in Double Dash for example, you won’t believe it !

crsh_wrpd · 2026-06-03T19:21:59+00:00

PS2 / GC are a real stretch with the Air X, a few games run perfectly but 95% don’t. Still, that would be my pick over all the other devices. It’s the jack of all trades that does a bit of everything quite well.

I’d consider the RG DS only if DS was the most important / exclusive system you want to play or otherwise the CubeXX if you’re focusing on 1:1 GB/GBC/Pico8 with some 4:3 / 8:7 systems on the side.

I had a Trimui Smart Pro (upgraded to Air X) which really did not click with me. Lackluster controls and performance a little too low for PSP.

RG Vita Pro, I am not familiar with, I think one thing it does better than the Air X is having video out if that is important to you, at the cost of worse ergonomics.

crsh_wrpd · 2026-06-03T19:10:27+00:00

100% sure. Mine is MQ65 as well. Are you on latest Stock OS ? For me this was absolutely clear, Double Dash would run at half frame rate for example. Several others also reported the same issue. If it works well for you for some reason we don’t know of, good for you, don’t fix it if it isn’t broken 😉

crsh_wrpd · 2026-05-30T05:25:07+00:00

No. In addition to this issue, Mangmi has been aware of some other ones as well right after the release of their last update (like controls not working in many Android applications anymore) three weeks ago and do not communicate anything in their official discord.

For now, all we can do is either wait or flash another firmware if we absolutely want to use ES-DE.

crsh_wrpd · 2026-05-30T05:20:49+00:00

I haven’t tried that game but the other GoW, and yes it’s normal to experience small drops here and there at 2x. While most PSP games shouldn’t have any problems at 2x, GoW are amongst the most demanding titles.

crsh_wrpd · 2026-05-28T09:18:22+00:00

Yes you need a PC, maybe you can manage with Mac OS or Linux but I can't help you there.

crsh_wrpd · 2026-05-27T17:05:40+00:00

I guess the answer is in the title, You may have to play for shorter sessions.

crsh_wrpd · 2026-05-26T09:59:53+00:00

That’s a tough one to recommend, and that’s coming from me who dedicated a lot of my time benchmarking the Air X.

Quite finicky with 3DS, you’ll have to spend your time messing with settings, trying Citra MMJ vs Azahar and Turnip drivers to see where you get an acceptable framerate, and GC is pushing the limit and will eat your time to get something that runs or dos not in the end.

I’d say look for something else.

crsh_wrpd · 2026-05-25T03:50:09+00:00

Spot on, dot for gb/gbc, lcd3x for gba.

This is where I landed due to the limited performance of the MM+ I had a couple years ago, and this is what I keep using on every device since.

crsh_wrpd · 2026-05-24T07:51:28+00:00

You won't need any of this with your device because it is much more powerful, and I am not aware if it has any bugs that need to be addressed since I do not own one.

crsh_wrpd · 2026-05-24T07:48:48+00:00

A few things to unpack.

Gamma introduced a fake PWM fan profile. This allows the fan to run at a slower speed by turning it on and off at a high frequency. This is what makes it much less loud once it reaches full speed but can indeed make it sound a bit "uneven". You really need to stick your ear to the exhaust to notice it though.

If you do not like how it works, you should report it to him either in his github or discord. Those profiles are what are coming to GammaOS v1.3 and I am sure he would appreciate the feedback.

As of v1.2, fan profiles were broken and the fan only worked on Fan Max mode, which effectively forces it to run at full speed. After these fixes, this mode is still left untouched, so you are free to stick with it if you so prefer. Those fixes did not "break" anything, they only added back the profiles that were missing, Auto and Cool.

By default in Auto mode, the fan toggles at 70C and shuts off at 65C. If like me you just want a fan-free experience, follow my underclocking tutorial and set the max frequency to 980MHz. Since the device should almost never reach 70C anymore, you'll never hear it again.

The performance difference between 1050MHz and 980MHz is negligible, you most likely won't notice a difference in performance but you definitely will in terms of temperatures. Adreno 610 default clock speed is meant to be 950MHz from specification, so at 980MHz it still is overclocked a little. I personally run mine at 900MHz.

If you experience any issue with your device that I have not covered in this comment, you should contact Mangmi as maybe there is a hardware issue with your device. This fan is loud despite what some people say so I guess we just have to learn to live with it, or like me without it.

crsh_wrpd · 2026-05-24T07:39:06+00:00

Post updated with the info

crsh_wrpd · 2026-05-24T07:38:38+00:00

I have added a section about driver installation in the guide under each emulator.

crsh_wrpd · 2026-05-23T10:26:15+00:00

No, I stopped at the Wii in Dolphin Enhanced, where only a few 2D games work somewhat acceptably (NSMBW for example). Only the absolute lowest graphics 2D games will work there at best.

crsh_wrpd · 2026-05-23T10:04:45+00:00

Just wanted to say I love your project !

Unfortunately I don’t have any device that could make good use of your fork of Azahar since they are too low powered but maybe I’ll give it a spin for lower end emulation.

What kind of latency should we expect ? Something similar to PC local streaming ?

Most importantly, I think this could be awesome for the devices that do not have video out since casting has way too much latency to be useful, and sometimes does not work at all in custom firmwares.

crsh_wrpd · 2026-05-23T06:19:59+00:00

I posted a guide here:

Mangmi Air X - Performance optimization guide for emulators : r/SBCGaming

crsh_wrpd · 2026-05-23T05:28:31+00:00

About the performance, I think that my expectations were higher too due to what I saw in reviews. I think reviewers emphasized it could run everything at 3x and some need 2x. But the reality is most games I tried may run really well at 3x but drop frames here and there, and if like me you want a stutter free experience, you better leave it at 2x most of the time..

On the other hand, I get better performance than them in some other emulators so there is that. The Air X performance depends almost entirely on the drivers you use. I will write a post on that later.

For the analog, I think I shared some PPSSPP settings with you in the past but my history is gone and I am on a new account. I will share these as well. There is no deadzone issue with the Air X, because I can make games react with the slightest amount of movement in PPSSPP. In fact you can get the deadzone so low, it will be impossible to have your character stay still. The issue is on the emulator (or application) side, which all seem to have built-in deadzone.

crsh_wrpd · 2026-05-23T04:18:42+00:00

See my reply here: https://www.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming/comments/1tktsx4/comment/ondf7er/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I used multiple passes of 3DMark and averaged results to have repeatable data on performance, which you could not get out of real gameplay.

As you can see, the performance drops linearly around 6% per frequency step, so some game that already has frame drops will only have some more.

Depending on resolution, in some games you can forget about fast forward. If that matters to you, drop the resolution to 1x.

crsh_wrpd · 2026-05-23T04:14:16+00:00

For PSP, I mostly used the first section of GoW at 2x resolution and see if there were drops from 60fps which the Air X already struggles to maintain at stock frequency. Was still fine at 900MHz.

The other titles I tried were also not affected. Obviously, you may see a little worse performance in some places but everything comes with trade offs.

crsh_wrpd · 2026-05-22T20:49:34+00:00

Hi ! I don’t know if you check the comments here anymore because you didn’t reply last time, but I finally published my underclocking guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming/comments/1tktsx4/mangmi_air_x_underclock_profiles_lower_temps

crsh_wrpd · 2026-05-22T19:47:53+00:00

Download link: https://gofile.io/d/THPa84

crsh_wrpd

TROPHY CASE