I am relatively new to emulators and am really enjoying nostalgic games right now. I am using my old PC as my dedicated emulation PC. I am debating whether I should upgrade a component or two to improve performance in emulators. I know emulators don’t always run the best so I am unsure if upgrading will actually have a great effect.

Emulation PC Build:

CPU: i5 8600K

GPU: GTX 1060 6gb

RAM: 16 gb 3600

Storage: Installed on an SSD

Most games run well ON AVERAGE, however in some/most games I experience slight stutters every once and awhile. Walk into a new room? Slight stutters for a few seconds. Blow something up? Slight stutters. The games are 100% playable and to most these stutters would go unnoticed, but for some reason I let them bother me a lot.

Games that bother me in particular are Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King running on PCSX2. There is considerable stuttering in this game. Some areas even drop frames to 25ish. Most games I try to play on RPCS3 have noticeable stuttering, however I expected this.

Anyway, all I’m asking is even on a very powerful machine do games have stutters and not run perfectly as you would expect on a machine of that level? Would upgrading my machine even show that big of a difference? If so, which component do you think would make the biggest difference.

Thanks for everyone’s help!

Edit: thanks for all the responses! I think I’m gonna leave my build as is for now. May upgrade down the line if I continue to enjoy emulators and reach a limit.