Thanks Barra, I will test some levels on my cab with frameskip 0/0 and the show percentage of FPS. Will post the results and my hardware here!
EDIT: So, I tested Donkey Kong gameplay with frameskip on 0/0 with the said savestate on the elevator level. Everything runs smooth even after loading the state 20 times in a row! Thanks again for that Barra
On MAME 0.175 x64 I have 99% of the FPS on all levels. I thougt the 1% goes off from my scanline DirectX configuration but on wolfmame 0.175 x32 I have 100% of the FPS, even with scanlines configured. Maybe the different versions calculating in different ways because of x32 and x64!? All in all I can say gamelag is not something I have to worry about if I can rely on the FPS prompt.
Let's get our eyes on the input lag. As far as I know mame is using RAW Input if you're using a keyboard or an IPAC USB that is recognized as a keyboard on Windows. So we shouldn't have much input lag by definition (?). I really paid attention onto Jumpman's movement after I heard the click of my Sanwa JLF . I couldn't recognize a delay in the movement but I'm sure there are some milliseconds lag, because where data is transmitted there is always lag, isn't it?
I've tested this ony different levels and on both mame platforms.
The only thing I've noticed is that if I play on wolfmame without any scanlines the game seems to react minimal faster. But I think that is more an illusion because I'm used to the scanlines.
My PC specs in my cab are:
Fujitsu Siemens A19-2A TFT Monitor 19'' 1280x1024 on 75Hz
Intel 2500k 3,7 GHz standard clock
with Intel HD 3000 graphic unit
8 GB RAM
on a Biostar H61MLV3 (H61 Chipset) Motherboard
Windows 7 Pro x64
It's overpowered for running mame but I had the parts to spare.