Picasso IV or CyberVision 64/3D?

[AndrewB]

System is factory A3000T-040.
Presently has PicassoII, that I have always enjoyed.

Looking for better perf from video card, and outputs that more closely resemble today's monitors.

I have been searching for a PicassoIV for a bit now, and only seen a few go by on eBay. (just lost another one the other day)

Now see this CyberVision64/3D card from SoftHut listed on the news, and by the posted specs elsewhere, it looks similar in performance.

I don't need to SVideo in or out that the P-IV has.
I don't know if I need the flickerfixer video slot option that the P-IV has (do I?).
My P-II has a bypass cable to take old video modes and send them through the card... does the CV64/3D somehow do this onboard? Or am I losing native Amiga modes?

Any feedback and experience with either card is appreciated.
Thanks,
Andrew

[cv643d]

The CV64-3D does not have pass through. You need the scandoubler module for that. You A3000 already have a better scandoubler/ff but the CV64-3D can not pass it through auto. The scandoubler module is ultra-rare to find.

I think the CV64-3D is somewhat dated card since while it can handle 1600x1200, it is only in 256 colors. It is not 1998 anymore when 1024x768 was considered hi-end. But it will definitely be faster than your Picasso 2.

But other than that it is as usual with Phase 5 products an excellent piece of hardware. Picasso IV though is the ultimate Zorro graphics board.

[keropi]

the picassoIV is the _BEST_ zorro rtg card available...

[LoadWB]

I'll chime in... I love my Picasso IV.  While it can only do 24-bit up to 1024x768 (well, that's a usable resolution with my monitor -- I think it can do 1152x864 at 24-bit) it does it WELL and is very speedy, which really shows through when using RDesktop.

I'm learning that the P-IV is the next best thing to a more moden PCI video card.  OOoooooo how I long for a G-Rex :-)

[amiga_3k]

Just go for any of the two. In every-day usage they should both be up to the task. I'm not aware of any Amiga games especially needing the 3D part of the Cybervision, but it won't hurt having it, just in case ;-)

The scandoubler/flicker-fixer of the PicassoIV works brilliant, but not neccesarily handle all the modes the way you might expect. I remember having the card installed in a A4000T and still having to have an Amiga-monitor attached to the RGB-port in order to play Pinball Illusions (somehow the Picasso output went black when playing that game).

So, for the modes failing on the Cybervision or Picasso you still might need a monitor-switch to switch between the 3000T's  VGA output and the Cybervision / Picasso output.

 

[sdyates]

The Cybervision 64 is the card that has the passthrough. Cybervision 64/3D is a different card in many details inclduign the 3D.

I have had both. The passthrough is a great feature as it allows for using one monitor for all modes. The 64/3d needs two monitors. One monitor for the native modes of the Amiga, the second monitor for the Cybervision 64/3d modes.

[patrik]

@AndrewB:

Get the original CV64. It has a builtin passthrough/autoswitcher just like the Picasso2 and will team up perfectly with the A3000 builtin flickerfixer.

Speedwise it is in most aspects faster than the CV64/3d. I don't know how it is compared to the Picasso4, but I suspect it has a bit slower blitter as the gfx chip it is based on is a bit older, but it should be quite close. They handle the same resolutions/color-depths.

The CV64/3d is a cost-reduced CV64 with 3d added to the name just to make it sound good. The 3d functionality itself is unusable, the chip was just a first experiment by s3 to do 3d.


/Patrik

[X-ray]

All your base are belong to PIV.

[Argus]

Since you have an A3000T with a flicker fixer already built in, you might consider a Prometheus PCI busboard and a cheap Voodoo3 3000 pci graphics card.  The performance will be much better than either the PicassoIV or the Cybervision64 or 64/3D.  The Prometheus is actually a small board and would fit in one of your Z3 slots, but it then gives you four vertical pci slots to install your graphics card and a cheap ethernet card as well.  So for probably less than a Cybervision 64/3D, you'll have much faster graphics, resolution, color depth and ethernet as well (which would be probably at least $100US used or new as a standalone Z2 card).  One thing though, you will need a SuperBuster11 chip.