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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: easy_john on November 21, 2009, 01:58:45 PM

Title: Choosing PCI cards for mediator.
Post by: easy_john on November 21, 2009, 01:58:45 PM
Yesterday i ordered my first mediator (4000Di)
So it's time to find best compatible pci cards for it.

In my amiga i use Aos3.1, Aos3.9 and Aos4classic together (still can't start Mos)

So question is:

1. Voodoo or Radeon? Pros and cons of each.

2. What is the best soundcard, to use in all OSes?

3. Use 10 or 100mb ethernet nic? I heard somewhere, that 100mb network utilise cpu too high, so you can't work while network activity.
Title: Re: Choosing PCI cards for mediator.
Post by: Bamiga2002 on November 21, 2009, 03:32:14 PM
Voodoo beats Radeon driver-wise so i'd go for the Voodoo (until Warp3D is released for Radeon ;)). The best soundcard for Mediator is Terratec 4.1 Digital. As for network card i don't have any advice really.
Title: Re: Choosing PCI cards for mediator.
Post by: Gulliver on November 21, 2009, 04:06:16 PM
I would use both a radeon 9200 (256MB) and a voodoo 3 3000 as graphics cards. This is why:
-Radeon 9200 is also use compatible with AmigaOS4, MorphOS, AROS. You never know...
-The Ati Radeon Pro 9200 is a 128bit device while al other Radeons, including 9250 series are 64bit
-With a Radeon, you can use most of the 256 MB as Fastmem, lets say you use 250MB!!!
-The Radeon can coexist with the voodoo
-The voodoo 3 3000 offers warp3d drivers, and a mature driver, and the fastest voodoo performance. Other voodoo´s, like voodoo 5 5000 are not fully taken advantage and will eat a lot of PSU power

If you want an ethernet card, use a RTL8139, which is a 100/1000 card that you may find very cheap, like 5 USD.
Title: Re: Choosing PCI cards for mediator.
Post by: easy_john on November 21, 2009, 04:22:55 PM
Quote from: Gulliver;530620
I would use both a radeon 9200 (256MB) and a voodoo 3 3000 as graphics cards. This is why:
-Radeon 9200 is also use compatible with AmigaOS4, MorphOS,

does warp3d support radeon on aos4?

Quote from: Gulliver;530620
AROS. You never know...

I don't need aros.

Quote from: Gulliver;530620
-The Ati Radeon Pro 9200 is a 128bit device while al other Radeons, including 9250 series are 64bit

at this time i don't need focus on difference between revision, anyway amiga is bottleneck for any video card.

Quote from: Gulliver;530620
-With a Radeon, you can use most of the 256 MB as Fastmem, lets say you use 250MB!!!

In aos3.1-3.9 I don't need so many ram (130mb is enough)
and in aos4 this ram dosn't work. so it's useless :)

Quote from: Gulliver;530620
-The Radeon can coexist with the voodoo

I know.

Quote from: Gulliver;530620
-The voodoo 3 3000 offers warp3d drivers, and a mature driver, and the fastest voodoo performance. Other voodoo´s, like voodoo 5 5000 are not fully taken advantage and will eat a lot of PSU power

i know.

so, at this moment (still we don't have warp3d for radeon), voodoo is only good solution, yes?

Quote from: Gulliver;530620
If you want an ethernet card, use a RTL8139, which is a 100/1000 card that you may find very cheap, like 5 USD.

I already have many network card, so i can install any. So question is - does 100mb have any advantage? looks like amiga still can't get net speed more than 10mb, so 10mb network is best sollution?
Title: Re: Choosing PCI cards for mediator.
Post by: easy_john on November 21, 2009, 04:45:08 PM
Quote from: Bamiga2002;530618
The best soundcard for Mediator is Terratec 4.1 Digital.

Can't see such card.
Do you mean "Terratec 512i" or "Sound Blaster 4.1 Digital" :)
Title: Re: Choosing PCI cards for mediator.
Post by: Gulliver on November 21, 2009, 05:21:01 PM
Well, then according to your previous statements, then the voodoo 3 3000 is the graphics card for you.

About ethernet cards: as you have guessed the bottleneck is allways the Amiga, so basicly you wont get any big enough difference, so if you already have a supported ethernet, use that one.