graphic card

[Brian]

Since you have an A3000 I'd sugest either CV64 (S3 Trio 64) or PicassoIV (Cirrus Logic GD5446) Zorro graphic card (the CV64/3D (S3 ViRGE or S3 ViRGE DX) is also excelent but lacks passthrough for native graphic).

If you need more speed than that then there's the Prometheus PCI solusion with a Voodoo3 2000/3000 PCI graphic card which is far better.

[Brian]

Yeah... I wouldn't reccomend that card either. It belongs to a big group of Zorro graphiccards out there that one spends max 15-25$ on to have "something" until one get the "right thing".

[Brian]

@Hyperspeed

I currently have FastEthernet, Voodoo3, SB128 & TVCard on my PCI buss with a HighspeedUSB2 card on it's way aswell (and with that in place my PCI slots are all gone :roll:, good I have Z3 slots also but they are dissaperaing fast too).

PCI is very well worth it... sure the bussboards cost some but you get it back + on savings and speed of the PCI cards.

PCI do belong on the Amiga, it was planned for the next gen Amiga even in the Commodore days... drivers are still an issue that's worked on so it's comming.

About Red's cooking I can just say if the information I've been given is correct it's going to be great for some and not an option for others... and I sitt neatly in between and can't decide. No I promized I wouldn't tell and I'm not going to break it... we will all know soon enough. :-D

On my old CV card I used 16bit modes... they where ok for me and the speed gained from 24bit made it worth it. With Voodoo3 cards there's not a significant speedgain between 16bit and 24bit modes so you need to go as low as 8bit before it realy shows. I still belive 32bit modes are over the top (what 16.7mil colors aren't enough when the human eye can't even distinguish that many apart?) so I'm keeping it at 24bit (even if 32bit gives bragging rights when friends come over). ;-)

[Brian]

I belive it's hard for BoingBoss to argue ratinaly about Amiga hardware with most anyone to be honest.

[Brian]

What differens the Amiga from the PC apart from the community and the OS you meen? Well... the Amiga have a soul and PCI doesn't remove that in any way. But both are computers and it's not the first time Amiga take advantage of cheap cards on the PC. I meen MAC also have PCI, A1 have PCI, does that make them PC's? Let me answerr that for you... the answerr is No.

As stated before what do you think the different expansion sollusions on the PIV is? It don't have the PCI formfactor but... Same goes for a number of other expansions on the Amiga such as the graphic slot on the BPPC/CVPPC for instance.

PCI is a step forward, not backwards... as less and less cards get manufacturered for Zorro and more and more of the old cards die out where do you think we will end if we don't have another road to walk?

I rather pay 129$ for a PCI solusion and 30-40$ for a used Voodoo3 than 200$ for a much slower PIV.

[Brian]

Ehm... games taking advantage of Warp3D will take advantage of my Voodoo3 card... And even on just 2D it gives lightning fast workbench, which I like.

There's plenty of drivers for the Mediator and more coming. Claiming that there are no drivers for the Amiga PCI market and that's the reason not to go that road is like saying we should not drive cars but walk because there's a short supply of gas stations. (But if I live close to the gasstation aka I can live with the drivers available, why shouldn't I go at full speed?)

Having a Mediator system doesn't knockout all the native modes... I can see those very well through my scandoubler.

Integrated harmony with the custom chips is the only way to go for classic Amiga in my opinion.

Fine it's your oppinion but we are alot of ppl that dissagree with you. I'm not going to try force my oppinion on you, if you're happy with your PIV then fine by me, live in the stoneage. I just dissagree with you and that's my oppinion.