A2000 w/ 060 speed?

[Crumb]

So, I am wanting to grab an A3000 w/ RTG card. But ... I have an A2000. If I added a Blizzard 060 board to it and a RTG card - either Picasso II or some higher board that supports Zorro II --- how much weaker in performance for RTG tasks would the unit be than an A3000?

Dramatically slower? Or just a bit? Maybe it makes sense to expand the A2000.

Right now I have a 68020 in the A2000, but an 060 would be far faster obv. For WHDload stuff, which I use a lot, the A2000 020 I have now is really no less solid than a bog standard 030 A3000.

I would put that 060 and RTG in your A3000.

PicassoII blitter is quite slow in 800x600 in 16bits or higher, at least compared to cv64, cv3d or picasso4. It's quite noticeable displaying menus. It's still better than AGA but doesn't feel fast.

For things that require bus bandwitch like videos or fast gfx ZorroII is also noticeably slower, just try out Voxel example done by Sam Jordan included with WarpOS. It's a fat binary that runs in both 680x0&PPC and displays a nice voxel, you can move using mouse, check out FPS at the top of the screen. ZorroII is quite slow compared to ZorroIII.

A3000 has 32bit access to chipram so even OCS stuff can run faster than A2000.

If you buy a gfx card for your 2000 try to buy one that takes advantage of ZorroIII bus too just in case you switch gfx cards.

For your Amiga3000 I would install a CV64: it's fast, it includes a monitor switcher and isn't as expensive as CV3D/PicassoIV. The disadvantage is that it's zorroIII only but is one of the fastest ZorroIII cards (from a ZorroIII bandwitch POV)

A WarpEngine+CV64 would be a great combo for that A3000. A2000 is nice and of course you'll enjoy it with a 060 but A3000 is simply better and a better investment IMHO since you can use the accelerator&gfx card in an A4000 if you later upgrade to the ultimate miggy :-)

[Crumb]

I have a 2000 with a PicassoII and a Phase5 2060 '060 and it runs super fast in 800x600x16 for workbench and productivity.

I have used A2000 with Blizzard2060 and PicassoIV, CV3D, EGS Spectrum and PicassoII and PicassoII feels slower in 16bit, just move the mouse between the different menus and you´ll notice how it redraws, it´s not instantaneus.

The 2000 wins for me as favorite because its built like a tank and has the most expandability.

I have a Micronik A4000 with 7 ZorroIII slots right here. On desktop models with Mediator you can fit 4 PCIs and 3 zorro cards.

Upgraded my 8-bit ISA slots to 16-bit and have every slot in my A2000 full using a bridge board.

I see little use for bridgeboard apart of using an Ethernet card. I used to have a 286 cbm bridgeboard and the sandwitch eats 2 slots.

I can easily run Windows 3.11 w/SVGA ISA & Soundblaster card, Use the Amiga and run MacOS8 all at the same time.

I can run MacOS 9 with iFusion on an A3000/A4000 :-) And I could run PC-Task with Windows3.1 too, although I see little interest in doing that.

A3000/4000 will be faster when the bus is taxed, but I have more fun on the A2000 since it has the ability to be so many more machines.

A3000/A4000 also can have faster USB2.0, can have PCI cards, have AGA, faster chipmem... and you have exactly the same posibilities of fitting a bridgeboard. Both A4000 and A3000 come with ISA slots as standard.

If "ability to be so many more machines" means fitting a PC inside the same case I can install an industrial peecee in one of the isa or pci slots way faster than old bridgeboards and interchange data using network for example.

A3000 is the best looking, but horrible cooling, few 060 options and limited Zorro/ISA slots

"few"? what do you mean by few? A3000 can use almost all A4000 060 cards, the only ones that would be problematic I remember are CyberstormMK1 (doesn´t fit on standard case) and Quickpak 060 board (only fits well on A4000T). You can fit CS MK2, CS MK3, CS PPC, GVP 060... enough for me.

ISA slots are quite useless for me :-) I prefer to use ZorroIII cards at full speed or fit PCI cards. The only use I could give to a bridgeboard would be driving an ethernet card but I can have that with Deneb for example, and enjoy relatively high in Amiga terms usb2.0 speeds with DMA.

A4000 is the fastest, but both of mine are cranky, so I am bad judge of them as I find leaking caps in all that I cross.

I have also seen dead A2000 rotten by bad batteries but that doesn´t mean A2000 are cranky. A2000 are also more unstable with those 2MB chip sandwitch like expansions.

Don´t get me wrong, I love all my miggies but A4000 is simply more powerful, just like A3000. that doesn´t mean you can´t have fun using your expanded A2000 but it will feel slower than similar A3000&A4000. And in the case of A3000 vs A4000 I prefer the later too as it has AGA and a more modern design that saves me headaches.

[Crumb]

Between the 2000 and 3000, I think it's a tougher call for reasons all mentioned. A lot of those 4000 accelerators don't fit in the 3000 without modifying the drive cage, not to mention the MK2 SCSI add-on doesn't fit, Fastlane doesn't work... (been trying to find a WarpEngine 3040 for my 3000 on the good advice of matt3k for ages with no dice!),

WarpEngine4040 & CSPPC seem to fit in my Desktop A3000 cutting the metal to leave space for capacitors. FastLane will probably require at least buster9. Do you have Buster 11?

A 2000 with an '060, SCSI-2, and good graphics board is a pretty damn nice classic miggy!

Indeed :-) Although ZorroII isn't fast for gfx it's ok for WB usage if you don't open many memory hungry screens

[Crumb]

Here's a question for the experts: Isn't Z2 on an A2000 just a bit faster than Z2 compatibility mode on a Z3 Amiga?

Being that the Picasso II is Z2 only, doesn't that mean the '060 and PII combo may actually be a bit faster in the 2000 than if it were in the 3000?

Nobody would use a crap zorroII gfx card on a ZorroIII Amiga, it would be like putting square wheels to a Lamborghini :-P

I doubt very much speed difference is noticeable, anyway as soon as you loaded chipmem bus with anything heavy A2000 would slow down and A3000 would keep multitasking better thanks to its twice faster chipmem access ;-P

PS: Amiga 3000 accelerators have faster SCSI and you could even use a Permedia2, try that on an A2000 ;-)

[Crumb]

@matt3k

WarpEngines are sexy! and very hot :-)