Two Questions

[paul1981]

Yes and yes.

(1) Use a program like NewMode, ModePro, or any of the other mode promotion utilities on Aminet.

(2)  Tools like FBlit, WBCtrl, LoadWB SIMPLEGELS are all effective ways of reducing chip memory usage.  Which you use and which tweaks and settings you change depends which version of the OS you're using.  Much information is already about conserving chip memory, search the forums, here's another resource:  http://www.gregdonner.org/os39faq/compatibility.html#9

As an alternative if you get a graphics card you can boot with 98% of your chip memory still free.  Obviously this is a bit cost-prohibitive in our current market, however.  

This chip memory question that always arises fascinates me. Honestly, if my A1200 only had 1mb of chip ram then it would be plenty for me. With FBlit, my chip ram never seems to go below about 1.7mb. I can have 20 tabs open in IBrowse and still no issue with chip ram usage. If 1mb of my chip ram died overnight then I can't say I'd miss it.

[paul1981]

Great!  Glad to help.  There's a lot of good info on that link.  Also to repeat it again, if you're not already using the Peter K. icon library, you should be.  

http://aminet.net/package/util/libs/IconLib_46.4

I use standard 8 colour MagicaWB icons only, and the IconLib (when I last tried it 6 months ago) was slower than the standard one (Kickstart 3.1 with Workbench 3.1).
I suppose it's only beneficial if using fancy icons? Either that or I did something wrong, but can't think what.
I keep meaning to set up an up-to-date 3.9 setup, but alas, time...
Anyway, I'd dual boot - there's no way I'd ever scrap my 3.1 setup.