Mediator 4000Di questions

[dangermouse]

Hi guys

Sent an email to Elbox but no response (not a good sign). I saw their latest advertisement for a bundle deal on a Radeon w/Mediator 4000 Di and have a few questions before taking the plunge. The system I'm looking at this for currently contains a CSPPC/CVPPC (128MB RAM) if it makes any difference.

Questions are:

1. Will I be able to run the Radeon at 1920x1080?

2. I think I've read somewhere that the Radeon is not usable in OS 4.0 due to a lack of drivers. Is there a PCI video card that is equally supported in 3.9/4.0 or would I still need the CVPPC in 4.0?

3. I've got a few of the D-Link PCI 10/100 network adapters that are listed on their 'supported' page. Will this work in both 3.9/4.0? The 4000 currently has an Ariadne in her that works fine under both and need to maintain that level of connectivity.

4. Any downsides to running the Mediator instead of the standard daughterboard? Are power requirements higher etc etc? This 4000 has an ATX power supply fitted anyway but may look at getting another Mediator for a 4000 w/standard power supply.

5. Using a Soundblaster 128 audio card has no effect on the audio quality of games does it? I don't do much with Amiga audio..just gaming.

6. Does the Cyberstorm RAM and Radeon RAM (configured as fast) stack or is it use one or the other? Would the RAM access speed to the Radeon be faster than the Cyberstorm?

It would be nice to hear about any other notable experiences people have had

Many thanks

[Gulliver]

1-Yes

2-The Voodoo 3 3000 will work on both 3.9 and 4.0

3-In 3.9 yes, in 4.0 no

5-No, it has no effects unless you use modern games that support AHI

6-The Radeon/Voodoo ram will be the slowest. You can use both rams and give them different priority (I would put radeon ram as low priority, in that way, it will be only used by the system if really needed)

[HammerD]

>1. Will I be able to run the Radeon at 1920x1080?

I think so, but you'll have to do some tweaking to P96.  May not be terribly easy to get the exact frequencies you want, but the Radeon should support this resolution.

>2. I think I've read somewhere that the Radeon is not usable in OS 4.0 due to a lack of ?>drivers. Is there a PCI video card that is equally supported in 3.9/4.0 or would I still need >the CVPPC in 4.0?

OS4 has native Mediator support, in the sense that if you attach a PCI Voodoo 3/4 and 5 (not tested) or RTL8029 network card to your mediator, it will work, out of the box with OS4.   No other hardware (connected to the Mediator) has a working OS4 classic driver, including the OS4 Radeon driver, which only works on A1/Sam.


>3. I've got a few of the D-Link PCI 10/100 network adapters that are listed on their >'supported' page. Will this work in both 3.9/4.0? The 4000 currently has an Ariadne in her >that works fine under both and need to maintain that level of connectivity.

If it's a RTL8029 chip on the network card, otherwise it won't.  That means any 10/100 card will NOT WORK out-of-the-box with OS4 classic.  RTL8029 is a 10Mbit chip/card.


>4. Any downsides to running the Mediator instead of the standard daughterboard? Are >power requirements higher etc etc? This 4000 has an ATX power supply fitted anyway but >may look at getting another Mediator for a 4000 w/standard power supply.

Not really, fits pretty nicely.  I'm using stock A4000 power supply with alot of cards with no problem.

>5. Using a Soundblaster 128 audio card has no effect on the audio quality of games does >it? I don't do much with Amiga audio..just gaming.

Won't work on OS4 classic, but under OS3.9 it should have better sound, but still require alot of cpu usage.

>6. Does the Cyberstorm RAM and Radeon RAM (configured as fast) stack or is it use one or >the other? Would the RAM access speed to the Radeon be faster than the Cyberstorm?

Radeon ram will be slow, as it must traverse the zorro 3 bus.  Cyberstorm ram will be the fastest ram in the system.  Note Radeon RAM will not be allocatable under OS 4.0 classic.

>It would be nice to hear about any other notable experiences people have had

My only frustration is 1) lack of a way to add additional RAM to OS4 classic, and 2) lack of Radeon driver support for the Mediator.  Also lake of "elbox developed" native OS4 drivers for their mediators.

Otherwise, if you use the Hyperion Voodoo and RTL8029 driver, Mediator is great for OS4 classic.  Just wish for Radeon driver, too

[Crumb]

1. Will I be able to run the Radeon at 1920x1080?

I think it should work. Years ago I opened a 2048x1500 screen with my PicassoIV so Picasso shouldn't limit that.

2. I think I've read somewhere that the Radeon is not usable in OS 4.0 due to a lack of drivers. Is there a PCI video card that is equally supported in 3.9/4.0 or would I still need the CVPPC in 4.0?

Voodoo3 is compatible with both OS3.x and OS4.x. Perhaps you can make it work disabling both PCIgraphics.card and Radeon.chip in kicklayout file. But I don't know if it will work.

3. I've got a few of the D-Link PCI 10/100 network adapters that are listed on their 'supported' page. Will this work in both 3.9/4.0? The 4000 currently has an Ariadne in her that works fine under both and need to maintain that level of connectivity.

OS4 won't be able to use PCI cards that require DMA. You will need a RTL8029.

4. Any downsides to running the Mediator instead of the standard daughterboard? Are power requirements higher etc etc? This 4000 has an ATX power supply fitted anyway but may look at getting another Mediator for a 4000 w/standard power supply.

It sucks power like there was no tomorrow :-D ATX PSU is not mandatory but a very good idea if you plan to have various pci cards, zorro cards, cvppc, HDs...

5. Using a Soundblaster 128 audio card has no effect on the audio quality of games does it? I don't do much with Amiga audio..just gaming.

OS-friendly games that use AHI will use SB128, 95% of games won't use it.

6. Does the Cyberstorm RAM and Radeon RAM (configured as fast) stack or is it use one or the other? Would the RAM access speed to the Radeon be faster than the Cyberstorm?

It would be nice to hear about any other notable experiences people have had

Many thanks

If you want to use 1920x1080 resolutions a Voodoo3 may be handy although a CVPPC with a Deneb would be a nice combo. Using a Radeon will mean no Warp3D support and probably no OS4 support.

BTW, keep in mind that although Voodoo3 graphic chip is faster than Permedia2 some old Warp3D stuff won't work due to the lack of 15bit screenmodes and in addition to that Mediator(ZorroIII) bus is slower than CVPPC bus.

[dangermouse]

Thanks for the replies one and all. Certainly answered my questions.

[koshman]

I don't have a PPC so no experience with AOS 4.0, but I'm using 3.9 on Voodoo3 in 1680x1050 16M without any problems. Don't know if 1920x1080 in truecolor will fit in 16MB of Voodoo3 VRAM (Radeon, of course, has much more VRAM). Btw, using the Mediator + Voodoo3 + 100mbit NIC, Cyberstorm MKII 060/66, 128MB, CDROM, 2,5" HDD on the stock PSU without issues.
One more thing, make sure that the NIC you're going to use has the right chip (Realtek xxxx, other posts mention it), the model number means nothing. I have 4-5 PCI NICs in the closet that don't work - e.g. D-Link and 3Com used at least 3 different chips on a card with the same model number.

[zipper]

Don't know if 1920x1080 in truecolor will fit in 16MB of Voodoo3 VRAM (Radeon, of course, has much more VRAM

It should fit even into 8 MB.

[Crumb]

One more thing, make sure that the NIC you're going to use has the right chip (Realtek xxxx, other posts mention it), the model number means nothing. I have 4-5 PCI NICs in the closet that don't work - e.g. D-Link and 3Com used at least 3 different chips on a card with the same model number.

if you don't use a RTL8029 network card OS4 network drivers won't work.