Is there any point in having a FPU on an accelerator card?

[StevenJGore]

Is there any point in buying a FPU for Amiga accelerator cards? I'm thinking specifically of A1200 RAM-only expansion boards and the SX32 MK2 for the CD32 (also a RAM-only expansion board, ie. no option for upgrading the processor).

I seem to remember "back in the days (TM)" reading in Amiga magazines that unless software was specifically written for FPU's, then it was worthless having one since it would just sit there doing nothing. I assume that Workbench isn't going to be any nippier for having an FPU then? Would any games (Alien Breed 3D for example) benefit from an FPU?

My reason for asking is that the SX32-Pro (with an onboard 50Mhz 030!) for the CD32 would appear to be even rarer than FMV modules, so I've had to settle for the SX32 MK2 with no option to upgrade the processor, but which has a slot for a 33Mhz PLCC FPU. Worth getting one?

[xeron]

I bought an FPU for my blizzard 030/50 (back in the day so that I could run Doom. It also helps with 3d rendering, and stuff like that.

Various other 3D games need it.

[cv643d]

Doom required an FPU ?

Wasnt that an urban legend?

[itix]

I bought an FPU for my blizzard 030/50 (back in the day so that I could run Doom.

Uh, Doom worked fine on my 03050 without FPU.

Various other 3D games need it.

Usually those 3D games are too slow for anything below 040.

[MrZammler]

Although not required, it can be usefull if you ever install a *IX os in your miggy.

[xeron]

Uh, Doom worked fine on my 03050 without FPU.

Really? I thought the original Doom ports needed it. And I know quake did, but that didn't make it playable on 030/50 :-D

[mikeymike]

Quake 1 claimed it did but didn't.  I played it on a 486/25SX*.  A bit on the jerky side, but it worked :-)

* - the 486 SX range were the cheaparse CPUs without an FPU. The DX range had a built in FPU.

FPUs are very nice.  Buy accelerators with them if you can.  I've seen a few apps I've installed specify 040/FPU as an option.

[xeron]

ClickBOOM Amiga Quake absolutely 100% definately required an FPU.

[kubyx]

@StevenJGore

Why don't you just purchase an 060/50Mhz Accelerator card? They have FPU & MMU internally in them.

It is ALOT faster than an 030/040 at the same clock speed. It enhances the speed of graphics rendering also!

I almost crapped my pants last year when I bought my first Amiga (Amiga 1200) and a Blizzard 1260! I compared the speed difference, with Accelerator and without. JPEG rendering went from 30 seconds(?) to about 3! 3D rendering is also alot faster as well. :-P

'060 rocks! :-D

[DanDude]

The FPU frees the cpu for calculations and in some cases improve by twice the speed the cpu can handle.  In other words, the cpu is free to do something else while the FPU finishes calculating.  All new CPUs now carry a FPU inside to save space on the motherboards.  I'm more concerned about using memory management units (MMU) to take control of some apps that uitilize memory poorly.