A1200 accelerators - how much RAM is really sensible?

[McVenco]

mingle wrote:

how much RAM is really worthwhile and useable on an A1200 and would I get any benefit from whacking 128Mb rather than just 16MB?

If you're only playing games and doing some random Workbench stuff then you are pretty much safe with 16MB. But like Caius wrote, if you do a lot of big graphics/audio stuff then you might want to plug in some more.
In my A4000 I have 272MB Fast RAM, which is a complete waste normally, but I already managed to have "just" 70MB free memory left when I had a few audio things running...

[Crumb]

16 is OK if you don't use a gfx card (you will probably be able to run most of programs with the exception of the allmighty TOTAL CHAOS(tm) and a few others)

32 is quite comfortable and you'll probably have enough ram for most of stuff.
64 is IMHO more than enough for a non-gfx card equipped A1200 and will allow you to run comfortably compilers, gfx apps...

If you like unarchiving very big files in the ram disk you may want 128MB of ram but IMHO 64MB is enough for a 1200/030.

[rockape]

Hi,

I have an A1200/ Blizzard MKII 030/50/ with 32 Meg Fast RAM and a Scan Doubler/Flicker Fixer.

I browse the WWW and I use GMail, WookieChat and Yam with this A1200.

I have the IBrowse Cache set to RAM and on broadband it's surprisingly fast.


I also have an A1200/JAWS MKII 030/50 with 8 Meg Fast RAM which I use WookieChat and YAM by WiFi.


However, in general the old rule applies, the more you can afford the better.


Regards, Michael

aka rockape.

[stefcep2]

spirantho wrote:

stefcep2 wrote:
No game will ever need more than 4 mb.

Apart from the games that require more than 4MB, of course. Of which there are quite a few (even on the Amiga). Admittedly not so many will get by on an '030, but even so. If you plan to use WHDLoad at all get as much RAM as possible. If you're going to connect it to the net (my 1200 is connected via a £5 wireless card) you need at least 32MB.

The answer is get the best you can afford. If the 128MB isn't much more than the 64MB option, get that, and knowing the prices of SIMMS it's very possibly not much more.
Don't waste your time on anything less than 32MB - there's no point. Even if you think you know what you need it for now there's no guarantee you won't suddenly feel like doing something crazy.

Also don't bother with an FPU unless you're going to be rendering or doing a lot of image decoding - nothing else will use it.

I had my A1200 for 7 years with 16 meg.  Including the net eg Miami, Ibrowse, DirOpus, Yam all at once, never ran out of ram. There was nothing I  didn't have enough ram for, so seeing as he's already got the 16 mb I'd say use it and see if he needs more.  And he asked for "sensible" not "crazy"...

btw how many AGA games need more than 4 mb to run?

[ddniUK]

dont know how many, but Tzer0 needs lots...

[stefcep2]

I sound like an old timer but seems like most of the games seem to be released towards its late years so I'm not familiar with them

[recidivist]

32mb in a 030/50  1200 here;yet to use it all.

But it hasn't been used for any heavy lifting.

I recommend the most you can comfortably spend.

Some pc friend might even have old 16 or 32 free,ask around.

[taunusand]

spirantho wrote:

stefcep2 wrote:
No game will ever need more than 4 mb.

Apart from the games that require more than 4MB, of course. Of which there are quite a few (even on the Amiga). Admittedly not so many will get by on an '030, but even so. If you plan to use WHDLoad at all get as much RAM as possible. If you're going to connect it to the net (my 1200 is connected via a £5 wireless card) you need at least 32MB.

The answer is get the best you can afford. If the 128MB isn't much more than the 64MB option, get that, and knowing the prices of SIMMS it's very possibly not much more.
Don't waste your time on anything less than 32MB - there's no point. Even if you think you know what you need it for now there's no guarantee you won't suddenly feel like doing something crazy.

Also don't bother with an FPU unless you're going to be rendering or doing a lot of image decoding - nothing else will use it.

I could not have said it better! :-)

My A1200 with 030 has 16mb fast, this is fine with WB3.1 & whdload.
When I only had 16mb in my A4000 with OS3.9 I always ran out of memory when i used Ibrowse. Now I have 16+128mb fast, now I can chat with jabberwockey, listen to mp3's/netradio useing Amplifier, browse with IBrowse.... Newer runs out of memory :-)
16mb is certainly fine if you "just" need to run WB3.0/3.1 and no internet, but if you want OS3.9 and internet, I would surely recommend 32mb minimum.

[pVC]

ddniUK wrote:
dont know how many, but Tzer0 needs lots...

Yeah, I couldn't get it run with 32M, but with 64M it's fine. Also some demoscene demos require more than 32M. I'd say 64M is fine for most, but with highly patched and decorated (rtg) system on "power use" might be better with more

[klx300r]

I have 32Mb in my Blizzard 030@50 running OS3.5 and its great for all my music and gaming needs :-D

[motorollin]

pVC wrote:

ddniUK wrote:
dont know how many, but Tzer0 needs lots...

Yeah, I couldn't get it run with 32M, but with 64M it's fine.

I run T-Zer0 on a Blizzard MK-IV with 16MB...

--
moto