Video solution for A4000

[SnowDog]

Well, I pulled out some of my Amiga stuff and now I have some questions....

I'm looking for the best graphics solution for my 4000.  I would like to be able to use a VGA monitor and pack up my 1084S.

I use to have  an old Retina in my 3000 but sold that a few years back.  

What are the best cards now?  Also, I've been looking at the  ToastScan Scan Doubler... What does everyone think about that?  Would I be better off buying a PCI adapter and using that?

Any help would be great!

[Castellen]

Picasso IV are good cards, I use two of them here.  They automatically switch between motherboard video and RTG video.
They have an onboard scandoubler, so should work fine with your standard 31kHz monitor.

There was some guy selling one on Amibench a few days ago, might be still available?  Or stick an add in the wanted column.

[SnowDog]

So what does everyone else think?  Is the Picasso IV the way to go?

Thanks!

[carls]

There's a lot of options, really. I bet the second hand market is pretty big since the introduction of the Mediator.

You could always get a Mediator and a Voodoo PCI card, this will of course be pretty expensive.

I have two major recommendations:
- Buy a Zorro 3-enabled card.
- Don't settle for less than 4MB of graphics memory.

I've heard only good things about CyberVision64 and Picasso IV cards. I've got a CV64/3D myself. It's a bit sluggish for games but productivity applications zip along quite nicely.

Then there's the minor recommendations:
- If you can, get a card with a pass-through and scandoubler for your AGA signal. This will let you use the VGA monitor for both HW-baning and RTG software.
- Try to get a copy of TV Paint. It's sweeet and very fast even on my A1200 with a Z-IV busboard. :-)

[SnowDog]

Carls,
Thanks for the info!   I've been looking at the Mediator 4000Di mainly because I think it will save me $$ in the long run.  I have lots of PC stuff (NICS, Video Cards, Sound) that I could just add in if I had it.

My old VooDoo 3 3000 is just sitting here collecting dust.... How would the graphics with the VooDoo 3 compare to a Picasso IV or CyberVision64/3D?

I've been selling quite a bit of stuff on EBAY so I'm thinking my PayPal balance might just get me the Mediator...

Hmmm... Decisions... Decisions..

[Hammer]

SnowDog wrote:
Carls,
Thanks for the info!   I've been looking at the Mediator 4000Di mainly because I think it will save me $$ in the long run.  I have lots of PC stuff (NICS, Video Cards, Sound) that I could just add in if I had it.

Almost the same scenario as you i.e. I have plenty of unused  PCI (and AGP) based add-on cards (from the X86 platform). They probably may go to A1 in the future.

My old VooDoo 3 3000 is just sitting here collecting dust.... How would the graphics with the VooDoo 3 compare to a Picasso IV or CyberVision64/3D?

I recall,
1. CyberVision64 is powered by S3 Trio 64.
2. CyberVision3D is powered by S3 Virge.
3. Picasso IV is powered by Cirrus Logic GD5446.

These chipsets are considered “de-accelerator” by X86 PC standards.  Your Voodoo3 should be fine against the older chipsets.

The main competitor for 3DFX’s Voodoo3 is the nVidia's TNT 2 class GPUs.