Boosting Video Performance on A1200

[irishmike]

Hello Everyone:

I decided to make a new thread since OS 3.9 is now installed and running on my A1200.

There is still the problem of the resolutions I can run and I am trying to decide how to best deal with the situation, perhaps you guys can give some good advice or even help me with the project.

System Specs:

A1200 (Commodore model)
2.0 GB Hard Disk
stock video
Blizzard 1230 Mark IV with SCSI
external Plextor CD Writer
3C589D PCMCIA Ethernet card
Commodore 1084S Monitor

at this time, the FAST ram is 32 MB  Chipram the stock 2 MB

** Quandry **

Sell the above system to gain money for A4000 parts (would need to build two A4000s) or to find a different Monitor?

What will solve my resolution limitations here?

Would like to attain 1024 x 768 with as many colors as possible.

Help (as always) is appreciated.  

BTW:  If I do sell the A1200 ( I would be selling two systems -- one with Accelerator and one without).

The fully accelerated one with External CD writer and PCMCIA card (actually both would have one -- one needs a dongle ;-))  would run about $300 USD.

Also will trade for A4000 parts I need of course.

REMEMBER HOWEVER, that I have not decided on this course of action -- need to see if I can get my A1200 to do what i want :-)

Thanks again everyone!

Mike

[Linchpin]

Would like to attain 1024 x 768 with as many colors as possible .. Using stock AGA this isnt going to be very fast... i cant remember what resolution i used to run but its a big compromise between speed and colour / resolution.

Sorry i cannot remember the exacts, but if you want a high res desktop with lots of colours, etc then a GFX card is the way forward.

[irishmike]

@linchpin

That's cool, but what is the least expensive way to obtain this?   I really did not want to buy a Mediator card for example.

[Linchpin]

There isnt really an in-expensive way to do it, you can use something like a B-vision, pretty expensive and needs other hardware to run, or use a PCI card like a Voodoo 3 ... in a mediator bus board.

Both options need to be run in a tower really.. not so much the b-vision but ... heat being an issue.

[Brian]

The only way to get what you want is to replace the Blizzard1230 with a BlizzardPPC and have a BlizzVision installed. 1024*768 isn't possible with the AGA chip afaik 1280*512 is as far as it'll take you and that is with Superhires Interlace flickering all over the place (there's probably some monitor hacks that change this some but you'll never get some speed out of it at anything but very low color).

[irishmike]

any leads on a B-vision board?

EDIT:  Won't work without Blizzard PPC, so not a very good option I'm afraid.  Thanks anyhow.



Thanks again ( I really do appreciate it)!

Mike

[utri007]

Get magictv2.lha and fblit from aminet with those you get allmoust usable 800x600 screen with 16 colors

Second option is get monitor like NEC 3D wich can display native amiga screens and VGA screens still fblit would be good.

http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=875

[x56h34]

@irishmike:

Keep in mind that Mediator or no Mediator, with only an 030 cpu any kind of higher res display (through AGA or  through Voodoo 3) or any other major system expansion for that matter will feel sluggish. You need an 040@40Mhz or 060 accelerator card, ideally, and then work your way up on adding stuff like graphics cards, etc.

If you prefer the original Amiga casing, then your only option is to go the A2000/A3000/A4000 route, or get a BlizzardPPC and BVision and use them in the desktop case (extremely hacky and requires extra, extra, extra cooling).

Either way, it's going to cost a lot I'm afraid. :-(

[Acill]

Irishmike: Like everyone so far has told you, with your current hardware you just cant do what you want. I would recomend getting a Pegasos II board and using MorphOS. You could do everything for a lot less money then what it will cost you to get the A4000 (Keep in my that an A4000 will be exactly the same if its stock as your A1200 in resolution choices)and a mediator and an accelerator board. Youo can get a complete ODW (Pegasos II with hard drive, video card and a nice case) for about $500 new from Genesi.

MorphOS will run all the newer apps you want to run better in many cases then a real Amiga if its system friendly, and for the old games you want to run that do not work on MorphOS you have the A1200 that can do that for you.

[Lando]

Unfortunately there is no way to 'cheaply' get an Amiga to do modern stuff like run in 1024x768 hi/true-colour, play videos and MP3's.  It will cost several hundreds of dollars, or even 4 figures if you go for PPC and graphics card, and even then it will be orders of magnitude slower than a Pegasos or AmigaOne.

And you will be frustrated as you realise you have spent so much money on a system which still can't even do today's basic tasks.  Classic Amigas are great machines, but just accept that they are 20-year-old technology.

[AmigaMance]

 Yes, there is an inexpensive way to get a high resolution on AGA. As utri007 said, install FBlit. Aminet contains an old version. Get the latest from here: http://www.tpec.u-net.com . Then install SystemPatch after FBlit http://web.tiscali.it/ziosante and your graphics performance will improve greatly.