Spectrum or Picasso? What is better?

[starf81]

Hello!

Today a new Amiga is my collection, it's a very nice A3000!!! I'm very very happy  :-D  :-D  :-D

Inside, I've found some cards and now I want make the best configuration I can with my stuff.

In your opinion, what is the best choice between a Picasso II+ and a Spectrum 28/24?
The A3000 will work with a LCD monitor (native resolution is 1280x1024). I don't need 32bit, 16bit is good.

In addition, what is the best driver? I have Picasso96, CyberGraphX with license and EGS.

Thanks in advance for your help!
I'll post pictures of my new baby as soon as possible  ;-)

Alex

[Amiduffer]

I wish my 3000 had come with some RTG cards. *sigh*

The onboard SCSI and VGA are very helpfull, aren't they?

To bad they couldn't have included those in the A4000.

[smiley1635]

I use a Spectrum RTG card in my A1200

Reliable with Picasso96

DO NOT use EGS

[kzin]

I had a spectrum it was good ran it with CGX dont bother with EGS. too my knowlege the picasso is basicaly the same chip set on the card, so they should be about the same.

[alewis]

I used a Spectrum a few years ago - a good few years ago, like 1993. I owned a Picasso II+ from 1995/96 until last year (feb '05). Personally, I preferred the Picasso. Spectrum was nice, but EGS was S-L-O-W. As in very.

If Picasso96 has drivers for the Spectrum, try it and see how it compares to the Picasso. But be warned, if you are used to a PC, they are both slow in comparison; its "fun" watching a screen redraw itself.

As an aside, a Spectrum 110 was nice, this attached directly to one of the GVP accelerator cards, and was pretty damm fast in operation as it cut out the ZorroII bus.

[starf81]

Thanks for your replies!

So, both cards have the same chipset and also according with amiga-hardware.com their specifications seem exactly the same.

I already owned the Picasso II+ and the Spectrum 28/24 has come with the A3000... really I don't know what choose  :-?

I could trade one of my card with a better one like a Picasso IV or a Cybervision... anyone interested? :-P

Alex

[Lex]

So, both cards have the same chipset and also according with amiga-hardware.com their specifications seem exactly the same.

Nope! The Spectrum knows Zorro III which will make it much faster in your A3000 than the Z2-only Picasso II+.

[Crumb]

@Lex

yeah, I had one Spectrum in Z3 mode and IMHO it was better than PicassoII. I didn't measure the bus speed but it should give at least 7MB/s...

[patrik]

@starf81:

The difference in speed between the CyberVision64 and the PicassoIV quite small, but the PicassoIV should be a bit faster. Anyhow, the PicassoIV is usually very hard to get and expensive, while the CyberVision64 can be found often and for reasonable prices. The difference in speed does not justify the price. If you had an AGA Amiga, the PicassoIV flickerfixer is gold worth though, but as you have an A3000 which has builtin flickerfixer, its not really much of a bonus.

If you go for a CyberVision, make sure you get the real CyberVision64 and not the budget 3d version. The 3d version lacks the very essential monitor passthrough/autoswitcher and is not faster, rather slower, despite the flashy "3d" in its name.

Both the Spectrum and Picasso2 also have a monitor passthrough/autoswitcher. Without one of those, you need to have two monitors (one for native chipset and one for rtg) or have a manual external monitor switcher. This if you want to be able to show both native chipset and rtg output without having to disconnect and connect stuff behind the computer each time.


/Patrik