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Author Topic: Merlin vs. Retina Z2  (Read 3244 times)

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Offline TensionTopic starter

Merlin vs. Retina Z2
« on: December 28, 2008, 12:59:48 AM »
I`m gonna buy some GFX cards, and wanted to know which one is better??

Using an A4k 040, 16MB, A2091 w/2MB.
and also A2k 68000, 2MB, A2091 w/2MB.

PS. If I replaced the A3640 with another 040 card, would it make the A4k noticibly quicker (Workbench, OctaMED, AmigaAMP)

If so, how much would one cost, and which one should I go for?

Cheers!!! :lotsacoffee:
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Offline amigadave

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Re: Merlin vs. Retina Z2
« Reply #1 on: December 28, 2008, 01:11:58 AM »
If you have an A4k, then you don't want a RetinaZ2, you want the much improved RetinaZ3, which can do CybergraphX (and possibly Picasso96).

As for the accelerator, any one that also has included RAM on board will be faster than the A3640 due to the bottleneck to the A4k's on board system RAM.  An accelerator such as a WarpEngine, or CyberStorm with it's own RAM will be much faster, even if they have the same CPU at the same clock speed as your A3640.

Cost can be all over the place, from $100+ to the insane $1,000+ range for accelerators (specially when they also have a PPC CPU, like the Phase5 & DCE cards do).

Good luck

Edit: I see that you also have an A2000.  For that I would suggest the PicassoII.  It is a good Z2 graphics card which has a pass-through, but no scan doubler.

Sell the A2000 and spend the money fixing up the A4000.
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Offline TensionTopic starter

Re: Merlin vs. Retina Z2
« Reply #2 on: December 28, 2008, 01:21:41 AM »
I know all that, but that doesn`t answer the question
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Offline T3000

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Re: Merlin vs. Retina Z2
« Reply #3 on: December 28, 2008, 02:17:07 AM »
Merlin in the A4k. The Merlin is a ZII/ZIII card.
Retina Z2 in the A2000, although I'd upgrade the 68000 with an '040.

As for the '040 swap:
Workbench functions, yes.
Running OctaMED or a music player, no.

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Offline rkauer

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Re: Merlin vs. Retina Z2
« Reply #4 on: December 28, 2008, 02:42:31 AM »
 The Merlin card is an average graphics card, and it is supported by Picasso96 software.

 The Retina Z2 is not supported by any "normal" RTG program (only the ancient EGS).

 Both lacks a scandoubler, although they have pass-trough connectors.
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Offline ChaosLord

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Re: Merlin vs. Retina Z2
« Reply #5 on: December 28, 2008, 04:00:23 AM »
@Tension

Do you make music (or listen to music) with more than 4 channels?  Then you should get an 060 card.  It makes a ton of difference.
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Offline countzero

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Re: Merlin vs. Retina Z2
« Reply #6 on: December 28, 2008, 04:25:09 AM »
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Offline TensionTopic starter

Re: Merlin vs. Retina Z2
« Reply #7 on: December 28, 2008, 05:07:51 AM »
Quote

ChaosLord wrote:
@Tension

Do you make music (or listen to music) with more than 4 channels?  Then you should get an 060 card.  It makes a ton of difference.


Most of my stuff is MIDI these days.  It was cheaper to get a professional rack-mount Akai S3000xl sampler, than it was to get a second hand Amiga soundcard!!  The sampler would have cost £1800 in 1997.  I got it for £120 last year.  Unbelievable.

So, I can run as many channels as I want with hardly any overhead.  (normally dont use more than 16 anyway)

Just got a GFX card, so hopefully I can get more channels on screen at once, without my eyes bleeding from interlace inflicted wounds.
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Offline Gavilan

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Re: Merlin vs. Retina Z2
« Reply #8 on: December 28, 2008, 05:08:21 AM »
@Tension: i have one Retina Z2 card for sale if you are interested.
Prize is very reasonable, and i accept PayPal.

If you are interested PM

Kind Regards

Sebastian
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Offline TensionTopic starter

Re: Merlin vs. Retina Z2
« Reply #9 on: December 28, 2008, 05:25:37 AM »
pm sent
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Offline Computolio

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Re: Merlin vs. Retina Z2
« Reply #10 on: December 29, 2008, 09:08:55 AM »

   The Retina Z2 was going to have CyberGraphX drivers, but they were never released. Supposedly beta drivers exist somewhere, but nobody has found them as of yet.
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Offline countzero

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Re: Merlin vs. Retina Z2
« Reply #11 on: December 29, 2008, 09:14:59 AM »
well they exist here

though I haven't tried, cause I don't have a RZ2 anymore ... can anybody with the hardware report if beta drivers really work ?
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Offline Ami_GFX

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Re: Merlin vs. Retina Z2
« Reply #12 on: January 04, 2009, 02:46:53 AM »
Merlins are really rare. Most of them are in Europe. Mine came from Finland. It is a much better card than the Retina Z2 in principle but it has a few issues. It needs a couple of hardware fixes to work with gvp accelerators and 060 processors which are still available for a mere 20 euros. It works beautifully with Picasso 96 drivers. There is also a native RTG system called ProBench but the full version of this system is severly copy protected and the software will only work with the Merlin card it is licesnsed to. There is a demo version of Probench 3.9 that only works in 800x600 that I've gotten to work and it is about as good as Cybergfx--it can do Deluxe Paint in RTG modes! Picasso 96 can't do this trick.
And the best thing about my Merlin is that it came with the video ecoder board which converts native Amiga modes into composite and S-Video and spares me the outrageous cost of a flicker fixer for my A4000. It does this at the hardware level and no drivers need be installed for this. :-)
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Offline Computolio

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Re: Merlin vs. Retina Z2
« Reply #13 on: January 06, 2009, 01:23:24 AM »
Quote

countzero wrote:
well they exist here

though I haven't tried, cause I don't have a RZ2 anymore ... can anybody with the hardware report if beta drivers really work ?


    Nope, that's not it. That's the latest beta for the Retina's own RTG software, not the CyberGraphX driver.
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