Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Author Topic: Apollo or Blizzard  (Read 2705 times)

Description:

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline pubzombieTopic starter

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: Dec 2008
  • Posts: 41
    • Show only replies by pubzombie
Apollo or Blizzard
« on: January 13, 2009, 12:38:48 AM »
Hi guys,
I have been trying to get hold of a blizzard IV but so far have only knocked up an apollo 030. will the later card be just as good for gaming, is there a visible difference in performance? and is an FPU a requirement for retro gaming?
cheers
pz
The Truth is but a construct; empowering creator and subjugating consumer. Zombie Apocalypse now please
 

Offline rednova

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Mar 2007
  • Posts: 813
    • Show only replies by rednova
    • https://sites.google.com/site/rednova3d/
Re: Apollo or Blizzard
« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2009, 12:45:17 AM »
Dear Friend:
I am not the most qualified person to speak, but here it goes. No, you do not need an fpu for games. Fpu is for serious applications like 3d rendering/raytracing. An 030 will be good enough for most amiga games if not all. I have an 030 gvp Jaws, and is super. For retro games, the apollo should be good enough to play any game.
Cheers !!!

rednova
-mobilis in mobile-
 

Offline Damion

Re: Apollo or Blizzard
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2009, 12:45:19 AM »
"Ultimately" the Blizzard IV is a better card (SCSI option, handles more RAM), but the Apollo will be just as good for WHDLoad gaming, no performance difference in that regard at all. FPU is not required.



 

Offline dannyp1

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Aug 2006
  • Posts: 664
  • Country: us
  • Gender: Male
    • Show only replies by dannyp1
Re: Apollo or Blizzard
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2009, 01:49:33 PM »
An 030 accelerator should be fine for 99.9% of Amiga games.

Dan
 

Offline Everblue

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Dec 2004
  • Posts: 584
    • Show only replies by Everblue
Re: Apollo or Blizzard
« Reply #4 on: January 13, 2009, 02:20:43 PM »
You don't even need an accelerator for whdload games. All you need is some extra RAM.
 

Offline ChaosLord

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2003
  • Posts: 2608
    • Show only replies by ChaosLord
    • http://totalchaoseng.dbv.pl/news.php
Re: Apollo or Blizzard
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2009, 02:21:06 PM »
Total Chaos AGA does not require an FPU.

A 68030 is perfectly ok for the AI, gameplay, sound fx, speech and music of Total Chaos.

But the graphics are much faster and smoother on a 68040.  And for ultimate smoothness and speed you need a 68060.


L1 Caches:
68030:  256 bytes data cache,  256 bytes instruction cache
68040: 4096 bytes data cache, 4096 bytes instruction cache
68060: 8192 bytes data cache, 8192 bytes instruction cache

The cache of a 68030 is so puny that it can't even hold 1 frame of 1 animation.  1 frame = 1024 bytes.  So it is almost like not having any cache at all :(
Cache is very important for cpu speed.

Instruction speed:
68030:
add.l  2 cycles

68040
add.l  1 cycle

68060
add.l 0.5 cycle

So as you can see a 50 Mhz 68060 is always going to be quadruple the speed of a 50 Mhz 68030.

But wait, there's more!
A 68060 can execute up to 3 instructions simultaneously.
68030 and 68040 can only execute 1 instruction at a time.

So in practice a 50 Mhz 68060 is around 6x the speed of a 50 Mhz 68030.

Instruction speed Multiply:
68030:
muls.l   44 cycles

68040
muls.l   20 cycles

68060
muls.l    2 cycles

So as you can see a 68060 is just plain 22x faster than a 68030 at multiplication.



Wanna try a wonderfull strategy game with lots of handdrawn anims,
Magic Spells and Monsters, Incredible playability and lastability,
English speech, etc. Total Chaos AGA
 

Offline jj

  • Lifetime Member
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Feb 2002
  • Posts: 4054
  • Country: wales
  • Thanked: 2 times
  • Gender: Male
    • Show only replies by jj
Re: Apollo or Blizzard
« Reply #6 on: January 13, 2009, 03:23:20 PM »
Gennerally apollo boards are slightly faster as they are not buffered, but this can cause problems with a1200 mobos which need timing fixes.

“We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” - George Bernard Shaw

Xbox Live: S0ulA55a551n2
 
Registered MorphsOS 3.13 user on Powerbook G4 15"
 

Offline pubzombieTopic starter

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: Dec 2008
  • Posts: 41
    • Show only replies by pubzombie
Re: Apollo or Blizzard
« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2009, 07:31:49 PM »
Hi guys,
so if I want to play Total chaos as it should be played i need an 040 or 060 ? thats a big outlay of cash! I wouldn't mind but i read somewhere that 060's and 040's may have issues with retro games and not work? is this right or did i dream it? i dont mind spending on an 040 as i have given up smoking and drinking (health reasons and girlfriend reasons - that amount to one and the same) but dont want to buy something that will stop other games running.
thanx for your time guys
The Truth is but a construct; empowering creator and subjugating consumer. Zombie Apocalypse now please
 

Offline ddniUK

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Apr 2006
  • Posts: 702
    • Show only replies by ddniUK
Re: Apollo or Blizzard
« Reply #8 on: January 13, 2009, 07:35:00 PM »
some WHDLoad installs require an 020 as a minimum
 

Offline Damion

Re: Apollo or Blizzard
« Reply #9 on: January 13, 2009, 07:42:56 PM »
Pubzombie... have you tried getting your Total Chaos fix on a PC/WinUAE? Might be worth a shot, and loads cheaper than an 060 card!

 

Offline bloodline

  • Master Sock Abuser
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Mar 2002
  • Posts: 12114
    • Show only replies by bloodline
    • http://www.troubled-mind.com
Re: Apollo or Blizzard
« Reply #10 on: January 13, 2009, 07:51:18 PM »
I would go the UAE route... Cheaper, more reliable, and will last longer... Personally I feel real hardware should be mothballed and preserved for future generations... I want to be able to how my kids/grandchildren a real A500...

But even that is going to be a struggle... Modern TV is becoming less compatible with the Amiga's output....

Offline pubzombieTopic starter

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Join Date: Dec 2008
  • Posts: 41
    • Show only replies by pubzombie
Re: Apollo or Blizzard
« Reply #11 on: January 13, 2009, 10:28:22 PM »
Hi guys,
no i havent tried the uae route yet, to be honest I havent got much experience with emulation on pc. I do emulate on my GP2x. I think i will give it a go on my pc, I have been toying with getting Amiga forever. Has anybody emulated Total Chaos yet? If its anything like getting emus running on my little korean friend get ready for some questions :)
The Truth is but a construct; empowering creator and subjugating consumer. Zombie Apocalypse now please
 

Offline SamuraiCrow

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Feb 2002
  • Posts: 2281
  • Country: us
  • Gender: Male
    • Show only replies by SamuraiCrow
Re: Apollo or Blizzard
« Reply #12 on: January 13, 2009, 11:30:35 PM »
I've run Total Chaos on my Windoze-based laptop before I switched over to Linux.  There were a few things about it that don't always work right even though the Total Chaos team has been trying to get them working even on emulation.

#1 on the list was that sometimes the UAEsound driver for AHI doesn't work right with the AHI-patched version of Audio.device (sounds repeat that should have just played once).

ChaosLord has worked hard to make it work with JIT compilation so you'll want that turned on for best playback speed.

#2 on the list is that Picasso96 screws up the way that raster synchronization works on the Amiga.  Don't install that yet.  (Note that most ready-made distributions software for AmigaOS install this automatically because it makes graphics card emulation possible from the Amiga side.)

Lastly, make sure you've configured the graphics chipset to AGA since Total Chaos requires it.