Amiga 1200 Memory Expansion

[Philophus]

They work on both...but it works slowly on the a1200.
 
On the a600 it alone will double the speed of the a600.

[jj]

The SRAM cards work in both the stock A600 and stock A1200.  The ram can potentially slow the A1200 down, but for playing games the extra ram will help with WHDload and will not make a difference

[Cammy]

I've been using a 8MB RAM expansion card in my A1200 for years. I go online, use plenty of applications, and played every WHDLoad game out there. There is no need for an accelerator if you don't plan on anything more than this.

Amigas can address up to 4MB SRAM, but 4MB cards are hard to come by compared to 2MB cards.

There are no brand new A1200 RAM expansions.

There are brand new A600 ChipRAM expansions in the form of the A603.

There will be 8MB FastRAM expansions for the A600 in coming months in the form of the A608 from Zetr0 (based on the Russian design).

There are some expensive, new-old-stock accelerators available for the A1200.

SRAM will speed up an A600 a small amount.

SRAM will slow down an A1200 a small amount.

SRAM will not affect the speed of regular games, but it will allow you to play them.

Here are some SysInfo results to help you make up your own mind:

A600 (2MB Chip, No FastRAM)
526 Dhrystones
0.54 MIPS

A600 (2MB Chip, 2MB PCMCIA SRAM)
699 Dhrystones
0.72 MIPS

A1200 (2MB Chip, No FastRAM)
1092 Dhrystones
1.13 MIPS

A1200 (2MB Chip, 2MB PCMCIA SRAM)
840 Dhrystones
0.87 MIPS

A1200 (2MB Chip, 8MB FastRAM)
2819 Dhrystones
2.94 MIPS

[crawff]

Thanks Cammy,

It's all much clearer now.

As long as you only want to play normal A500/A1200 games on WHDload then the 2MB Card is fine.

If you want to play other games which require a bit more speed (i.e Breathless, Doom,Flight Sims etc..) then a larger Ram or Accelerator card is required.

[desiv]

yes but these days price different between 1200 RAM cards and SRAM isn't much, so it's better to go for the RAM card if he can find a cheapish one.

Great!  I paid about $45 for the PCMCIA 2M SRAM card I have now.
Where can I get this 1200 Fast RAM card you are aware of for about that price?  :confused:  

It seems to me that 1200 RAM cards are selling for around/over $100.
Is fast RAM much better?  Of course.
But, if you don't have the money/time, a 2M PCMCIA SRAM card will work in the 1200 for playing whdload games (I know, I'm doing it).

I will eventually get a 1200 FAST RAM card, but in the mean time, this does work, and it works pretty good.  Cammy's numbers show a small decrease, but nothing noticeable (to me).

desiv

[rkauer]

Most trapdoor RAM cards (and Apollo/Blizzard 1220) for A1200 pops every now and then on Amibay.

 Normal price is around £74, but may vary.

[desiv]

Normal price is around £74, but may vary.

£74 = $112.72 USD
Then there's shipping to the U.S. for us.
Apparently, 1200 memory/CPU expansions were more popular elsewhere..

desiv

[bawsack]

thanks all. im just gonna keep my eyes open for an expansion pack and I'm probably better off and saving up for a decent accelerator card, but I think i'll go for the SRAM option for just now as its easier to obtain than the trapdoor cards.

thanks for everyones help.

[bawsack]

hey cammy, i just realised that I'm friends with you on youtube haha. my name is jeremykyleftw on there. i didnt realise until now! anyway thanks again to everyone.

[Cammy]

Hey Bawsack, that's awesome! It's a small world afterall :p

I hope you'll take some videos of your Amiga setups yourself once you get them all running smoothly!

[RetroAmigaMan]

Hey man,

I have a DKB memory expansion and 68882 FPU card with 8mb. I have no idea what it's worth really, theres an Apollo 1260 now in it's place. I'm in Australia btw. Make me an offer i guess =)

Cheers

Have you still got this?  I've just bought an A1200.  How much are you looking for?  (I'm in Melbourne.)