[matthey]

Originally Posted by OlafSch

Trying to compete with modern graphic cards in 3D area is a crazy idea. Perhaps offering some low level routines in FPGA so that 3D games could be optimized a little but more does not make sense. 68k needs as much as possible horsepower and RAM. The strength of Amiga was 2D gaming so there should be the focus, trying to compete with PCs today in 3D area makes no sense.

A new Amiga would need to go retro which doesn't need state of the art technology. There are several options for adding 3D.

1) Reverse engineer and implement existing 3D from a Voodoo 4/5 or console compatible 3D.
2) Create a 3D core from scratch or Start with an open 3D core like GPL-GPU (https://github.com/asicguy/gplgpu) or Nyami.
3) License a synthesizeable 3D core like VideoCore IV, PowerVR, etc.

It would be nice to have shading units and 3D performance from this decade but older 3D compatibility has its advantages (cheaper).

Originally Posted by eXeler0

It's beyond crazy. It's actually impossible. AFAIK Modern GPUs are technologically beyond any FPGA known to man with billions of transistors, beyond GHz klockspeeds and recently 4096 bit memory architectures (HBM).

3D graphics need deep pipelines which may not suffer too much in an FPGA. The best graphics board manufacturers have finely tuned expertise in 3D performance and guard their secrets closely. Trying to compete with them would be crazy but isn't necessary.

Originally Posted by Megol

Perhaps the most realistic (still very unrealistic!) way to get to make an ASIC to improve 68k performance would be making a special-purpose FPGA?

Special purpose usually means a special price too. High end FPGAs are getting specialized hardware but they are expensive. IMO, creating an ASIC and selling cheap hardware makes more sense. A million dollars may sound expensive to individuals but designing and manufacturers boards like the Tabor probably costs hundreds of thousands already.

Originally Posted by iggybeans

OR, we could do an FPGA system with PCI-e support and offer RTG graphics as an upgrade option.

Sure, but the Amiga custom chip graphics output would be separate from graphics board output. Many of us classic RTG graphics board users have put up with dual monitors and monitor switches but it is less than optimal. PPC boards like the Tabor aren't compatible with the custom chips so they only need graphics board output but less compatibility is less fun .