Should I Pistorm my 500/1000 or 1200?

[Port89]

Originally Posted by Boing-Ball

Using a PiStorm on a A1200.. The next step is upgrading the Pi… Thought the standard 3A would be great.. And It is… But if you want to play high intensity games.. Then go Pi4B….

I have some 3A+ and 3B+ already so planning on using those with the expectation that they are a fairly significant jump anyway.

What high intensity games would notice the difference?

[Kin Hell]

Originally Posted by Boing-Ball

Quake 2… ScummVM… Anything that needs a lot of CPU power..

On a Pi3A you can play games like Doom, Doom 2, Quake 1 with a nice fluid frame rate. On games like Quake 2 there is a lot of slow down…. Plug in a Pi4B and that is not the case.

Absolutely.....

The difference is in Pi3A & Pi4B is roughly twice the CPU speed. - Cool the Pi well & the Overclock is a further enhancement. - My CM4 module is running @ 2.3Ghz with SysInfo banging just over 2600 MIPS
The CM4 module pushes it all slightly faster over the Pi4B, though I can see no difference in onboard EMMC or MicroSD. - Really looking forward to Mr. mschulz writing a driver for M2.

[Port89]

Originally Posted by Boing-Ball

Quake 2… ScummVM… Anything that needs a lot of CPU power..

On a Pi3A you can play games like Doom, Doom 2, Quake 1 with a nice fluid frame rate. On games like Quake 2 there is a lot of slow down…. Plug in a Pi4B and that is not the case.

Hmmm - while I really do this stuff as more of an excercise in seeing it working than using the end result….playing Day of the Tentacle on an Amiga would be therapeutic. It was one that really got me at the time and it was unplayable on an KCS trapdoor board ?

I’ll try it out as my tester using a 3 and consider getting a 4 otherwise.

[itsmedoofer]

I started with a 3 with the intention of moving to a 4 that I was using in another project, however 9 months later and the 3 is still in there, does everything I want, not felt the need to upgrade...

[Port89]

Originally Posted by itsmedoofer

I started with a 3 with the intention of moving to a 4 that I was using in another project, however 9 months later and the 3 is still in there, does everything I want, not felt the need to upgrade...

Good to know and I've a feeling that's where I'd be if I hadn't ordered a 4B on the weekend.

I couldn't find any guidance on required memory but in the end got the 8GB as I figured I might use it for other things in the future.

[tomcat666]

For pistorm or pistorm32 any memory configuration is enough. Even with 512mb rPi3 you still get plenty of memory on your Amiga...

[Port89]

I can't wait to see 8 2GB (edit) available RAM in a real machine...I've never had more than the 2+8 (edit: MB of CHIP + FAST) that I have now.

8GB was available for $127 AUD (66 quid) so really I saw the price differences and figured it was pointless saving a few bucks when I might go to use it later and need more (edit: for something else).

I've got the Pi's and just waiting for the Pistorms to land. They left Langley last Thursday.

(edited as a typo and lack of clarity in a casual comment about 2s, 8s, MB and GB and convenience of having Pi options to hand may have been causing concern)

[btp]

Originally Posted by huggy70

this riddle is hard to resolve for me too:

already have pistorm in A500 with musashi (cos I need the network connection) with rgb2hdmi giving me brilliant native picture in games and wb. Ok this is no ideal games machine.
Cannot go emu68 here, will have no network.

I want to go even faster with emu68 in my A1200, but:
-don't have rgb2hdmi, which is sad. Don't have fast network, need to use my slow wifi card instead
-this machine is already a brilliant whdload machine
-what should I do with my blizzard 1230/50? Sell it to fund my pistorm32? keep it in a warm and cozy place?
-isn't it enough? what will I use it for

So my mouse pointer keeps turning circles over the pistorm32 buy button :-o
So I know sometime I will hit the buy button just for the peace of mind :-)

Even better after getting the PiStorm32, buy another A1200 to house your leftover Blizzard 1230

On a more serious tone I feel your pain for not existing a cheap and great video upscaling solution for AGA machines. RGB2HDMI is simply awesome for what it does

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by Port89

I can't wait to see 8GB available RAM in a real machine...I've never had more than the 2+8 that I have now.

8GB was available for $127 AUD (66 quid) so really I saw the price differences and figured it was pointless saving a few bucks when I might go to use it later and need more.

I've got the Pi's and just waiting for the Pistorms to land. They left Langley last Thursday.

An 8GB Pi4 won't give you 8GB Fast RAM, just 2GB. The AmigaOS literally cannot use more than 2GB.

However, more than 2GB on your Pi does mean that future expansions of Emu68 or whatever will be able to allocate their own native RAM without eating into your Amga's FastRAM. Currently there is nothing that does that right now but you never know.

[Port89]

Originally Posted by Dunny

An 8GB Pi4 won't give you 8GB Fast RAM

Turns out there are other projects and uses for a RPi! Who'd have thunk it!

[huggy70]

Originally Posted by btp

Even better after getting the PiStorm32, buy another A1200 to house your leftover Blizzard 1230

On a more serious tone I feel your pain for not existing a cheap and great video upscaling solution for AGA machines. RGB2HDMI is simply awesome for what it does

That would be an expensive storage bin :-)

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by Port89

Turns out there are other projects and uses for a RPi! Who'd have thunk it!

Apologies, I thought your 2+8 comment was referring to an Amiga as it's like... really strange to have that config in a PC. Unless you're referring to 2GB VRAM and 8GB system RAM I suppose. Or the other way around which is even more wacky.

But go off, I guess.

[Port89]

Pistorms arrived today. I'm only had time for a quick test of the 32 Lite / RPi4 in the 1200 but it certainly works, showing as a 68040.

I'll need to wait until the weekend to put the time into really understanding how to use it and try out things like it's RTG but it certainly makes for a very snappy workbench as is.

[Kin Hell]

Originally Posted by Boing-Ball

Works great for Internet browsing too…. My checkmate 1500 case setup with PiStorm32 + Pi4B is now my go to system because of the faster productivity..

Through which interface & which Amiga??

[Port89]

Originally Posted by Boing-Ball

Works great for Internet browsing too…. My checkmate 1500 case setup with PiStorm32 + Pi4B is now my go to system because of the faster productivity..

Ah yes, Networking is high on my priorities too, probably more for transferring files than really using it - unless the current browsers really do support all the standards !

[Port89]

I should maybe move to one of the main threads now but perhaps as a last topic here.

For a reasonably 'classic' Amiga setup that I can add to from the ground up but with RTG (like I had back in the day on my 4000 with a Picasso 2) and networking (like I only had in my dreams other than Parnet): What is the correct base system? Musashi?

Are there any up to date guides for getting this full classic experience going on a PiStorm32-Lite? I followed a Retro32 guide but it bombs out and I think simply as its 2 years old and things have changed beyond what I was able to interpret.

For clarity, while I'm currently writing CaffeineOS to an SD, it's not what I want ongoing. Per my note a few days ago, I've already got the core EMu68 working which gave my existing WB lots of ram and a 68040, but I want to start super fresh.

[klx300r]

Originally Posted by itsmedoofer

I started with a 3 with the intention of moving to a 4 that I was using in another project, however 9 months later and the 3 is still in there, does everything I want, not felt the need to upgrade...

same here really enjoying my 1200 with PiStorm32-3A+

[NovaCoder]

I'm interested to see how many people use a PiStorm in an A1200 in AGA mode (only), that's the way I'd run it personally. I assume it doesn't automatically promote AGA modes to RTG?

[Jope]

No, there's no functionality like this in the PiStorm so far.

When running the OS you can do mode promotion, but this doesn't work for software that disregards the OS. And it doesn't always work for software that doesn't turn the OS off either.

Maybe their native video digitizer will be completed some day and then it will be possible to output native + rtg from the same HDMI port, but I understood it is not a very high priority thing currently.

[NovaCoder]

Okay cool, thanks

So most people either run AGA only or two monitors then?