Best configuration to push Aga...

[sandruzzo]

What should be the best Amiga configuration to push Aga to its limits? I mean, CPU and Ram specs. Mine:

- 030 28mhz + 2mb fast ram

[meynaf]

The more cpu power you have, the more you can push the chipset.
Memory doesn't count that much, you just need a decent amount of fastmem.

[Lord Aga]

There's also the factor of diminishing returns.
I would say 030@28MHz is pretty good for what you want. Just pump up the RAM a bit to at least 8MB.

[daxb]

Accelerators have different chipram speed access. So use one that gives you the full 7 MB/sec.. Bustest should show you the current speed. As meynaf wrote you need enough fastram. 2 MB might be a bit low.

Load/remap ROM to fastram makes ROM access as fast as fastram is. ROM speed is as slow as chipram.

Load everything to fastram instead of chipram if possible. The more chipram is used and fragmented the slower it is.

Use a graphics card to save chipram.

[Cobe]

Well for a start, it'd be nice to see what could be achieved on 020 + fast ram.

[Photon]

B1230/IV @ 50+FPU and SCSI card. If 040+, the CPU is so fast it pays to leave the chipset. With that 030 config, there are still interesting interactions.

Per MHz, 68020 is about as fast as 68030. So just a small amount of Fast RAM is enough to unlock it. There are replacements in modern components, though none like the B1230 config. Some have much faster Fast RAM without the PCMCIA conflict.

2MB Fast RAM is the smallest amount of Fast RAM you can put in an AGA Amiga I think Even 4MB RAM is a little tight. You never want a fast CPU (nothing to do with chipset really) to run out of Fast RAM and start using up the finite and small amount of slower Chip RAM.

I would say 16 MB Fast RAM is enough for some common OS usages (Commodore OS versions). Power users may even hit this after a while. But it allows image and sound editing. Probably it's not enough to browse a modern website, or do DTP at print resolution.

A few games and demos that are super-optimized/use every cycle per frame to run full framerate may stutter if the accelerator is just a tiny bit slower accessing Chip RAM. So avoid accelerators that show this trait if this is important.

Fast RAM in PCMCIA is slower than all other Fast RAM (and blocks a useful slot). Other than that, a plain A1200 with just some Fast RAM is an interesting platform to target for non OS usage stuff.

[sandruzzo]

I remember ECS/OCS with 030 was another computer, so I think 030 28mhz would be great to unlock full Aga potentiality. Ok Aga with better chip ram access would be even better

[AmigaHope]

It depends on how you want to push AGA. If you mean using chipset features (copper/blitter) then just adding a reasonable amount of fast memory and remapping ROM to fastmem is enough, this lets you push the blitter to the max without crippling the system.

If you mean just getting the best performance out of AGA with CPU-driven stuff, then you want the fastest CPU you can get on a card with the fastest chipmem access speed you can get. (Apollo accelerators were pretty bad on the chipmem access speed)

[daxb]

I don't know about other Apollo cards but my Apollo 1240/40 provides up to 7 MB/sec.. See also here: https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=1496482

Maybe you mean the Blizzard cards? As far as I know the Blizzard PPC cards have slow chipram access.

[Zak]

My Amigas all have 16bit chip memory due to a misunderstanding problem I had when ordering them. I have seen some A4000 with 32bit chip memory instead. That paired with a 68060 and everything flies.

[sandruzzo]

@AmigaHope

I'm talking about Pushing Aga as Chipset: Copper, Blitter, Paula, Sprites and so forth.