From: david@ariane.cam.org (David Lebel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: The A4000 little-review
Date: 30 Sep 92 21:09:48 GMT
Organization: Ariane Development Group (aka. SilverBox Development Group)
X-NewsSoftware: GRn 1.16e (7/4/92) by Mike Schwartz & Michael B. Smith


   I  had  a  chance to saw in person (and actually use) an Amiga 4000 at a
Commodore private show held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada last Tuesday.

   My feelings?  Nice machine.  The AGA shines in 256 colours, and the HAM8
is awesome.  I converted an IFF24 ray-tracing image into Productivity (VGA)
640x480  in HAM8 on ADPro, and the result was really fine, considering that
I was using a really cheap 1960 monitor.

   Speed?   Around  3.4  times  an  Amiga 3000 (in an average of the test I
done),  just under the Mercury board from PP&S.  In AIBB, it got a nice 4.7
millions  instructions  by  second (AIBB ratings here, not "MIPS" standard)
against my 2.2 figures on my A3000.

   Graphics  speed?   Really nice.  Under 64 colors, you can get around the
same speed of a 2 bit-plane WB on A3000.  Above that, the speed decrease to
the figures of the actual 16 colors WB.  So:

Colors on A4000 | Feels like x colors on A3000
----------------|-----------------------------
       2        |     2
       4        |     2
       8        |     2
      16        |     2+
      32        |     4
      64        |     8
     128        |     16 more or less.
     256        |     16+

   This  is of course "objective" results, and depend purely on my point of
view.   This "tests" was done in MULTISCAN:Productivity mode (640x480).  In
general,  the  screens/refreshes/windows/blits  are  alot faster than those
with ECS.

   Another sad thing to note here; there's no flickerFixer in the A4000, so
even  if  you  activate  the  Mode  Promotion in IControl preferences, some
programs  will  force  15khz displays (the most "notorious" was DeluxePaint
IV).   Also,  for  the same reasons, to obtain a "flickerfixed" screen, you
must  use  "DblNTSC"  or  "DblPAL" display modes.  If you use old NTSC:  or
PAL:  modes, you will get a flickered screen.  So forget you NEC 3FGx, 4FG,
or  even  better  Sonys CPD-1304 for exemple as they doesn't supports 15khz
modes.   The  only  mode  in fact that will work with those monitors is the
MULTISCAN:   modes.  Also note that in DblNTSC:  mode, the maximum overscan
is  less  than  actual  ECS  modes  (around 454 in y, if I remember right).
There's NO (the gadgets are ghosted) overscan in MULTISCAN:  modes!

   The 800x600 mode is INTERLACED.

   The harddrive?  Well, the one I played with was equiped with an awefully
slow  A2090  (or  was  it  A2091)  SCSI  card, and DiskSpeed reported a 50k
transfer  rates  average.   The  other  machine  (where all the people was)
seemed  a  little  faster  and  was  using  a  Western Digital Caviar 280MB
harddrive.  (Sorry no figures here)

   The  machine I saw was a pre-production model, jumpers was fixed on some
circuits  of  the  main  board.   Some  chips  are  clearly  marked as been
manufactured  by  NCR.  The board was clean, and the CPU board was "hidden"
under  the drives bay.  However, the SIMMS are nicely located, at the front
left  corner,  so you don't have to play get the screwdrivers for more than
external ones (nice IMHO).

   The  look?   Well, kinda cheap.  It feels like a PC clone.  The keyboard
doesn't have the same feeling as the A3000 one (which I love).  The case is
about  the  same  height  but somewhat larger than the A3000 one.  And both
Amiga  4000  I  saw  had  the old-wimpy mouse, not the nice pregnant mouse.
Dunno why.

   The  price?   Some  rumours say 2,500$ for developers in Canada.  Around
3,500$  for  Mr.  Joe Public.  (in Candian dollar of course, surely less in
USA).

   When?   One  week to receive the official price list.  Two more weeks to
get them.  Alex Orgill (C= rep in Canada) was clear on that.

   Conclusion?  Nice machine, if you bare in the interlaced screens of some
programs,  a  not so bad raw speed transfer rate on IDE drives (eventually,
you  will  buy a SCSI-2 card :-)) and you want horse power (against the old
ECS) in term of graphics rendering, computing, go for the Amiga 4000.  I'll
keep my faithful A3000 for the ones who want to know.

   Forgive the way I write english, I'm french-speaking.

--
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|                David Lebel      ///  Let me hear you                      |
|   Ariane Development Group     ///   Make decisions                       |
|    lebeld@jsp.umontreal.ca    ///    Without your television              |
|       david@ariane.cam.org \\X//     Let me hear you speaking just for me |
|  (514) 343-6532 ext. 44644  \X/               - Martin Gore, Depeche Mode |
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