intric8 wrote:This is a little off-topic, but I absolutely have played games on my A2000 with 030 @ 40Mhz, and they played too fast. Case in point: Ultima IV. The game was SO fast, it was unplayable. It really was coded specifically for an unaccelerated 68000.
As stated, it depends on custom chipset usage and how the custom chipset is accessed. I can imagine Ultima would be using simple software rendering as it's not the sort of title to require the custom chipset so, yes, I can imagine Ultima would run fast under an 030 @ 40Mhz without additional wait states.
However, there's nothing to state the game wouldn't run perfectly under WHDLoad with wait states where necessary.
The problem with accelerating 16 bit Amiga's is when the custom chipset is accessed directly as you cannot speed up the custom chipset - Therefore wait states have to be inserted, not really to slow the system down, but to avoid timing issues as a result of a processor running far faster than the custom chipset. In this situation running WHDLoad the 16 bit bus becomes a bottleneck for a 32 bit processor and you have performance issues, I have experienced them and tested them extensively first hand and as soon as you place the accelerator in a 32 bit Amiga the issue is eliminated and all slowdowns disappear.
I have no slowdowns running WHDLoad on an Amiga 1200 with 128MB of fastram, ram is the important factor regarding WHDLoad, not necessarily processor speed and as you get closer to standard CPU clock speeds the more blitter waits actually become less of an issue.
Just to reiterate, blitter waits are really only noticeable on 16 bit Amiga's in my experience due to the issues mentioned interfacing a 32 bit processor to a 16 bit bus. Swap the 16 bit bus for a 32 bit bus and I've yet to see a blitter wait issue under WHDLoad. Therefore, Amiga A500's, A1000's and A2000's are more susceptible to the issue. To some degree the A3000 will be susceptible, but not as bad as the true 16 bit machines. I recommend a 32bit A1200/A4000 for the best WHDLoad experience with an 030 based accelerator, meaning the A1200/A4000's are actually more compatible than the OCS/ECS Amiga's once you take AGA into consideration under WHDLoad.
I dunno, the purists really seem to have an issue with such comments? I'm simply stating my findings as a result of fairly extensive testing regarding WHDLoad on 16 bit Amiga's and 32 bit Amiga's - And it has to be stated that only a handful of titles really suffer from the blitter wait issue on 16 bit machines. People don't seem to realize OCS/ECS and AGA has more underlying differences than just the custom chipset used.
All due respect my friend!