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30 lines
3.3 KiB
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30 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
---
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title: "Vampire V4, A600GS or MiSTer: Amiga Hardware Isn't a Simple Speed Race"
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section: "retro"
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tags: "retro"
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description: "Why raw benchmark numbers are actively misleading when comparing modern Amiga hardware options."
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layout: base.njk
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parent: "/retro/"
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---
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<h1>Vampire V4, A600GS or MiSTer: Amiga Hardware Isn't a Simple Speed Race</h1>
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<div class="detail-content">
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<p>Trying to compare Amiga hardware options by benchmark numbers alone is a trap. A Dhrystone score from a real FPGA CPU implementation and an ARM chip's MIPS rating measure completely different things, and neither tells you much about which system will actually run your favourite demo correctly.</p>
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<h2>The Contenders</h2>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Vampire V4 Standalone</strong>, an FPGA-implemented 68080 CPU that's genuinely blisteringly fast (sub-second Workbench boots), but software compatibility suffers since the 68080 isn't a perfect 68060 clone. Best for games and demos, not for daily productivity.</li>
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<li><strong>A600GS / A1200NG</strong>, ARM-based boards running Amiberry underneath, in either a complete mini-PC (A600GS) or a drop-in motherboard replacement with real floppy and CompactFlash support (A1200NG). Note: this A1200NG is a third-party upgrade board, a different product entirely from Retro Games' upcoming "The A1200" console covered on its own page. Cheap, plug-and-play, but with occasional software compatibility quirks.</li>
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<li><strong>MiSTer with the Minimig core</strong>, "loses" on paper to A600GS in raw MIPS numbers, but wins on emulation accuracy and software compatibility. Its D-Cache-on mode is faster still but introduces glitches, so it's best left off for stability.</li>
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<li><strong>The real decision factor</strong>, not speed, but compatibility, stability, and how much you value hardware-accurate timing versus raw throughput.</li>
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</ul>
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<p class="note">Conclusion after digging through all three: if you already own a working MiSTer, there's no compelling reason to chase the newer ARM boards for "better" performance, the practical difference is marginal, and MiSTer's broader core library wins in the long run.</p>
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<h2>How I Run My Amiga Today</h2>
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<p>For now I'm not running original hardware, I reproduce my Amiga on the <a href="/retro/mist-mister-fpga/">MiSTer FPGA</a> using the Minimig core. My classic Amiga is mapped out there with Workbench and the tools I used back in the day, spread across different configurations and several Workbench versions, so I can revisit exactly how the machine felt across the years.</p>
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<p>I've also spent time with <a href="/retro/pimiga-journey/">PiMiga</a>, an Amiga-on-a-Raspberry-Pi distro that bundles Amiberry with a full A1200 AGA setup and Workbench 3.1. It's not real hardware, but it's another way to run the machine cheaply, and I documented how the different versions compare.</p>
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<p>I'm still keen on the real thing, though. Retro Games Ltd. is shipping an Amiga 1200 console on 4 December 2026, and I've been following everything public about it. There's a dedicated page on that: <a href="/retro/the-a1200/">The A1200: Release Date, Specs and What's Included</a>.</p>
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<p>If you want the detail on getting AmigaOS itself running across MiSTer and Amiberry, rather than comparing the hardware, that's covered on the <a href="/retro/amiga-hardware-landscape/">Running AmigaOS in 2026</a> page.</p>
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</div>
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