CompuServe Thread

#Mega Chip 2000

2 messages in this thread
#78919From: Wesley HelmsApr 11, 1994 3:55 PM
I'm upgrading to 3.1 from 2.0 and my sales rep. said that I may need a Megachip 2000. I need to check what kind of chip I have currantly (my system is used). What are the benifits of this chip. Can I get by without the chip for a while. How can I check to see what I've got now. (I assume that 2 meg means that I have all I need) Wes
#78927From: Frank VanellaApr 11, 1994 5:17 PM
Wesley, It is likely that since your system is used (probably an A2000) it will have 1 meg of "Chip" ram. Chip ram on your amiga is the graphics chip (Fat Agnes) that is responsible for graphics and sound manipulation for your Amiga. Depending on the software, this is the memory location that the application uses first (and almost exclusively) for graphics and sound. Even if you have additional RAM, some software won't be able to access it for certain operations such as the large bitmaps generated when you capture a full screen from Toasterpaint. while using some of this same memory for the interface screen. Many people (myself included) were shocked when we upgraded our Toasters to 3.0 and found that we could no longer cut out the entire screen in Toasterpaint for use in Txmap mode to create over the shoulder type graphics. Apparently you must now have the 2Meg version of the Agnes chip (Fatter Agnes) installed on your system to accomplish this and other manipulations that were previously available under Toaster 2.0. The "Megachip" upgrade is very popular, and I understand from many others here on this forum that having the extra chip ram helps in other areas of work with the Toaster. I purchased mine last year for under $200 and it was easy to install, no problems with brushes in Tpaint since. The easiest way to tell if you have the fatter agnes installed is to look at the top bar of your Workbench screen, it devides the memory into chip and fast. Frank