Vampire V4, A600GS or MiSTer: Amiga Hardware Isn't a Simple Speed Race
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.
The Contenders
- Vampire V4 Standalone, 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.
- A600GS / A1200NG, 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.
- MiSTer with the Minimig core, "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.
- The real decision factor, not speed, but compatibility, stability, and how much you value hardware-accurate timing versus raw throughput.
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.
How I Run My Amiga Today
For now I'm not running original hardware, I reproduce my Amiga on the MiSTer FPGA 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.
I've also spent time with PiMiga, 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.
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: The A1200: Release Date, Specs and What's Included.
If you want the detail on getting AmigaOS itself running across MiSTer and Amiberry, rather than comparing the hardware, that's covered on the Running AmigaOS in 2026 page.