Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In this video, I write a little program to test out how much faster an Amiga 600 is than the humble C64. I'm going to use a C64 program to do it, and we are also going to look at the speed of the A1200 and the VICE emulator along the way.
Timestamps:
0:00 C64 vs The Amiga
1:32 6502 vs 68000
2:08 Things Other People Said
4:00 Cycle Counting
5:41 The Test
8:45 Expected Results
9:12 Actual Results - C64/Vice
10:13 Actual Results - Amiga
11:48 Amiga vs C64
12:33 Amiga 1200 vs 600
13:10 Why C64 So Slow?
18:13 What did we learn?
20:19 Was Ed Right?
23:29 Thats all folks
Results (Seconds Lower is Better):
Machine (all PAL) 8-Bit 16-Bit 32-Bit
Amiga 600 Stock 4.60 4.60 8.69
Amiga 1200 4Mb Fast RAM 1.12 1.12 1.12
Amiga 1200 NoFastMem 1.12 1.12 1.12
Amiga 1200 4Mb Fast RAM (No CPU Cache) 1.43 1.43 1.43
C64 (VICE Emulator 3.10) 85.606237 151.8562852 285.75322
C64 85.606237 151.8562852 285.75322
Links:
vbcc - portable ISO C compiler compilers.de/vbcc.html
8-Bit Guy 6502 Math youtu.be/acUH4lWe2NQ?si=WaZwjgB0BeSvygYz&t=519
Ed Logg GDC youtu.be/ItH-mV32KQY?si=9jcd6Z00PHUqAqOU&t=893
youtu.be/YbEw8J4pbC4?si=0_wH16vj6nP70eDi
68000 Instructions wiki.neogeodev.org/index.php?title=68k_instructions_timings
6502 Instructions https://www.masswerk.at/6502/6502_instruction_set.html
68000 Add 68k.hax.com/ADD
68020 Data Sheet nxp.com/docs/en/data-sheet/MC68020UM.pdf
Images:
Motorola 68000 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ic-photo-Motorola--MC68000FN8-(68000-CPU).png
MOS 6502 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MOS_6502AD_4585_top.jpg
Gauntlet Arcade Machine commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GAUNTLET.jpg
C Logo commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:C_Logo.png
Amiga 600 Motherboard commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amiga_600_Motherboard.jpg
Amiga 500 System (Author: Bill Bertram) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leander_Amiga500.jpg
Commodore 64 at Video Game Museum in Berlin commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Commodore_64_at_Video_Game_Museum_in_Berlin_(45946155851).jpg
Heart Symbol commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Red-Heart-vector-2731436.svg
VS Logo commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Street_Fighter_VS_logo.png
C64 Logo commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Commodore_64_logo_2-02.svg
In this video, I write a little program to test out how much faster an Amiga 600 is than the humble C64. I'm going to use a C64 program to do it, and we are also going to look at the speed of the A1200 and the VICE emulator along the way.
Timestamps:
0:00 C64 vs The Amiga
1:32 6502 vs 68000
2:08 Things Other People Said
4:00 Cycle Counting
5:41 The Test
8:45 Expected Results
9:12 Actual Results - C64/Vice
10:13 Actual Results - Amiga
11:48 Amiga vs C64
12:33 Amiga 1200 vs 600
13:10 Why C64 So Slow?
18:13 What did we learn?
20:19 Was Ed Right?
23:29 Thats all folks
Results (Seconds Lower is Better):
Machine (all PAL) 8-Bit 16-Bit 32-Bit
Amiga 600 Stock 4.60 4.60 8.69
Amiga 1200 4Mb Fast RAM 1.12 1.12 1.12
Amiga 1200 NoFastMem 1.12 1.12 1.12
Amiga 1200 4Mb Fast RAM (No CPU Cache) 1.43 1.43 1.43
C64 (VICE Emulator 3.10) 85.606237 151.8562852 285.75322
C64 85.606237 151.8562852 285.75322
Links:
vbcc - portable ISO C compiler compilers.de/vbcc.html
8-Bit Guy 6502 Math youtu.be/acUH4lWe2NQ?si=WaZwjgB0BeSvygYz&t=519
Ed Logg GDC youtu.be/ItH-mV32KQY?si=9jcd6Z00PHUqAqOU&t=893
youtu.be/YbEw8J4pbC4?si=0_wH16vj6nP70eDi
68000 Instructions wiki.neogeodev.org/index.php?title=68k_instructions_timings
6502 Instructions https://www.masswerk.at/6502/6502_instruction_set.html
68000 Add 68k.hax.com/ADD
68020 Data Sheet nxp.com/docs/en/data-sheet/MC68020UM.pdf
Images:
Motorola 68000 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ic-photo-Motorola--MC68000FN8-(68000-CPU).png
MOS 6502 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MOS_6502AD_4585_top.jpg
Gauntlet Arcade Machine commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GAUNTLET.jpg
C Logo commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:C_Logo.png
Amiga 600 Motherboard commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amiga_600_Motherboard.jpg
Amiga 500 System (Author: Bill Bertram) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leander_Amiga500.jpg
Commodore 64 at Video Game Museum in Berlin commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Commodore_64_at_Video_Game_Museum_in_Berlin_(45946155851).jpg
Heart Symbol commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Red-Heart-vector-2731436.svg
VS Logo commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Street_Fighter_VS_logo.png
C64 Logo commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Commodore_64_logo_2-02.svg
