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Hercules 3D Prophet 9700 PRO


Date
: 10/2/02 – 09:40:23 AM

Author
:

Category
: Video Cards

Page 1 : Introduction

Manufacturer: Hercules / Guillemot
Price: 517$

Introduction

A few weeks ago, the ATI Radeon 9000 was tested thoroughly in the O² bunker, and as the review showed, the card performed excellent for a low budget graphics solution and was able to outperform all of the competition. As I mentioned in the Radeon 9000 review, ATI also released a high-end video card, set to compete with nVidia's GeForce4 Ti4600 card (and its slower brothers the Ti4200 and the Ti4400). This new card is called "Radeon 9700" and today, Overclockers Online is checking out the 3D Prophet 9700 Pro, Hercules' ATI Radeon 9700 based powercard. How does this brand new giant perform? Is it the new king of 3D world? What about the extras? O² puts the card on the testbed and shares the wealth …

Page 2 : Specifications

Specifications

Let's sum it up before going into it any further … I present you: the 3D Prophet 9700 Pro specs, directly from the Hercules website.

- 325MHz core / 310MHz memory speed
- 128MB DDR memory
- 8-pixel pipelines architecture for increased rendering power
- 256-bit DDR RAM interface, giving 18.5GB/s memory bandwidth
- HyperZ III – intelligent memory bandwidth saving technology
- AGP 2x/4x/8x compatible
- Hercules copper heatsink on the GPU for better cooling performance and higher stability levels
- DirectX 9 and OpenGL ready
- Smartshader 2.0 – programmable pixel shaders & vertex shaders
- Truform 2.0 & DX9 displacement mapping
- Smoothvision 2.0 – hardware engine for 2x/4x/6x FSAA mode
- VGA-out
- TV-out
- DVI-out
- Comes with DVI-to-VGA convertor and S-video to composite cable
- Videoshader engine – fluid DVD playback on PC, TV and flat panel monitors
- Fullstream technology for internet streaming
- Dual display support (Hydravision)
- Dual integrated 400MHz RAMDACs – max res. 2048×1536@85Hz
- 3 year warranty
- Included software: 3Deep, PowerDVD, full version of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, 3D Tweaker

Quite a list huh? As you can see Hercules (and of course ATI as they are manufacturing the GPU) has put together one hell of a video card.

The Radeon 9700 has a core running at 325MHz and memory chips cruising at 310MHz, which is pretty fast considering that the Radeon 9000 Pro runs at 275/275 core/memory. Just like its little brother, the 9700 comes with DDR memory which means that the memory is actually running at 620MHz (310MHz non-DDR). Of course, O² wouldn't be O² if we didn't try to get more from it … and we did get more!! But you'll hear all about that in the overclocking part of the review. First, I want to elaborate some more on the features of the card.

The memory not only runs fast, it also comes in large numbers! Hercules delivers their Radeon 9700 with 128MB DDR memory (just like all other Radeon 9700 Pro cards)! That should cover all your gaming needs huh? Thanks to the 256-bit DDR RAM interface, the card can offer you a memory bandwidth of 18.5GB per second.

Formula to calculate the memory bandwidth:

(RAM clock) x (RAM I/F) = (310MHz) x (256-bit x 2 (DDR)) = 310,000,000 x 512 (bit) = 1,508,720,000,000 bits/second = (1,508,720,000,000 / 8) = 19,840,000,000 Bytes/second = (19,840,000,000) / (1,024×1,024×1,024) = 18.477GB/second

Add to that the presence of the ATI SmartShader engine, HyperZ III, SmoothVision, … and you know this card has performance written all over it. I welcome you to check out the O² Radeon 9000 review for an in-depth look on the technologies I just mentioned. No point on writing it down all over again.

On the outside part of the card (the part that is accessible when the pc case is closed ;)) you have three outputs: a normal VGA output, a TV-out and a DVI-out to hook up one of those sweet looking flat panel displays. Hercules includes a DVI-to-VGA connector so you can connect two regular screens to it … and get a multi monitor desktop like me :). Note that you also get an S-video to composite cable to hook up your television to the 3D Prophet 9700 Pro: there's nothing like playing UT2k3 on a 60" widescreen monitor :D. In fact, this card has some fine multi-monitor settings thanks to ATI's Hydrovision and of course the dual 400MHz onboard RAMDACs. Running two 22" monitors @ 1600×1200@120Hz is no problem at all for this card! In fact I could increase the refresh rate on each monitor all the way up to 200Hz, but unfortunately my Iiyama tubes would not support it. Still, it's nice to know you got some power left!

Hercules packs their 3D Prophet 9700 Pro with some software as well: first of all you get a full version of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind which is a sweet RPG game. Besides that, a full version of PowerDVD is included to make sure you have no excuse not to watch movies on your box (or on your TV thanks to the TV-out) and also 3Deep which helps you calibrate your monitor. Finally Hercules includes 3D Tweaker, which is a home-made overclocking tool which looks good and works well.

Last but not least, I want to point out that you get a 3 year warranty, which is always good feature in case something goes terribly wrong! Now, let's take a look at the overclocking capabilities of our beloved monster video card ;).

Page 3 : Overclocking

Overclocking

Although the Radeon 9700 already is the fastest GPU out there, we always want more! In order to get more performance out of this already high performing video card, overclocking was the only way to go. Hercules is nice enough to include their own overclocking tool called 3D Tweaker which comes with a nice layout and everything you need to overclock. Powerstrip is another great overclocking tool which was also used to overclock our test sample … The question that remains is: how fast was I able to overclock it?

After some tweaking and experimenting I was able to overclock our card all the way up to 350MHz core and 360MHz memory. That's 25MHz and 50MHz gained over the core and memory, not too shabby huh? I was able to push the memory up to 370MHz but at that speed artifacts started to appear in games and benchmarks so I wisely decided to clock it down a bit. Note that the games and benchmarks did not crash … they just had artifacts.

Overclocking hardware always results in more heat, and heat is something we do not want to be associated with our beloved pieces of silicon. This is where Hercules steps into the game by installing a very fine copper heatsink onto the GPU core. Besides that there is also a smaller heatsink on the back of the core (on the backside of the card) which is a good idea since there is a serious amount of heat to be removed there too … Next to that, Hercules fits each memory chip with its own blue heatsink (4 on each side of the card). Cooling is taken care of, that's for sure!

We know how fast it runs at stock speed, we know how fast it goes overclocked … but what does that mean in real life? Benchmarks here we gooooo …

Note: because we only were able to test the sample for two days, there was not enough time to benchmark the card using the overclocked settings! Let me assure you that you can expect a significant performance boost when overclocked (just in case the already amazing scores are not satisfactory ;)). The benchmarks will be updated as soon as I am able to get my hands on this card again (shouldn't be too long)! Sorry for the inconvienence …

Page 4 : Benchmarking

Benchmarks

Test System

- Intel P4 1.6A @ 2.13GHz CPU
- ABIT IT7 MAX (i845E) motherboard
- Crucial 256MB DDR PC2100 memory
- Hercules 3D Prophet 9700 Pro video card
- Western Digital 20GB 7200RPM
- Windows XP Pro + all latest drivers

Quake3: Arena

Demo001

Torture Demo

MadOnion's 3D Mark2001SE

16-BIT

32-BIT

Aquamark

Novalogic Comanche4 Benchmark

Page 5 : Conclusion

Conclusion

Good

- Performance
- TV-out, DVI-out, VGA-out + converter & S-video cable
- Included software
- Great preinstalled cooling

Bad

- Nothing bad in my books!

Hercules has done a great job with their 3D Prophet 9700 Pro: this card is using the world's fastest GPU currently available from the blessed hands of ATI, the Radeon 9700 Pro. Along with 128MB DDR memory and a great list of features like SmoothVision, SmartShader, HyperZ III, … and all other ATI technologies to increase speed and quality, this card is king of 3D city for sure! Hercules includes a nice software package as well as a DVI-to-VGA converter and an S-video cable to make use of the onboard TV-out.

Add to that the sweet overclocking potential and the preinstalled heatsinks (copper on the GPU) both on the front and the back of the card, you just know this card is everyone's wet dream ;). People who dig multi-monitor setups (like me) won't be disappointed either because this card has not one but two integrated RAMDACs running at 400MHz each, delivering a very crisp display and allowing you to run your monitors at very high resolutions and high refresh rates! And thanks to the ATI Hydravision software, managing two desktops becomes a piece of cake.

In short, if you want the fastest video card out there with numerous other options onboard, the Hercules 3D Prophet 9700 Pro should be on top of your wish list! No questions asked! Just make sure you got $517 laying around … having the fastest video card out there comes at a price!

Thanks to the excellent performance, the sweet overclocking and the onboard features (including the software and convertors), the Hercules 3D Prophet 9700 PRO takes home the official
Overclockers Online POWER Award
!!